How Many Tanning Drops Should You Use? A Shade Guide

The first question everyone asks about tanning drops is the same one: how many? It is the right question, because the number of drops is the whole control system. There is no light, medium or dark bottle to pick between. One formula, and your count decides the depth.

The short answer

• 2 to 3 drops: a subtle, "back from a weekend away" glow. Start here for your face, and start here full stop if you are fair skinned or new to self tan.
• 4 to 6 drops: a visible, warm tan. The most common count for body use once you know how your skin takes colour.
• 7 to 10 drops: a deep bronze. Earn your way up to this over a few sessions rather than opening the bottle at ten.

Every count mixes into the same base: a full pump of the moisturiser you already use, blended in your palm, applied the way you always apply it. Oleyra Tanning Drops are designed to disappear into your routine, not to become one.

Why starting low is the smart play

DHA colour develops overnight and lasts days. If you undershoot, tomorrow evening you simply add a drop or two and you are there. If you overshoot, you wait for it to fade. That asymmetry is the whole strategy: the cost of too little is one day, the cost of too much is most of a week. Two drops tonight tells you everything about how your skin takes colour, and it tells you gently.

Building and holding a shade

Colour from drops stacks. Two or three consecutive nights at a moderate count builds more depth than one heavy night, and it builds it evenly. Once you like what you see in the mirror, drop to one or two applications a week to hold it there. Skin sheds constantly, so a held tan is really a slowly topped-up one.

Different areas can run different counts. Faces usually want less than legs. Mix a two-drop batch for your face and a six-drop batch for your body and both will develop in step, because it is the same formula underneath.

Three habits that make any count work better

• Mix fully. The drops should vanish into the moisturiser before anything touches your skin. Unmixed streaks of concentrate are how you get freckling on dry patches.
• Wash your palms straight after. The formula includes a caramel guide tint and DHA develops wherever it sits, and palms take colour enthusiastically.
• Give it the night. Apply in the evening, let it sink in before bed, and let it work overnight. Judging the colour before the next morning is judging an unfinished job.

Finding your exact shade

If you want a shortcut calibrated to your skin tone, the shade guide on the tanning drops product page shows what different counts look like on light, medium and deeper skin, using the same photographs for every depth. Pick the picture you want to wake up as, and that is your number.