The best fake tan for your face to build a flattering, streak-free glow

The best fake tan for your face will do a number of things for your complexion. Of course, a just-hopped-off-the-plane glow comes as standard, but it’ll also do things like make dark circles and blemishes less noticeable. It is, ultimately, a holiday in a can, leaving you looking healthy and rested – no long-haul flight required.

So, how does it do it? “The best self tan contains an ingredient called dihydroxyacetone (also known as DHA) which is derived from plant sources such as sugar cane and by the fermentation of glycerin,” explains professional tanner James Read. “When applied to the skin, it reacts with dead cells in the skin’s surface layer to temporarily darken the skin and simulate a tan.” 

The downside of DHA, and the reason why lots of people question whether fake tan is bad for your skin, is that it’s notoriously drying. It’s important therefore to make sure that the formula you’re using is combating this, and caring for your skin at the same time as adding a glow. By blurring the lines between tanning and skincare ingredients, the results are more natural, convincing and longer-lasting, and will also create a smoother base beneath your best foundation.

Best fake tan for face, chosen by our beauty team

This is what we like to affectionately refer to as taking the edge-off tan. It’s not going to make you look like you’ve just spent two weeks in the Caribbean, but equally, that’s not going to be very convincing to your friends or colleagues. What it does do is leave your skin looking like you might have just been away for a long weekend in the Med, or spent a sunny Saturday outside. We found that just one application was enough to dilute the appearance of dark circles and sallowness, and the glow only got better the more we used it. We applied it directly onto the skin, made easy by the silky serum formula, and topped with moisturizer, so it was super simple to slot into our evening routines. If you’re new to tanning and nervous, this is a great starting point. 

Oh, and If you normally like to use a hydrating serum before bed, this will essentially replace some of the best night serums, with humectants glycerin and hyaluronic acid which attract moisture like magnets to avoid dehydration. 

If you've been invited to a last-minute social engagement and want a tan immediately then this is the product for you. It provides an instant wash of dewy color and coverage that’s more comparable to one of the best tinted moisturizers or best lightweight foundations than a fake tan. It's also much lighter in texture than your average instant tan. It’s super sheer, so won’t be enough to cover an angry spot or a stubborn pigmentation mark, but it does even out your skin tone and take the edge off any redness. We liked to wear it over moisturizer on working-from-home days, just to feel a bit more put together when we opened the door to the postman. 

It comes in a tube with a chunky doe foot applicator which makes it easy to transfer onto the skin, but just be careful not to pull too hard or you will end up splattering product on your clothes (we learned the hard way). Our favorite application technique was to dot onto our forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin before using a fluffy foundation brush to buff and blend. At the time of writing, it’s only available in four shades which is a shame, as we'd like to see more. However, as they’re quite stretchy, isn’t the end of the world.

If you’re not familiar with Votary, allow us to catch you up. They’re a luxury brand centered around plant oils and botanical actives, which, if we’re being honest, isn’t the kind of brand we’d expect to have a fake tan in their range. And that’s exactly why we were so keen to try their self-tan drops. 

Banishing any worries about tan dehydrating your skin straight out of the gate, the drops are formulated with hyaluronic acid, which is a hero hydrator that can hold up to 1000 times its own weight in water. Combining HA with a hint of self-tan makes for the perfect antidote to sallow, tired skin that needs a bit of a pick-me-up. The formula is really watery, so just a few drops feel like they go a long way. The brand recommends you mix with a serum or moisturizer, which we did, but they’re so spreadable that we’re not convinced you needed to. We woke up to a complexion that was only ever-so-slightly deeper, but definitely brighter. For best results, build up the color over a few nights. 

If you want to dip your toe (or in this case, your cheek) into tanning without the financial commitment, then these budget drops are perfectly purse-friendly. They come with a pipette applicator and are so clear it’s like applying water to your skin. They’re designed to be used in different concentrations depending on the kind of tan you’re after, ranging from one drop to 12 – which is quite the spectrum. We’d suggest that you start with just a couple of drops to begin with and see how you get on. You don’t want to go overboard and wake up orange, so it’s worth taking the time to play around and find the amount that works for you. It’s fragrance-free, which is great for sensitive skin but does still have that lingering biscuity scent that we’ve come to expect from fake tan. This isn’t a deal breaker though, and for the price, it feels silly to gripe over. 

