Tan Talk: Jergens Natural Glow

Jergens Natural Glow Daily Moisturizers

The Jergens Natural Glow line started out years ago with a couple lotions. Since then, they have expanded to having several lotions including ones containing SPF, a mousse, and some closer-to-instant-gratification options.

Pick Your Poison

I have tried the Jergens Natural Glow Firming and the Revitalizing lines of lotions. Without having any color (natural or artificial), I’m approximately an NC20 (plus or minus a shade I suppose) – but because I take color pretty evenly, I skipped their Fair-to-Medium products and went straight from Medium-To-Tan.

Prep

Prep for this is the same as you would to get optimal color from any method – shower (I use these gloves to wash – helps with the next step), exfoliate with something awesome that makes you happy (I like Tree Hut’s scrubs, currently using the Coconut lime – which you can get at Ulta or Amazon), shave with a sharp razor. Hop out, dry off, and apply this as you would a normal body lotion. Coat yourself, rub it in well to help it absorb. Jergens Natural Glow lotions do go on relatively easily – they don’t dry too quickly, so you actually have time to get them rubbed in to avoid streaks. The trade-off, though, is that they take a little longer to dry. Wait a couple minute for it to dry before dressing – though I did not notice any staining of clothing, getting dressed immediately after applying lotion feels weird.

Fragrance

The first thing is the scent of the lotion – it is scented. I’m generally okay with body lotions with fragrances, but I am not a fan of the scent of the Firming or Revitalizing varieties of Jergens Natural Glow. I can’t even describe them, they just smell like artificial perfume-y nonsense – and it DID clash with my other fragrances. The scent does dissipate eventually, but not until a handful of hours have passed. As a result, I always applied these at night before bed so I didn’t have to go around all day smelling the lotion.

Jergens says that this product has no sunless tanner odor. This is the big one I want to address. Nearly all sunless tanning products claim to be free of that tell-tale odor. Here’s the funny thing: none of the lotions CONTAIN that odor – their label isn’t technically wrong, but you will get some sort odor with nearly every one. Sunless tanners work because they contain a chemical called DHA (dihydroxyacetone, if you’re into that). When applied, DHA prompts your skin to produce melanin which is what gives our skin its color, and what causes us to appear tan. A side-effect of this reaction taking place is your body producing this silly smell – because this product does not have a high concentration of DHA, the smell isn’t super noticeable, but it is there and will pretty much always occur with any DHA-containing products.

Color

The color was gradual, which I prefer to a degree but it took over a week of daily applications to achieve the color I was seeking – which wasn’t crazy dark! I did not want this product to take the place of my usual moisturizer, but with as often as I needed to apply it to build up and maintain my color, it could have! On top of that, I had also purchased the Jergens Natural Glow facial lotion it did not do anything for the color of my face, even applying it every single day. I mixed a little of the body stuff with my regular face goop but my skin protested with breakouts although I am not particularly sensitive.

2017 Update: In 2014, I was not being diligent about exfoliating moisturizing my hands and feet or applying a barrier lotion to them. I do this religiously now regardless of the sunless product I’m using, and have good results with the Jergens products! I haven’t bothered with the face stuff though.

My thoughts in 2014: Despite the fact that my legs and body were more or less a reasonable shade at first, the tops of my hands and feet were both more orange and were outright dingy, as if I had been walking barefoot in clay mud – and this is after so-very-sparingly applying the product in those areas. Over time as I reapplied to maintain my tan, despite the fact that I was thoroughly and evenly exfoliating and all that happy stuff before reapplying, some areas began to look, “muddy.” I was fed-up how much maintenance this product required and I stopped using it.

The Bottom Line

In a nutshell, I will give this product credit for being newbie-friendly, accessible (drugstores, mass merchants, online), and inexpensive. If you have NO IDEA what you’re doing and want to get into self tanning lotions, this is OK to start with because if you make a mistake and don’t blend as much as you should, it won’t be terribly obvious the next day. Also, it is pretty cheap ($7-9) so you can get through the self-tanner learning curve. Know that it is not free of perfume and that you will not 100% avoid the, “sunless tanner smell,” with it. It should also be fine if you only care to use it for a very brief period of time (ramping up to prom or a wedding and wanting to avoid UV or Mystic) I wouldn’t recommend using only it for an extended period of time, though, because that’s when I started to look foolish. I won’t be repurchasing, though, and I would not recommend this product if you already know what you’re doing. Consider investing in something better.

Disclosure: There are a couple affiliate links here. I only recommend products I’ve tried and verified as awesome.