How to Get a Sun-Soaked Glow Without Wrecking Your Skin
I love a tan. I do not love what the sun does to my skin in a Texas summer. So a few years ago I stopped chasing the real thing and started faking it — and honestly, the fake version looks better and lasts longer.
Here is the whole routine I use to look sun-soaked from about May through September, without the burn, the peeling, or the regret.
Start with a clean canvas
Glow starts with smooth skin. Put self-tanner or body oil over dry, bumpy skin and it catches on every flaky patch and goes streaky.
So I exfoliate first — a couple times a week, nothing aggressive. If you deal with rough little bumps on your arms or the backs of your thighs, I wrote a whole thing on getting rid of strawberry legs that is basically the prep step for all of this. Smooth first, glow second.
Fake the tan so you can skip the sun
This is the part that does the most work. A good gradual self-tanner gives you color without a single UV ray. If you’re pale and picky about not going orange, I broke down the self-tanners that actually work on fair skin separately. Short version: build it slowly, exfoliate first, and wash your palms right after.
A daily gradual lotion and Bondi Sands are the two I reach for most.
SPF is the whole point
If you take one thing from this: the glow only looks good on skin you are actually protecting. Faking the tan means you get to wear real sunscreen every day without feeling like you are wasting the sun.
For my face I want something light enough to re-apply — Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun most days, and La Roche-Posay Anthelios when I am going to be out on the water. For your body, any broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher, reapplied every couple of hours at the river.
Glow from the neck down
Once you are tan and protected, a little sheen makes it read lit-from-within instead of flat. A few drops of body oil or serum on your shoulders, collarbones, and shins — the places the sun would naturally hit — and that is it. You want dewy, not greasy, so go light.
The face: bronzy, dewy, a little sunburnt
The makeup look this summer is barely-there and warm: cream bronzer, a flush like you caught a little sun, and glowy skin. Skip powder wherever you can.
Cream and liquid formulas melt in better than anything pressed. A bronzer drop like Drunk Elephant D-Bronzi mixes right into your moisturizer. Then a liquid blush swept high on the cheeks toward your temples — that is the sunburn-blush placement everyone is doing — and e.l.f. Camo is a few dollars and genuinely good. Finish with a soft highlight on the high points and a lip oil.
Keep it up
Self-tan fades in patches, so I top up every three or four days and re-exfoliate before each fresh coat. All that exfoliating, sun, and AC can leave skin tight, so I keep my skin barrier happy with a plain moisturizer at night. Glow is mostly just healthy skin with good lighting.
That is the whole thing. No sunburn, no orange, no peeling in July.
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