Tan Luxe's products have achieved cult status among beauty experts, and rightly so. Instead of stocking up on a wardrobe of the best fake tan for your face to cover all seasons and occasions, this clever little bottle lets you customize your color at every use. We mixed one or two drops of this best face tanner with our moisturizer for a light tan, which made a perfect fake tan for pale skin. But you could apply two to three for medium, or use it neat if you really want to fake two weeks in the Med overnight. The tone itself is natural, not orange, and the color fades evenly. It contains various hydrating ingredients and left our skin feeling soft, and hydrated, with minimal-looking pores. And while the dropper is pricy, a little goes a long way so it'll last for ages.  Don't forget to wash your hands afterward, and if you do, check out our guide how to get fake tan off hands, fast.

If you're a fan of Isle of Paradise Tanning Drops, we're willing to bet you'll rate the brand's overnight mist too. Taking the faff out of the best fake tan for your face, all you need to do is close your eyes and mist a couple of times onto clean skin. The hard work happens while you snooze, delivering a gentle color that can be layered up over a number of evenings depending on your desired shade.  

We found this the easiest, most fool-proof best face tanner of the lot to apply before bed when messing around with several products is the last thing we want to do. The soothing floral fragrance is a real selling point too. Thanks to jasmine and lavender, it's aromatic and calming, smelling more akin to a fancy pillow spray than the sweet cookie aroma of other tanners.

Short on time? No problem. This super-speedy best face tanner reveals a light bronze glow in as little as 20 minutes and will continue to develop after you've rinsed it off. We found this so handy for applying in the morning, then layering over other skincare and makeup shortly afterward without worrying about interfering with the tan's development. 

The texture itself is like a hydrating slippy serum, but sinks in quickly and feels comfortable within the skin. This is a great choice for anyone who finds fake tan can leave their skin parched, while the addition of hyaluronic acid and aloe vera helps replenish any moisture lost to the process. The perfect best fake tan for your face for  last-minute invites or on days when your skin is feeling a little lackluster,

If you're new to tanning, allow us to point you in the direction of this easy-to-use best face tanner mist. Just position an arm's length away from the face and spritz a couple of times onto the skin. It feels incredibly light and settles into the skin nicely, with a pleasant cooling sensation. You may want to buff it in with a brush or mitt, but we found it was evenly spread enough not to bother. 

If left overnight, the guide color can be a little scary in the morning. But once rinsed, we found the result natural and light, perhaps too light for ultra-seasoned tanning fans. It might not suit those that favor a deep or intense glow but can be built up over a number of days until you reach your desired shade. 

St Tropez makes some of the best fake tan for face products around, including this excellent mist. An ultra-light spray like this is by far the easiest way to self-tan your face, as it requires so little effort – there's no need to rub in or risk getting streaky fingers after application. 

Packed with hydrating hero ingredient hyaluronic acid, which draws moisture into the skin, and hibiscus extract for a hit of antioxidants, it's both buildable and great for skin, never clogging your pores. We found just one or two spritzes were enough for a subtle glow, but it can be built up for a really sunkissed finish and didn't go streaky or patchy after three consecutive days of use. 

If you're a keen tanner, chances are you've given Bondi Sands a whirl over the years. This budget-friendly Aussie brand has a tanning solution for every eventuality including this conscious fake tan for the face, called PURE. It delivers the same impressive hit of glow the brand is known for (which we'd say is a medium to deep shade) without any fragrance. This will be great news to anyone who has sensitive skin or tends to react to artificial perfume, although we did find it meant we could smell the classic DHA biscuity odor more than with some other picks on this list. 

