Beauty - Cocoa Brown Scrub and Tan Review

I've mentioned in few of my previous blog posts that I've been working on a review of a Cocoa Brown tan and scrub, but never got round to finishing it off  - until now!

Cocoa Brown is an Irish tan brand founded by the Irish entrapreneur Marissa Carter.

They have quite a good few products in the range, including the 1 Hour Tan that a certain Kylie Jenner has raved about on her Instagram and a moisturiser, but I've only tried out the Tough Stuff 3-in-1 Body Scrub and the Day & Night tan so far so that's what I'm focusing on in this blog post.

So before I apply any tan, I would advise to use a body scrub to get rid of any dead skin cells and dry skin patches to make the tan super smooth to apply. I've used many scrubs in the past, from the St Ives to the L'Oreál ones, but decided to pick this scrub as it was a cheap enough price retailing at just €4.99 in Penneys.

The packaging is really cute and girly pink. It's a light pink coloured scrub as you can see from the photo of it on my hand on the right. It smells absolutely fabulous! You can use it on dry skin to give your skin a deeper exfoliation or you can use it wet in the shower. I apply it to my wet skin because I find it more gentle on my sensitive skin then.

It lives up to it's name in that it is very tough - so for that reason I would say to you not to apply it to a sensitive part of your body or it will look red raw. Stick with tough areas of your body like elbows, knees, ankles, feet and hands. For me I find it makes tanning application much easier and I'm left without tell tale patchy orange bits.

I'd highly recommend to use a moisturiser after exfoliation as well as I find that exfoliation often makes my skin super duper dry.

This scrub has won a number of awards like 'Best Exfoliator' in U Magazine's Beauty Awards 2014 among many others so it's definitely worth snapping up.

 

So now onto the Day and Night tan. This tan set me back €7.99, and like the scrub, was also purchased in Penneys. This tan, like the scrub I've mentioned above, has also won plenty of awards - including scooping the 'Best Instant Tan' award at the U Magazine Beauty Awards 2014. It can be used two ways - an instant tan that develops immediately, or you can use it as a gradual tanner after showering the next day for a sunless glow that lasts up to 5 days. I've used it both ways, but I probably use it more as an instant tan that develops immediately, as I'm not keen on wearing tan every day. There's no horrible burnt biscuit smell off this tan like many other tans - there's a nice fresh, flower-like smell to it. Like I've mentioned, it applies instantly so you get an idea of where you've covered.


It doesn't sting or burn when applied even to my super sensitive skin and contains no parabens. Parabens are chemicals commonly put in cosmetics to prevent bacterial growth, but they were found in recent years to be xenoestrogens which are agents that mimic the hormone oestrogen in the body. The effect - oestrogen disruption - has been linked to breast cancer among other diseases so personally I just like using products that don't contain these harsh chemicals.


I love this tan also because it appears to adapt to my naturally pale skin. Although it says 'light by day, dark by night', it doesn't make me look orange or really dark and brown which would be very un-natural for my porcelain complexion and to be honest would look strange on me.


The only thing I honestly did dislike about this product is that it takes it's time to dry - I had to wait a good 4 hours after application before I could dress myself properly for a night out.
Another dislike is that - even though I know from experience other instant tans do this - if I rubbed ever so slightly on my clothes the tan came off onto it! Not ideal when you're wearing pale dresses and clothing like I often do!


But for the price, I think this tan is far better than more expensive brands such as L'Oreal that I've tried out in the past and the positives far outweigh the negatives in my opinion by far.


Expiry date is 12 months from purchase, and I've had this tan since my graduation in November, and it's done me since then really well!


                                                                        Stockists

Ireland:

• Penneys
•  Boots
•  Superdrug
•  Dunnes Stores
•  Cloud10beauty.com
•  Supervalu
•  Heatons 
• plus other pharmacies.

UK:

• Primark
• Superdrug
•  Tesco

Worldwide shipping is avaliable from:

• FeelUnique.com - browse HERE.

• Cloud10Beauty.com - browse HERE.

• Amazon.com - browse HERE.