Sarah Loves... Summer 2020

In the summer months, a glowing tan looks gorgeous, healthy and hides a multitude of blotches and blemishes. Here are the products Sarah relies on now…

Amanda Harrington face tanning method

I trialled this for a prize draw earlier in the spring (we test every product before we accept them as prizes) and was so impressed I’ve been using it on my face, neck and dec ever since. Here’s the lowdown: first, prep with New Skin Advanced Glycolic Facial Pads/£18 for 30 pads. (They won a Beauty Bible Award earlier in the year.) Now apply the Pre-Colour Face Primer to hydrate the skin; it’s also a gradual tanner so you can use this daily to extend the life of your self-tan. Third, use Amanda’s special Face Lifter Brush/£35 (which looks like a man’s shaving brush) to apply the tanning Face Mist Illuminating Bronzing Mist, £28. This comes in three shades Natural Rose (for very fair or grey hair), Natural Honey (which I use) and Natural Olive. Buff and blend it in, working it up into your hairline and around your ears etc. Leave for six hours, wash off and marvel! You can read Amanda’s tips for perfect self-tanning here.

Buy here

Institut Esthederm Photo Reverse High Protection plus Dr. Hauschka Bronzing Tint

This Institut Esthederm moisturiser promises high protection (which equates to SPF30) Brightening Protective Anti-Dark Spots Face Care. Like most country dwellers I have some brown spots so the fact it promises to diminish and prevent dark spots is alluring. It also says it will brighten your skin and wow! It so does that. My skin positively glows. It comes in a neutral version or tinted. I prefer the neutral so I can tweak the shade to my skin tone with Dr.Hauschka Translucent Bronzing Tint New – an update of an old favourite. Actually, that also promises to make skin look radiant so the two together are literally Win! Win!

Institut Esthederm Photo Reverse High Protection/£55 for 50 ml - buy here

Dr.Hauschka Translucent Bronzing Tint New/£19 for 18 ml - buy here

L’Occitane Intense Fruity Lipstick 02 Sunset Walk

I really, really love this lippy! It’s a perfect everyday colour, particularly with a bit of a tan, and it lasts and lasts – quite amazingly. I usually pop it over a lip-coloured lip pencil (which I put all over my lips not just round the outline) and there is still a pretty stain after hours and a meal and a drink and… you get the picture. It’s simply the best for me this summer.

£18 – buy here

Green People Sun Cream SPF15 with Natural Tan Accelerator

For the first time I can remember I have tanned legs, due to this stellar product. A few days lying on my new-since-lockdown lounger in my very old but still loved M&S cozzie and my pallid pins turned pretty bronzed, pretty quickly. It’s SO exciting plus of course there’s sun protection from a mineral screen (titanium dioxide). And it’s really fab not to have to do the whole self-tan bit. What’s more stray hairs (very few now after decades of waxing) are pretty invisible. So many wins! (There’s a longer write up of the product, here.)

£23 for 200 ml – buy here

Leighton Denny Nail Polish Passion

Time to ‘fess up: while my feet are in reasonably good nick, no bunions and an acceptable shape, my toenails are not. That would be down to decades of horses wuffling affectionately into my neck and then treading (equally lovingly) on my feet, one at a time but both of them. As a result, the big toenail on my right foot is a misshapen, dark-toned hoof itself and the second toe on my left foot is not dissimilar. So my toenails need camouflage that lasts. And goodness, these Leighton Denny nail polishes do both. I used to be a devotee of one called Gem Stone Buzz, which seems to have been discontinued (grrrrr). But Passion or its sibling Smoking Jacket, which sounds equally louche (as nail polish should be), are very similar and very gorgeous. What’s more, the consistency of Leighton’s polishes is perfect and the brush exactly the right size to apply the polish easily. Gazing at pretty painted toenails is a real little pleasure – in fact, ten of them.

£12 - buy here