I've been after this tan for so long that I actually forgot that I wanted it.. It was one of those where I'd have the money to get it, and then forget, yet as soon as I was a little tight on money, I would lust over it and have to tell myself that it wasn't a necessity. :(
He-Shi is a unisex brand of fake tan created in Ireland, promising a non-streaking, beautiful bronze colour that moisturises as it tans you.
Sounds perfect, right?
He-Shi retails at different prices dependent on where you buy it, but it never strays far from being around the £25 mark. For me, being more of a budget beauty buyer rather than splurging out on upper-end products, this seems a little steep for a home tanner.. My all-time favourite tanner is Xen Tan dark lotion, which is also around the same price as this- but I only tend to use it on special occasions or when my budget tan aren't doing anything for me and I need a deeper, more natural tan.
As you can see, the packaging is very plain. I like plain packaging-- I think a product that has over the top packaging has an ulterior motive: To make people believe that their product IS as good as their packaging, when actually it's a standard product in a very well packaged container. I like the colours used here, with the dark brown base imitating the base colour that you should achieve after you've applied this.
This is one pump of He-shi tan- you get a fair amount out of one pump.. I only use four for each arm. The consistency is quite runny, so you do have to work quite quickly.. Sometimes it's easier to put it straight on to your mitt and apply it that way.. I suppose it's up to you! It rubs in well, leaving a little colour behind so that you can see where you've applied it. This makes it very easy, and the process goes through very quickly. I find that with every other fake tan, I have to spend a lot of time with moisturiser working in the tan, especially on my inner arm and wrists but with this, I used to moisturiser and came out with no streaks! Result!
Okay, so the bit we all want to know.. What is the colour like?
WELL, in all honesty, from the reviews, I expected to wake up and look like I've just spent a month in the Bahamas.. I can assure you that I didn't exactly look like that.. If I'm quite honest, I felt a little orange! Yes, it's a nice colour in the respect of it being even and flawless.. But colour-wise, I am not impressed. Thinking that I'd done it wrong, I put another coat over the top and left it for a few hours. I unchanged from my long-sleeved 'fake tan outfit' to find a deeper colour *still with an orange tinge* but it was more of the colour that I had expected.
I wore a watch that day, and after taking it off that night, discovered that it had taken all of my tan off of my wrists.. nightmare! So I then had patchy wrists that looked awful, but after a quick scrub in the shower and another application of the tan, it was fine. Another thing that I wasn't happy about was how sticky the product is.. It take hours of it to stop being tacky which my boyfriend hates, especially as I generally apply before bedtime. Also, I lay on my boyfriend's chest as I sleep, and he has woken up with fake tan patches on his chest three times now.. I've never known another tan to do this.
How do I rate this product?
I do like the ease of this, and the lack of streaks and patches that it supplies, but for the price and how hyped up it is, I would expect more.
6/10
Would I buy this again?
MAYBE.. It might be one of those products where the more that you use it, the more you learn to like it and the best ways to use it.. Right at this second, I'm in no rush to buy another one.
I don't think this has beat my trusty Xen Tan just yet, so the search continues for the perfect fake tan..
What fake tans can you recommend?
xxxx