I Tried The Self-Tanner That’s All Over TikTok — Here Are My Honest Thoughts

Amidst all of the Aussie beauty brands that have made their way to the UK over the past few years, there’s one that keeps popping up: Coco & Eve. Originally known for their now-iconic Like A Virgin hair mask, more recently, it’s the brand’s tanning products that have grasped the attention of beauty influencers across TikTok — so I decided to test a few of them out for myself. (After all, I live in notoriously unsunny London, and self-tanning products are the MVPs of my beauty routine. I’ll never turn down a chance to try a new one.)

To see if Coco & Eve’s best-selling tanning mousse (and, their more recent launch, a face tanning serum) lives up to the hype, keep scrolling for my honest thoughts.

Sunny Honey Bali Bronzing Foam

Fast Facts:

• Key ingredients: lotus flower extract, papaya fruit extract, coconut fruit extract, fig fruit extract, mango fruit extract, cocoa seed extract
• Requires a minimum of two hours to develop
• Available in three shades
• No self-tan smell
• Cruelty-free
• Vegan

While self-tanning products have historically gotten a bad rap, Coco & Eve is among the brands redefining the space by developing products that are easy to use and infused with good-for-skin ingredients. Products like the brand’s best-selling Sunny Honey Bali Bronzing Foam have also focused on eliminating some of the top self-tanner complaints: namely, its telltale scent, which comes from the active ingredient in self-tanner, DHA. Coco & Eve takes that scent out of the equation with its tropical fragrance that features notes of mango and guava. The self-tanner helps to condition your skin as you tan, too, thanks to a mix of nourishing ingredients like cocoa seed extract, mango fruit extract, and papaya fruit extract.

One thing that’s worth pointing out is that in order to give you the most natural golden glow, the guide colour of the bronzing foam is more of a green-gray colour. Don’t panic. Once you’ve let the product set (you’ll need to give it a minimum of two hours), that greenish base will rinse off in the shower, leaving behind your just-back-from-a-tropical-vacation tan.

What I Liked:

My favourite thing about the self-tanning foam is that it dries down instantly. After a mere minute or two, my skin didn’t have any trace of greasy or sticky residue, so I was able to get dressed immediately.

Also, while the brand says that the guide colour verges on the green/gray side, I found that my skin actually looked pretty nice and bronzed while sporting the guide colour. Once I rinsed the guide colour off, the tan left behind was extremely natural-looking — maybe even a little too subtle at first — but by the time I woke up the next day, it had deepened to the perfect shade of tan for my naturally fair skin.

As promised, there was no trace of self-tanner scent, and I found the tropical fragrance pleasing. I also really loved the accompanying tanning mitt — it’s the best mitt I’ve used thanks to the elasticated wrist cuff that prevents it from slipping off, and it fit my small hand comfortably (a niche but valid complaint when it comes to other mitts I’ve tried).

What I Didn’t Like:

To be honest, there’s not much I didn’t like about the self-tanner. I did experience a bit of splotchiness on my feet, but that’s more my own fault than the product’s (despite being well-versed in the rules of self-tanning, I neglected to exfoliate and moisturise those dryness-prone spots, like my knees and feet, beforehand).

After applying the tanner, I broke in some new flip-flops on a dog walk and developed some blisters, which the tanning product clung onto. However, this was once again my fault, and not really the product’s.

Overall, I really liked the tanning mousse — especially how quick and easy the process was made since I didn’t have to wait around for it to dry — and will definitely continue to use it.

Coco & Eve Anti-Aging Tanning Serum

Fast Facts:

• Key ingredients: niacinamide, polyglutamic acid, dragon fruit extract, papaya fruit extract, coconut fruit extract
• Develops a golden glow over the course of four to six hours
• No self-tan smell
• Cruelty-free
• Vegan

Technically, you can use the bronzing foam on your face, but if the idea of using a body self-tanner on your face freaks you out, Coco & Eve also offers an Anti-Aging Tanning Serum. Applying a few pumps of the serum will give you a golden tan in four to six hours, but the serum also includes ingredients like niacinamide to soothe and strengthen the skin barrier, polyglutamic acid to moisturise, and antioxidant-rich fruit extracts like dragon fruit, papaya, and coconut.

What I Liked:

I use a lot of tanning serums, so I was intrigued to see how Coco & Eve’s stands up. What immediately struck me as different is that the tanning serum is actually a brown colour (most tanning serums I use are clear), but it doesn’t look brown once you rub it onto your skin. At first, it’s barely noticeable. But after a few hours I definitely noticed a golden glow, and ultimately, I was really pleased with the results. My skin definitely looked glowier, tanner, and less dull.

The brand recommends that fair skin tones mix the tanning serum in with their moisturiser, but I chose to apply it directly onto my bare skin, and I think the results looked great — and I’m naturally very pale. Overall, I didn’t think my skin looked orange or unnaturally tan (keep scrolling for pictures).

What I Didn’t Like:

Once again, when it comes to the application process and the results, there’s not much I didn’t like. My only complaint (if you could call it that) is that I could do without the fragrance. Don’t get me wrong: it’s a nice, tropical scent. But it’s simply a personal preference of mine that I don’t like when products designed for your face have a perfume-y scent.

That said, if it weren’t for the fragrance, the serum would probably smell a lot more like self-tanner, so I understand why the brand made the decision they did. In any case, the scent disappeared once the product absorbed into my skin, so ultimately, it was no biggie.

My Final Thoughts:

Overall, I was really pleased with both self-tanners, and look forward to continuing to use them. (Next up: attempting to contour my face with the tanning serum.) The products smell great, perform well, and are pretty reasonably priced. Because I really loved the tanning mitt, I highly recommend opting for the Sunny Honey Bali Bronzing Set, which comes with a bottle of tanning mousse, and a mitt and kabuki brush. You can buy it via the brand’s website, but note that Coco & Eve’s products are also available on Amazon.