Tanning Drops vs Mousse: Which Self Tan Fits Your Routine?

Most people who try tanning drops arrive from mousse. Not because mousse failed them completely, but because some part of the routine wore them down: the mitt, the drying skin, the biscuit smell, the Sunday evening spent blending elbows in the mirror. If that sounds familiar, this comparison is for you.

How each one actually works

Both formats tan your skin the same way. The active is DHA, usually alongside erythrulose, and it develops colour on the surface of your skin over several hours. The difference is everything around the active.

A mousse is a finished product. It carries its own texture, its own fragrance and its own drying alcohol, and you apply it as a layer over your whole body with a mitt. The colour you get is the colour the bottle decided.

Self tanning drops you mix into your own moisturiser work the other way round. The drops carry the actives; your moisturiser carries the texture. You decide the depth by counting drops in, from two for a subtle glow to ten for a deep bronze, and the routine stays the one your skin already knows.

Where mousse wins

Honesty first: mousse is faster to full depth. One coat of a dark mousse gives you a holiday tan by tomorrow, and if you tan once for one event and want maximum colour in one go, mousse is the sensible tool. The guide colour also lets you see exactly where you have been as you apply.

Where drops win

• Control. Depth comes from the number of drops, not from choosing between three bottle shades and hoping. You can run two drops on your face and six on your legs from the same bottle.
• Skin feel. Your moisturiser does what it always does. Nothing new sits on your skin all night except the actives, which is why drops suit people whose skin dries out under mousse.
• Streak resistance. Streaks mostly come from a product sitting unevenly on the surface. Because the drops travel in a full layer of moisturiser you were rubbing in anyway, the coverage is as even as your normal cream routine. More on this in our guide to why fake tan goes streaky.
• No extra kit. No mitt is required. Mix in your palms, apply, then wash your hands properly. That last part is not optional; DHA does not know where your palms end.
• Fading. A tan built in gradual layers tends to fade the way it arrived, gradually and evenly, rather than breaking up in patches.

The routine, side by side

Mousse night: exfoliate, dry completely, mitt on, apply in sections, blend wrists, ankles, knees and elbows, wait to dry before dressing, sleep in it, rinse the guide colour off in the morning.

Drops night: moisturise as normal, with drops mixed in. Wash your hands. Sleep. The colour develops overnight while the moisturiser does its usual work, and you wake up with the depth you counted in.

Which should you choose?

Choose mousse if you tan rarely and want maximum depth for a single occasion.

Choose drops if you tan regularly, care how your skin feels, or have ever binned a mousse because of the smell, the streaks or the faff. You can see the colour people build with them on our real results page, and every bottle of Oleyra Tanning Drops is covered by a 60 day money-back guarantee, so trying the switch carries no risk beyond the postage.