It also has the added benefit of 100% recyclable packaging. Even the pump bottle can be recycled, which is notoriously tricky to do. They've added hyaluronic acid and Vitamin E into the mix, too, helping to boost hydration as you get your glow on. The mist needs to be worked in with a mitt after application to ensure an even finish and develops into a strong color in as little as four hours. 

In our opinion, the best face tanners will always also have skincare benefits, and this serum nourishes your skin as well as giving it a healthy 'just back from holiday' glow. Sign us up! It contains skin-loving ingredients like vitamin E, and antioxidant-rich shea butter and camellia. And while the wash-off formula may not last as long as other facial tanners, we found it worked really well as a make-up base adding a lovely and healthy illuminated glow to our complexion for a dewy makeup look. 

There is just one shade available currently, although it will add radiance and warmth to a broad range of skin tones. That said, you may want to mix it with your moisturizer if your skin tone is very pale. It also comes with the added benefit of light-reflecting technology to ensure your skin looks glowy and radiant. A great addition to your makeup bag. 

How we tested the best face tanners

Here at woman&home we consider ourselves something of fake tan connoisseurs, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that between us, we’ve tried pretty much every formula on the market. Exactly how we tested for best face tanners for this guide varied slightly depending on the product, but in general, we applied them before bed so we could access our glow in the morning. For the gradual face tanners, we repeated this process for a couple more nights until we’d reached our desired depth of color – at the same time making sure that the nightly layering didn’t lead to streaks. Once we were satisfied we’d seen enough of the formula to access how good we thought it was, we allowed it to fade over the course of a few days to see if it did so evenly or in patches. Then, we thoroughly exfoliated, either with a scrub or chemical exfoliant like glycolic acid, to reset the skin and create a clear canvas, before starting the process all over again. 

How to choose the best face self-tan product for you

• Think about your routine. Too impatient to build up a gradual tan over a few evenings? Prefer an instant quick fix instead? The best face tanner for you will be the one that suits your routine best. For example, if you have very dry skin and hate the feeling of not wearing a moisturizer, then you’ll want some drops you can mix with it, rather than a serum that requires you to skip it for a night.
• Texture. We’re all different, and not everyone enjoys using the same kind of products. Which textures you prefer will influence whether the best fake tan for your face for you will be a moisturizer, a serum, a mist, or drops. 
• Skin type. Fake tan does have the potential to disrupt your skin and can clog pores on oily and blemish-prone complexions, as well as drying out dry or dehydrated skin. If you relate to the former, choose a lightweight face tanner that won’t settle into your pores. If the latter speaks to you more, make sure you’re choosing a formula with added nourishing ingredients like shea butter or ceramides. 
• Shade. If you want your glow to look convincing rather than faux, it’s important not to go too deep. Most brands offer different shades of tan, spanning from light through to dark. Choose based on your natural skin tone rather that what you're aiming for. 

How to achieve the best fake tan for your face

• Buy a face-specific formula: "Just like you wouldn't use shower gel to wash your hair, using body tan on your face is no different,” says expert tanner Amanda Harrington. “The skin on our faces is vastly different from our bodies. It is very thin and more delicate so needs to be treated differently to body skin, which is thicker and generally more robust.” (if it is in fact a robust body-friendly formula you seek, check out our Coco & Eve tan review) “Face tanners are produced to be non-comedogenic and give a lighter result, much like the best gradual tan. This makes them ideal to use without concerns of congestion or being too dark,” adds St Tropez Tanning Expert Michaella Bolder. Hence why the best fake tan for face tends to come in spray, serum, or mist form – light formulation is less likely to settle into pores or the natural creases of the face.
• Pay attention to ingredients. Wondering how to self-tan your face in a way that plays nicely with other skincare products? “Avoid retinol or any enzymatic skincare as these can accelerate the fade time of tan,” says Harrington. “And steer clear of any oil-based skincare products too. Oil breaks down tan and causes it to separate on our skin.” Bad news for our fresh new glow, but that does mean that oil is your go-to ingredient for learning how to remove fake tan in a hurry. Another way is “with skincare acids and a warm cloth,” adds Read. Do this before applying a fresh tan, too, to avoid any streaking.