Regardless of the time of year, a healthy, sun-kissed glow can really improve your look. At-home sunless tanning can often be tricky, especially if you have fair skin. In fact, most pale-skinned women often avoid sunless tanners completely because of the dreaded orange tint.

The truth is that there are plenty of self-tanning products that are great for pale or fair skin. The trick is to know what to look for in a sunless tanner formula so that you end up with a natural glow.

Tips for Choosing the Right Sunless Tanner

Go Slow

Because your skin is so light, you never want to go for a dark tanning product right away. It's much better to err on the side of caution, which means you should build up your tan slowly so that it looks natural. Remember that you can always switch to a deeper tanning product after you've built up a good base of color.

Try a Mousse

Tanning foams and mousses make it easier to control how much you're applying, and they dry quickly so that it's easier to tell how deep your color will look.

Consider Your Undertones

Even though you'll be covering your skin with color, you need to consider the undertones of your complexion when deciding on a sunless tanner. If you have a naturally warm, reddish skin tone, be careful with any red-based tanning products.

These can accentuate the redness and make you look more orange than you'd like. For yellow or olive skin tones, products that have a slightly green base may be best. Don't worry about this.

The green is undetectable in the formula and will only leave you with a sun-kissed appearance that looks natural with your skin tone instead of too coppery or orange. 

Look For Skin-loving Formulas

You know that baking in the sun can leave your skin parched and rough, but a poorly formulated self tanner can do the same thing. Top-quality self-tanning products will be formulated with moisturizing ingredients to counter any of the dehydrating effects of the color so that your skin doesn't feel taut or itchy after application. You can also try Sunless Tanning Lotion if you like.

The Best Sunless Tanners for Pale Skin

Now that you understand a little more about what to look for in a self tanner, you may still feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available on the market.

To help make your search easier, this section will highlight a few of the best products for tanning pale or fair skin.

B.Tan Sweet Sunset Vibes

This product is particularly great for anyone who is new to applying sunless tanning products. It's a light, gradual tanning mousse, which means that it's quite forgiving if you happen to miss a spot.

The bottle says that it's suitable for all skin tones, but it's ideal for anyone with pale skin because it can be built up slowly with daily use. The color gives a "sweet, sun-kissed glow," so you won't go from being pasty to unnaturally dark.

This is an incredibly affordable formula as well, and you can seamlessly transition to B.Tan Cosmic Candy Glow if you want to work your way up to a medium-depth tan.

MineTan Original Olive

Having pale skin doesn't necessarily mean that your ivory white. Women with yellow or olive undertones can be pale and want a deeper tan as well. Finding the correct sunless tanner can be a little more difficult for these skin tones because of the tendency for many formulas to pull orange or brassy.

To combat this, it's important to find a quality product that has a green base. The best self tanner for pale skin with yellow undertones is MineTan Original Olive. It's the same convenient and nourishing mousse formula, but it has just enough olive tone in it to make sure that your tan is a gorgeous, flattering bronze shade.

The entire MineTan mousse line is also free from the unappealing "fake tan" odor that other brands have, so you don't have to worry about the smell giving away your secret to beautifully tanned skin.

Go from Fair to Fabulous This Season

Everyone deserves the opportunity to experience a beautiful, confidence-boosting glow without the worry of UV damage. Whether your skin is ghostly pale or just a bit too fair for your liking, sunless tanner is a perfect and safe option.

When you choose the right product for your skin tone, you can achieve a gorgeous and natural-looking tan in no time.