Bondi Sands Self Tan Eraser

Before you get excited, there are some ‘buts’ with this new product from Bondi Sands. Something that gets rid of self tan is literally the holy grail of formulation. Everyone is chasing it – I  was chatting with a formulator a while ago and although I don’t remember all of the detail the difficulty is that it’s very tricky to make a safe product that removes staining from the skin. Chemicals such as chlorine can break it down but obviously, you’d need to spend many hours in a pool for it have any effect whatsoever. DHA, which is the active ingredient in self tan to stain the skin, apparently turns skin more acid, so if you use an alkaline formula, it should have a neutralising effect.

Bondi Sands Self Tan Eraser contains sodium chloride which basically put, is salt. It also contains Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda) which is a well known at home remedy for self tan removal anyway. Add some Aloe leaf juice, hydrogenated castor oil and a couple of other chemical unpronouncables, and this product claims to help you remove your self tan. BUT.. here it is.. only on tan that is at least 3 days old. They’ve got ‘instant’ on the packaging but I think you have to take that as instant only in certain circumstances and certainly not instant as in, immediate assistance required after you’ve discovered things didn’t go as planned!

So, you’ll still have to tough out the streaky days for a while. What it seems to be the most useful for is tan fade – when you need to do the whole thing again from scratch but can’t quite get rid of the old bits. I can see it being a bit of a godsend for that circumstance so that you have a blank canvas for your next application. But, if you were hoping for an instant fix for accidental stripes and streaks, this isn’t it.

I think it’s a very handy beauty cupboard staple that will save you the bother of the old baking soda, orange/lemon/sugar paste, or scratchy scrubs, but I would like to see a side by side review of its efficacy against a baking soda/aloe juice/lemon paste which can’t be that hard to make yourself. Remember, you’re taking off skin layers when you take off a tan by exfoliation, but a good tip I was once given is to use a cotton pad soaked in milk which is naturally enzymatic (lactic acid) and will exfoliate without gritty bits.

Bondi Sands Self Tan Eraser actually smells a bit of bicarb – it comes out as a soft, foamy mousse and you apply to dry skin before showering off after 5 minutes. You can find it HERE, but I need to flag that I haven’t tested it. It’s £14.99.

Non Affiliate Link is HERE.