Just before I left for my trip I had one of those scary moments when I looked in the mirror and realised I was in no shape to be seen in a cozy. I was so white I almost looked translucent (thanks to a delay in Cape Town’s summer). To say I panicked is an understatement and then a light bulb went off.
I remembered the fabulous Glow Cape Town who were part of our Ultimate Makeover Competition at the beginning of the year. Lauren, the winner of the competition raved about them so I felt it was only the right thing to do- for my confidence sake and for everyone’s else benefit – I didn’t need to go scaring people now.
Besides the obvious benefits of not needing to be exposed to the sun and risking skin damage, the thing I love most about a spray tan is that its super quick! Before my kids were on the scene it was easy to ensure I had a perfectly even, well maintained tan. It would work something like this:
- Buy magazines, sun block (in factor 30/10 and a light 2 tanning oil)
- Hit the beach with towels and bikini.
- Find a place where I could imagine myself vegging for a good part of the day
- Apply sun block, shades and insert earphones.
- Lie and relax.
- Turn over.
- Swim.
- Bake.
- Turn over.
- Repeat.
Now days we hit the beach by 8am. This is for two reasons:1. because the kids are up at the sparrows fart and 2: because we don’t want them in the sun after 11.30am mid summer. Ok as they get older we tend to break this rule but generally we all know it’s better to be out of the sun in between 12h00 and 14h00.
And when you get to the beach it looks nothing like the scene I so vividly described. It’s pretty much a run around from the time you arrive to the time you leave ( leaving is usually because of one of many reasons: because the beach is too sandy or the sun is to bright or the water too cold, or there aren’t enough penguins or somebody’s ice cream melted.) and you realise quite soon that there is pretty much no point in even putting cream on the bottom part of you body because there is about as much chance of the sun reaching your legs as there is of my two-year old getting through this two-hour beach excursion without a meltdown.
You start by lathering the kids in factor one hundred and something, and then the hubster looks like a wounded soldier because you made the unfathomable mistake of forgetting him. You proceed to make sure everyone (including hurt and wounded husband) is wearing a hat, and just when you make the assumption you can see to yourself too, one kid needs the toilet and the other one is running towards the water like a cat on cat nip.
Just as you finally get everyone sorted, they declare with enough dramatic undertone to win a oscar “Im SOOOOOOOOOOO hungry” Husband, who should be on my side, nods in agreement and you spend another 20 minutes feeding mouths and making sure your youngest doesn’t consume half the beach with his sandwich. After 3 minutes you give up and whisper to yourself “dirt, it makes them stronger”
Basically by the time you leave you realised you haven’t read a single page of your book, you’re dehydrated because you forget to drink water and hungry and grouchy because the kids ate your lunch. Yes, this is what a day at the beach looks likes with kids. Right?
And the worst part? You get home to discover that you have red shoulders and pasty white legs. Did you get ANYTHING out of that whole palava?
While it must be said that I still enjoy the beach with my kids (you learn to accept that nothing will ever be the same) and I realise there is a lot of sarcasm in there, I am very happy to have discovered this fabulous little tanning studio so close to me!
Tamlyn and Tamryn are the ladies who run these studios in two central locations.
It’s amazing how natural the tan looks, it doesn’t smell and dries in minutes. More than that, I’m sold on the idea of not damaging my skin! As I’m getting older I’m realising my mom was right, and I should have listened. If you are looking to try it out please don’t hesitate to get in touch with either one of them. I’m sold! 🙂
They currently have 2 tanning locations to choose from:
To tan in NEWLANDS
contact TAMLYN ESCORCIO on
082 300 7739 (sms only)
To tan in CLAREMONT
contact TAMRYN JEFFERIES on
084 316 2381 (sms only)
Or email them directly claremont@glowcapetown.co.za. Or for Newlands bookings Newlands@glowcapetown.co.za
