Golden Star Beauty Self Tan Review

June 24, 2019

Golden Star Beauty Self Tan Review

Self tanning has been a huge part of my life, or at least my Summers, for the past three years. I don’t get to make it to the beach as much as I’d like and I definitely can’t pick up a natural tan on my skin as easily as I used to. I’ve tried a handful of self tanning products and unfortunately, this Golden Star Beauty was the absolute worst.

I had never heard of Golden Star Beauty until they reached out to me. Their representative wanted to send me the products in exchange for a review on Amazon. I agreed and the tans were shipped with Amazon Prime. The Self Tanner lotion was around $25 and comes with 8 fl oz. It claims to be filled with a bunch of organic ingredients that will leave you with a completely streak free tan.

This doesn’t come in any color ranges, it just claims to be a buildable tanning cream that will develop to your perfect color. Not completely sure that really makes any sense, but okay. This product comes out as a white lotion with no color guard. Along with not having a color guard, this lotion also didn’t have a very strong DHA scent which was nice. It smelled like chocolate coconut after application, but that didn’t linger for too long.

The directions say you can go over an area multiple times and it won’t leave you looking streaky. Although the direction pamphlet is extremely extensive, they’re very vague as to how long this should be left on. It just says to wait as long as possible before showering, though it’s recommended to wait at least ten hours. TEN HOURS, y'all!!

I have a hard enough time waiting eight hours to wash off a tanning product, so ten hours was just torture. I prepped my skin as I usually would for self tan and applied this lotion with my hands. From only ever using tanning mousse, figuring out how to apply a lotion with no color guard was quite a challenge. The photos below show my skin color before, 10 hours after application, and 24 hours later when they say the tan should be fully developed.

I would usually expect results like these with a product that contains a color guard, but to see my skin lighter after 24 hours compared to 10 hours is a little strange. Below is a side by side comparison of the before and after. I do think it gave me a nice color, though it didn’t seem to make as much of a difference on my legs as it did to my upper body -- also strange.

About 24 hours after application is when I started to notice some major issues. My palms were slightly tanned, which is a first for me, and there were patches all over my body. I looked like I had some kind of disease, it was so embarrassing! Just look at the photos below.

My wrists were patchy and there were lines on my legs where my pants had creased. I’m at a loss of words looking at the photo of my foot. I’ve never experienced anything like this from a tanning product before and it just got worse every day. I tried scrubbing and exfoliating as much as I could to get it off, but nothing worked. It was so bad, I even looked into purchasing a separate self tan remover just so I wouldn’t have to look at it anymore.

I also got their Self Tan Serum for the face. This one was around $25 as well and has all the same organic and streak free claims as the body lotion. There was another pamphlet that came in this package with long, drawn out directions that make tanning seem way too complicated. This serum also does not include a color guard and they do say you can apply makeup after 2-3 hours, although retinols and acne treatments should be avoided.

After seeing the results of the body lotion, there was no way I was going to put this serum on my face. I’ve never tanned my face before and I definitely wasn’t going to start with this one. I have zero trust in it. The way the lotion made my body look, I didn’t want the same embarrassing patches on my face.

I’ve heard some pretty bad things about self tanners, but had never really experienced anything myself until now. There was definitely a lesson to be learned from all of this. I will be sticking to well-known and widely loved tanning brands from now on, as well as staying away from any kind of tanning lotion and products without a color guard.

Needless to say, I do not recommend these tanning products or brand at all. Aside from having a bad experience with the products themselves, I also received a few very unfriendly and harsh emails from their marketing manager. It was completely unnecessary and not the kind of brand or professionals I want to associate myself with.

If you’re looking for a good, affordable self tan, I definitely recommend checking out St. Moriz. I love both their original dark mousse formula and their fast tanning mousse is my current go-to.

If you found this review helpful, please feel free to share it using one of the buttons below. If you have any questions, leave them for me in the comments. Have you tried either of these products before? What is your favorite self tanner?

~Mani Monday~

If you caught yesterday’s Instagram story, you might recognize this color. I just got the new EMMA Beauty South Beach collection in the mail this weekend and I couldn’t wait to start playing with all the new colors! This shade is called Lemon Drop Lollipop. It’s a beautiful bright neon yellow. The formula was a little thin and difficult to work with, but the top coat seemed to blur out the streaks and smooth everything together.