Brand Spotlight: Cocoa Brown

For this month’s brand spotlight, I decided to focus on a brand that almost everyone has heard of and one that I absolutely love. Cocoa Brown! Cocoa Brown have a considerable amount of products in their range, so I thought I would pick out a few of my favourites to feature in my brand spotlight series.

1 hour tan

I suppose I should start with the obvious one. Cocoa Brown 1 hour tan is the original product from Marissa Carter. Originally launched in November 2012, Cocoa Brown now sells at a rate of 3 bottles a minute! No matter what line of business you’re in, that is seriously impressive.

Before I go any further, I need to put my hands up and admit that, I am not the best person in the world for putting tan on. In fact I am nothing short of abysmal! I have tried other tans, but I seem to have the best success with the 1 hour tan. As far as developing tans go, I find that this develops the best on my skin and doesn’t skin into the pores on my legs. I do however find, that to help it wear off evenly, I need to moisturise daily. When it comes to tan, this is fairly common for me.

When applying the 1 hour tan, I wait a while after having my shower. In fact, I usually have my shower that morning and do all the prep work and then apply the tan in the early evening. The reason for this being, that your shower gel can mess with the ph level of your skin. This then has a knock on  effect on your tan. When your ph levels are off, it can interfere with tan develops. The difference in the PH levels of peoples skin, is also another reason tan develops different on different people. Our ph levels are all different!

You can now get the 1 hour tan in the original shade, a darker shade and a soon to be released even darker shade! You can buy it in pharmacies nation wide, Pennys, Dunnes, Tescos and many more. Or you can buy it online here for €7.99

Lovely legs

This was my absolute saviour while I was pregnant. For whatever reason during my pregnancy, this looked better on my legs than any other instant tan. It gave them more of a flawless finish. The reason I mention the finish is, while pregnant, I had a lot of allergies and scratched my legs to bits! I found that even my beloved Cocoa Brown instant gel tan, couldn’t cover these scratches and just skimmed over them, while the Lovely legs gave me some coverage. It doesn’t give complete coverage but for me it gave me a lovely smooth finish without making it look like I was wearing tights.

I found that the best way to apply this was to apply it directly to a mitt and then spread it on my legs. It went on much better this way then when I applied it directly to my legs.

I haven’t seen this as readily available as the other tans but you can pick it up in pharmacies or online here for €7.99

Tough Stuff

This stuff is the absolute business. A few years ago, I had a kid in my class who had completed a colour run over the weekend. That Monday, she arrived into school resembling a smurf. Her mother had a written a note in the journal to excuse her appearance and told me she had tried literally everything to get the paint off and it wasn’t budging. I wrote a very short note back and said ” Tough Stuff from Cocoa brown will do the job”. The following morning, the child arrived in clean as a whistle.

If you have stubborn tan that you want to shift, this will 100% do the job. You can buy it for €5.99 or online here.

Self Tanning wipes

This is my hero product from Cocoa Brown. I know people may be shocked that a packet of €3.50 tanning wipes are my hero product, but I love these! Do not let the memories of 90’s tanning wipes put you off trying these. These honestly couldn’t be further from what we remember tanning wipes as.

As I mentioned above, I am brutal at putting on tan. However, these babies take all the chance out of tanning for me. They are literally foolproof.

There are 20 wipes in the packet and they’re said to be suitable for both face and body. In fact, the ingredients in all Cocoa Brown tan, mean that they can be used on the face. The ingredients used won’t block up your pores leading to breakouts. I literally just run these up and down my body as I would a makeup wipe. While there is no real guide colour, I haven’t made a mistake with these yet!

The colour that develops is something of a much more natural colour . The colour looks more along the lines of a day or two spent at the beach rather than a two week sun holiday look.

You can read a full review here and you can buy them in Pennys for €2.50

 

Golden Goddess oil

One question. Do you need these. Simple answer. Yes! Ok while that doesn’t really constitute a review, the golden goddess oils are 100% something you need in your stash, especially coming into the summer months.

The Goddess oils are shimmering dry oils that offer both  a highlight and natural glow to our skin depending on how it is applied. They are now available in three shades. The original Golden goddess, the rose gold goddess and the newly released Ice Goddess.

Each of the goddess oils can be used in a number of ways. Firstly they can be used to apply a shimmer to your body. To do this, I apply a small amount to a clean mitt and buff it into my body. You can also do similar using a kabuki style foundation brush.

You can also wear this as a highlighter on your face. The best way to do this is to squirt the goddess oil onto a cotton pad and then using either your fingers or a brush take the product from there and apply it to the area of you face that you want highlighter.

You can read a full review of the goddess oils here or you can buy them on their own for €11.95 of as part of a sampler set for €14.95. You can find them in pharmacies and online here. 

Kind Shampoo and Conditioner

One of the most recent releases into the Cocoa Brown family was a shampoo and conditioner. While this is a step away from what Cocoa Brown traditionally started as, they are nothing short of fantastic.

The kind shampoo and conditioner were designed with sensitive scalps in mind. As they are made from natural cleansing agents and free from formaldehyde,  parabens and alcohol, they won’t irritate the scalp the way some shampoos and conditioners can. Not only that but they leave your hair feeling squeaky clean too and give it a beautiful shine. It also didn’t leave your hair feeling product heavy like some shampoos can. It even gives your hair some volume.

While, I find the shampoo fantastic, I absolutely adore the conditioner and have gone through countless bottles. In fact I only finished my last bottle the other day, hence the fact I didn’t have one available for the pictures! I find the conditioner really leaves your hair feeling lovely and soft

Both the Shampoo and conditioner retail at €2.95 each and can be bought in Pennys and pharmacies nationwide or online here.

Instant Tan Bronzing Gels

These are hands down my most used tanning product ever! I have gone through bottles and bottles of this stuff! As a desperate tanner, instant tans are my saviour and as far as I am concerned, there is not other instant tan that is as good as the Cocoa Brown bronzing gels.

Available in both a shimmer and a matte version, these tans dry in almost instantly and dry down to such a beautiful finish. The shimmer is more of hint of shimmer rather than a full on glitter ball. While the matte leaves your skin with a beautiful natural tan. I find that they don’t wear off on my clothes, but I am a little cautious with white clothes.

I honestly can’t recommend these highly enough. They retail at €6.99 and can be bought on Pennys and pharmacies nationwide.