Hybrid Living

Today I’ve got a semi-natural, although not what I would call sustainable product to review. Sometimes I get products to review that don’t make much sense for a green blogger, but since this one has some health and natural ingredient benefits, I’m still going to review it here.

Product: XEN-TAN Transform from XEN-TAN

Use: Time release sunless tanning lotion.

Ingredients: Water (Aqua), Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides (0), Glycerine (2), Dihydroxyacetone (2-5), Trimethylpentanediol/Adipic Acid Copolymer (0), Cyclomethicone (2), Glyceryl Stearate (0), Stearyl Alcohol (1), Steareth-21 (1), Tocopheryl Acetate (5), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice (0), Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) (0), Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract (2), Silybum Marianum (Milk Thistle) Extract (0), Ginkgo Biloba Extract (0), Xanthan Gum (0), DMDM Hydantoin (7-9), Sodium Metabisulfite (7), Lactic Acid (4-5), Fragrance (Parfum), Octadecyl Di-t-butyl-4-hydroxyhydrocinnamate (1).

Cost: $20 for 6 FL. OZ

What I think:

Health and safety - The first area I tackled with this product was ingredients. Sadly, this product is not on Skin Deep, so I couldn’t get a score, which tends to factor into my beauty reviews. SO lucky for you I added up the ingredient scores myself - not as technically as Skin Deep would have, but what are ya gonna do? You can see the ingredients hazard scores above in brackets. When I added up this product’s score it gets about a 2 or 3, which is not bad, although if you look at this product on a ingredient by ingredient basis, there are some problematic ingredients in there. On the flip side, most tanning products have really bad scores, far worse than XEN-TAN Transform.

The biggest health perk of XEN-TAN Transform is that it gives you color without the sun. As we’ve all heard, the sun is a huge threat to your skin, and body as a whole, so tanning - um no. You should never tan via the actual sun, and this product offers a safer alternative.

Green aspects (or not) - less toxic than many other sunless tanning products BUT not as non-toxic as others. About mid-toxic. This product uses many natural ingredient, although none organic. The bottle is a # 5 plastic which can be recycled in many towns, and even if your town doesn’t offer # 5 curbside pick-up there are other options. However, there’s no recycling reminder on the container at all, which I don’t like. Also, the company website has zero info about their take on animal testing. Overall, this is not what I would call a green beauty product.

How it worked - This lotion was not greasy or sticky as I thought it might be. It also didn’t have that obnoxious coconut scent that so many tanning products (sun or sunless) have. The scent is melon-citrus and clean, not overpowering.

You apply the lotion in a circle motion, evenly into your skin, then refrain from getting wet for a few hours. The first application seemed to do nothing, so I applied again and that’s when I started to see some color. The color I got was actually really natural looking, NOT orange at all. Keep in mind that I have fair skin. I only applied two layers because by the second layer it was a nice light tan color, and I’m not into baked looks.

I was surprised because there really were no streaks or weirdness involved with this sunless tanner. The color lasted about 5 or so days, which seemed like a good time-frame to me. The lotion also did not stain my nails or clothing.

NOTE: there is no sunscreen in this product.

Overall score:

I’m actually giving this product two scores

Green score: 2.5 if you’re looking for an eco-friendly sunless tanner, you could do better. The company has no green goals or policies to speak of (at least none out in the open). On the perk side, there are many sunless tanners that are more toxic, so in that respect it’s cool.

General score: 4 as a sunless tanner in general, I thought this was a good product. Sunless tanners can be scary, and often orange, but not this one. I also, as noted above, really liked the scent.

XEN-TAN offers many sunless tanning options other than Transform lotion. They also have facial specific sunless tanning products, sprays, dark lotion, mousse, tan extenders, and body scrubs. Visit the XEN-TAN to learn more.

Post from: Blisstree

XEN-TAN Transform - sunless tanner review