Team Marie Claire Beauty and I have a running joke that they've never actually seen my natural skin tone. The culprit, you ask? Self-tanner . I may be Italian and come from a family of gorgeous olive complexions, but somehow, that gene skipped right over me. Unless I decide to roast in the sun for eight hours—which, hi, beauty editor here, absolutely not—I'm incredibly fair. And while there's nothing wrong with embracing your natural skin tone, I've committed myself to a rather strict self-tanning routine to fake the glow the rest of my bloodline was blessed with. At this point, I'm pretty sure I've convinced everyone it's natural.

With a routine as dedicated as mine, though, there's one part I haven't quite mastered: the dreaded fading period. I'm talking patchy legs, uneven color , and a whole lot of scrubbing to get back to square one. No fun. My usual solution involves a super-rough exfoliating towel , which admittedly gets the job done, but also leaves me with seriously irritated, pissed-off skin.…