Glow on: why you must try this genius facial tanner (2025)

I haven’t been sleeping tremendously well recently; a mixture of teething baby, a fizzy head thanks to lots of work (for which I am grateful), a flurry of very significant life changes (for which I am also grateful), and - I suspect - the fact that I have fallen into bad habits scrolling endlessly on my phone pre-bed.

The latter is something that I despise myself for doing. I have a wonderful pile of books that I’m desperate (but too tired), to read, so I scroll. In so doing, I pollute my sacred me-time with unreasonable quantities of average to terrible content, depressing news stories, and blue light.

It’s a self-perpetuating hamster wheel that I urgently need to hop off, and means that when my currently higher-than-average levels of cortisol and adrenaline spike around 3 or 4am, instead of stirring as I should into lighter sleep in preparation for my 7am alarm, I actually wake for the day. The horror! And so the cycle continues…

Fear not, I am now addressing the matter and it’s working (hooray!), but I am - for now - fantastically tired and sadly look it. My skin - normally well behaved - is sensitised, pale, sore and rather spotty. Until I’m back on an even keel I need a glow-up.

Luckily, last week’s beauty wonderings saw me stumble upon dermatologist Dr Dennis Gross’s Alpha Beta Glow Pads, (£49 for 20) cunning little self-tanning treats that have done exactly the trick.

And yes, I too was rather surprised by this addition to the dermatologist’s range (which I like very much. The Alpha Beta AHA/BHA Cleansing Gel is a forever favorite). Tanning could - after all - be perceived as somewhat of an anti-derm concept.

But Dr. Dennis Gross was having endless clients coming to him for their skin-related treatments complaining about underperforming glow-givers: They were too yellow, too streaky. They smelt off and faded badly.

And boy has he delivered. This is not your average tanner. No, these over-achieving, innovation-loaded wipes are infused with low levels of exfoliating AHA and BHA in order to first refine and polish the skin, facilitating a fresher, smoother, glowier canvas so that that the DHA tanning agent can better get to work, thanks to improved skin contact and easier absorption.

Moreover, Dr Dennis’ personal breed of DHA comes encapsulated in a clever little lipid membrane, enabling it to inhabit different layers of the skin for a subtle, streak-free and altogether superior finish that develops in under an hour.

Swipe the tiny towelette over your face once for a subtle glow, twice or thrice to go deeper as desired.

Now go forth and be bronzed and refined! The pleasure is all mine…

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Tanning

Summer

Sleep