• How To Remove Fake Tan From Your Hands
  • Tips & Tricks

How to Remove Fake Tan from Your Hands

Fake tan has come a long way in the past 20 years. We have said goodbye to the 'biscuit' smell that was historically associated with the beauty product. And you can now get a faux glow at home that suits your natural skin tone, rather than looking like a deep shade of terracotta. However, is that all worth it if your orange palms and streaking knuckles are giving your faux bronze away to your co-workers?

The reality is, getting the perfectly fake tanned hand is a tricky one. However, we have all the tips you need on removing unwanted tan from your hands, as well as preventing them from going orange and patchy in the first place. You deserve a natural-looking, streak-free all-over bronzed glow, and we want to tell you how to get it!

Hand showing off perfect fake tan

Natural Honey @harrietwestmoreland using our Bronzing Body Mousse and Big Body Brush to perfect her hand-glow.

What Am I Doing Wrong?

Are you ready to never have a fake tan disaster on your hands again? Before we tell you how to remove the fake tan, let's take our minds back to what has potentially got us into this mess. There is a knack to perfecting a streak-free tanned hand at home and applying mousse with a tanning mitt straight to the knuckles is definitely not it.

1. Using Too Much

You don't want to use one pump of mousse per hand, our hands naturally absorb tan a lot easier than other parts of our body, so this will cause your hands to overdevelop and look darker than the rest of you.

2. Applying Tan in A Rush

People often wait till the end of their tanning routine to fake tan their hands, and therefore do them in a rush. Save an extra 10 minutes or so at the end of your application to dedicate to your hands. Slow and steady wins the fake tanning race.

3. Using the Wrong Tools

The problem we have historically had with achieving perfect fake-tanned hands at home is that we have been applying it with a tanning mitt. It's time to bin the mitt and say hello to the tanning brush, you'll never have to remove fake tan from your palms ever again!

How Do I Remove the Tan?

Once you've established what it is you're doing wrong, you can be rest assured you'll never have a problem with fake tanning your hands again! But here are a 'handful' of remedies to choose from that will remove any unwanted patchiness whilst keeping the rest of your fake tan looking great.

1. Use Bath Oil

Fill a basin with warm water and put a few drops of bath oil into it. Let your hands soak in there for up to 10 minutes and then gently scrub your hands with a loofah, you will see the tan lift away almost instantly!

2. Use Glycolic Acid

Glycolic Acid on the skin naturally causes DHA (fake tans active ingredient) to separate on the skin and therefore lifts quicker. If you have woken up in the morning with an unwanted orange hue on your palms, use a face pad infused with Glycolic Acid on your hands and the tan will instantly come off and look a lot lighter.

3. Use Lemon Juice

An old wives' tale that does have some substance to it. Squeeze some lemon juice into a bowl of warm water and take a soak for around 30-60 minutes. Then take a warm, damp towel and gently rub over the hands. The heat combined with the lemon juice will cause the tan to fade and appear streak-free almost instantaneously!

How Do I Prevent It From Happening Again?

Now that you have all the tips and tricks on how to avoid fake tan staining your hand and disrupting your top to toe glow, follow these steps the next time you fake tan to make sure your hand application is completely covered!

1. Use A Barrier Cream

A barrier cream will keep your hands hydrated (we all know that fake tan clings to dry skin!) It will also act as a thin film between your hands and the fake tan, to ensure your tan is natural-looking and radiant.

2. Use A Brush

Tan like the professionals with this tanning tip. Achieving a perfectly fake tanned hand has never been so easy than with a tanning brush. Buffing the tan into the skin will minimise any streaking or patchy knuckles and you will look like you've spent 2 weeks in the South of France rather than achieving a faux glow at home.

3. Don't Overdo The Tan

Our most important hand tanning tip! Never apply more product directly to the hand. Use leftover fake tan from your gloves or brushes and gently sweep it over the hands for a natural-looking finish where your hands haven't overdeveloped!

Achieving a perfect fake tanned hand can often be tricky, but these invaluable tips will stop you from ever needing to google "how to remove fake tan from hands" ever again! For more professional tips to make you the hand tanning expert, head over to our IGTV.