I am doing a new type of product review today. This isn’t something necessarily marketed towards horseback riders, but once you see what it is, it could DEFINITELY be marketed towards us equestrians.

Most of us – okay, ALL of us – are familiar with the rider’s tan. You know.. the pasty white legs paired with the extremely tan arms and shoulders (or pasty white shoulders if you never ride in sleeveless shirts). I usually try to keep my tan even by laying outside on my deck, but that has been a bit difficult this year for several reasons.

1. I’m studying for the bar exam, and it SUCKS and takes up a lot of my time.
2. The weather has finally started to get consistently warm and sunny, so when I had free time, there wasn’t really enough sun or warmth to make any progress.

So, naturally, I had an awesome tan on my arms and shoulders, but my legs were a completely different color. Literally.

I have a wedding to go to tomorrow, so I was starting to get a little panicky about the fact that my legs and my upper body were a different color. I actually have been avoiding wearing shorts because of this problem. I was a little self-conscious. I mean, the color difference is pretty bad.

I tried tanning on my porch, but my tan was not happening as fast as I wanted it to. I mean, the wedding is tomorrow, and I began making a serious effort to fix this problem only three days ago.

That’s when I came across this in the drug store:

I am pretty skeptical of tanning products because the last time I used one, I followed all the directions to a t, and I still got a nasty, streaky tan on my legs. Tanning products also tend to smell.. disgusting, so why even bother? Everyone knows my tan is not natural by the way I smell. But I was desperate, and I knew someone who looked like she went away on vacation and when I asked her how she got so tan, she said she had been using Jergens Natural Glow. I saw this 3-day formula and decided it was worth a try.

For those of you that have never used any type of tanning product, it is VERY VERY important to exfoliate before applying. Jergens doesn’t recommend this on their packaging, so maybe exfoliation won’t make a difference, but I wasn’t taking any risks, especially because I would need to wear a dress in 3 days, so a streaky, obvious tan was NOT an option. I applied it all over my legs and made sure the application was even each time. I did not use a lot on my knees or around my ankles. Below is the progression from my using the product.

So… I’m a believer. Are my legs and my upper body a perfect match? No. But they certainly look a bit better than they did before. Best of all, the color is not orange or fake looking, so no one really knows that the tan isn’t natural. Well, if you read my blog and know me in real life, you know now that my legs are not naturally tan – oops.

Hey, a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

For reference, here is a photo of my arm and my legs, 2 days after consistently using Jergens. You can see that they match much better now.

So, if you’re like me and are REALLY bothered by rider’s tan and also don’t have a ton of time to lay outside or spend hours at the beach, I highly recommend you try this product. It’s simple to use. It comes in two shades – fair to medium, and medium to tan. It also does not have an overly offensive smell, which I really really appreciate.

It also has made my skin super smooth and soft, which I guess is important given that it’s advertised as a moisturizer.

I still have one more day to go, but as you can see, it’s been super effective so far, and I could stop using it right now and be satisfied with the result.

If you try it, let me know what you think! I love it, and if I am ever in another skin tone emergency, this will be my go-to product.