1

The secret is that body cream—or lotion or lip balm—makes everything a thousand times easier and better blended. I alternate between the ultranourishing, melts-right-in GOOPGENES body butter and the gorgeously scented Garden of Earthly Delights lotion from Sangre de Fruta. Smooth a good dollop between your palms and between your fingers (this also helps prevent tanned palms), then dab the excess anywhere you have thicker or drier skin—your elbows, ankles, tops of toes, knees. Thicker, drier skin pulls in more tanner, creating uneven dark spots and splotches that look decidedly unnatural. By smoothing cream over those areas, you make them a little more resistant to the tanner, and the result is an even glow instead of splotchiness.

The nice thing is, the cream or lotion principle works either way: If you forget about it and apply tanner without it, you can just go over the drier areas directly after you do the tanner—the results are the same.

2

Once you’ve protected the drier spots from overtanning, apply your self-tanner. Start at the feet: They’re the hardest to get right, so focus your most intense blending attention on them. The feet have a jillion different odd angles, so make sure to get the tanner in there so you don’t end up with glaring pale spots.

3

Move up your legs and blend. There’s no such thing as overblending. It’s also hard to overdo the amount of tanner on your legs—adding more tanner in a single application won’t make you more tan, counterintuitively. It will simply ensure no streaks and no missed spots. So be generous.

4

Tan only where you want—no need to do your whole body unless you’d like to.
(Though if you’re going for the partial, consider who might be seeing you naked.)

5

When you’re done, wash your hands with beyond-thorough enthusiasm; tanned palms look ridiculous. Do it even if you used a mitt. When your hands are completely dry, put a bit of tanner on the back of one hand and rub the backs of your hands together to blend the tanner. (A tan body with pale hands creates an alarming gloved look.)

6

If you forgot or didn’t want to do the body-cream trick at the beginning, do it now (it works just as well before or after). Or tear open a wipe and dab lightly at the thicker, drier spots. When you’re through, use the wipe to give your palms and between your fingers a final swipe.

7

Instead of shivering naked in the bathroom, throw on a loose, dark-colored sundress, shorts and a T-shirt, or some such and go about your business. You shouldn’t shower for at least eight hours, but there’s no reason not to get on with your life. Note: If you use a no-transfer formula like the Saltyface, you can put on paler clothes right away without worry.