Review: Dr. Denese Self Tanning Gloves

Every summer I attempt to find a sunless tanner. I'll buy a bottle of something, use it once or twice, Husband will complain about the smell, I'll whine about the streaks and wear pants for a week, and the bottle will sit unused in the bathroom closet until I replace it with my next purchase.

I've been interested in trying tanning towels for a while now. The idea is simple: rather than a spray or foam in a bottle, the tanning formula is on a towel (like a moist towelette). You rub it on yourself and presto - a pretty summer glow.

After researching different brands and reading customer reviews, I ordered Dr. Denese Glow Younger 12-ct Pro-Peptide SelfTanning Gloves (*whew* That's a mouthful!) from QVC (see here). QVC has a nice 30 return policy on anything (cosmetics included) so I figured if I absolutely hated the towels, I could return them and only be out the shipping (which would be the equivalent of the towels I had used). Mathematically it made sense and since the gloves were the Today's Special Value, they were marked down almost $10. Score!

The towels arrived on Wednesday night. My first dilemma: do I use the towels now, during the week or do I wait until the weekend where I can hide out in the house for two days if a self tanning disaster occurred? I figured, "What the heck?" and decided to go for it.

The glove itself is pretty straightforward to use and there are even instructions on how to apply on the package. The recommendation is to start on your legs, when you get to your torso, turn the glove over and do your upper body. Then turn the glove inside out and do your face and neck.

A note regarding smell: there is none...initially. After a few hours that same fake tanning smell set in, but it wasn't overwhelming (i.e. Husband was able to stay in the same room as me. Usually he's very sensitive to cosmetic smells). The next morning after I showered, the smell was gone.

I took some before and after pictures for comparison. The pictures were taken exactly 24 hours apart in the same lighting and I'm even wearing the same clothes! Look at me with my little controlled environment for my experiment - I should be a scientist!

Here's my leg (before and after, respectively):

Here's my arm (before and after, respectively):

Here's my face (before and after, respectively):

And here's a full body shot (before and after, respectively):

In addition to Dr Denese's tips for applying, I took even more caution. I showered first and exfoliated like a mofo! When I started on my legs, I ran the towel along each of my calves and my thigh once before I started to rub it in. I didn't want too much formula to collect on one particular limb. Then once I had covered my calves and thighs, I went back and did my knees and ankles. I did the same thing with my arms, saving my elbows for last.

It was with tremendous trepidation that I used the tan towel on my face. I can wear pants to cover leg splotches, but it's too warm now for a ski mask and it wouldn't be court appropriate anyway. By the time you get to your face and turn the towel inside out, the towel is just about dry so not too much formula is left. I basically have a nice warm glow - like I used a bronzer.

It's subtle, but it's also natural. My skin tends to get really red (you can tell in the before pictures), but not because I'm sunburned. I just have a rosy undertone to my skin. Several people commented today that I looked like I had been in the sun. I was actually really impressed with the coverage and I ended up with only a few blotches (on my wrist and I knew this was going to happen because it always does. You wash your hands and end up with a line of demarkation! ARG!) I wore some bracelets today to cover up the line and nobody noticed!

The auto-delivery plan at QVC is set for every 60 days. With 12 towels per order, that suggests that I should use one every 5 days. That will take me to Sunday so I'll be interested to see how much of my tan is left by then or will I have to reinvent the wheel every time I use these things.

One negative I will note is that it was difficult to keep the glove on my hand. It kept sliding around as I was running it over my skin. A bit of elastic on the end would have been nice to help keep it in place. I didn't find this to be such an enormous flaw that I wouldn't use these or order these again.

Day 2: While stepping out of the shower this morning, I noticed some "tan" rubbing off on my nice white towels. Whoops! Better dust off the older towels for next time. The tan is holding up nicely. I think my biggest enemy is going to be dry skin so I'm moisturizing like nobody's business. It still looks really natural too. I would say that as the towel dries, it deposits less of the formula on your skin. I did my stomach last and it is significantly lighter than the rest of my body (that may also be because it started out significantly lighter). Just something to consider - when I reapply on Sunday, I'm going to do my stomach first and my arms second when I get to my upper body.

Day 3: The tan is definitely starting to fade, but seems to be doing so naturally. No flaking or peeling leaving me looking like a tiger (i.e. orange streaks). I'm supposed to reapply every 5 days but I'm going to reapply tonight (at the end of 4 days) to see what it looks like to try to "build" a tan.

Overall I'm impressed and I'd recommend these to anyone looking for a natural and safe summer tan!

Queen Songs of the Week: Drowse, I'm In Love With My Car, and Other Songs in 6/8 Time

Ah did you think I'd forgotten about the Queen Song of the Day? No, no sillies - I could never forget about my Queen boys...er...my boys in Queen.

Occasionally, two of my three latest obsessions converge and create absolute greatness. For example, shopping for running gear. Or running while listening to Queen music. Here, we have what can only be described as the Obsessions Trifecta - Queen related things that can be purchased for use during running. Did your head just explode? Yeah, I thought so.

I go through periods of running with and without music. Sometimes the thought of not taking my iPhone with me is absolutely horrific and just as often the thought of bringing it along makes me ill. After running in silence through the fall of 2009, I started bringing the iPhone with me again around Christmas-time fully stocked with Queen and Roger Taylor solo songs.

As I ran, I began to notice that there were a few songs that naturally seemed to mimic my pace. This is crucial when running - if the tempo of a song is too fast or too slow, your body tries to compensate and you end up going the wrong pace. For an easy run, my recommended pace is about 11:30 per mile. Sure, that seems slow, but the point of an easy run is that it's...well...easy. So I trot off for 5 miles or so at a 11:30 per mile pace and the idea is come race time, I'll be able to run much faster (this does actually work - I ran my last 10K at a pace of about 10:30 per mile and I never do my training runs that fast).

Anyway, I digress. So some of these songs were naturally mimicking my pace. The songs were Drowse and I'm In Love With My Car. They soon became my favorite easy run songs and when I felt myself getting a little carried away with my pace, I'd put one of these two songs on to get myself back on track. In the interest of full disclosure, yes both of these songs are written and sung by RT; however, I felt pretty confident that this wasn't the reason why I so enjoyed running to these songs (because I've got his solo songs on my workout mix and didn't feel the same way about them).

Onto the songs, which are actually both two of my favorite and the impetus for me checking out RT's solo stuff.

Drowse is from the album A Day at the Races, originally released in 1976. RT wrote and sang lead on this song. The lyrics of Drowse are especially strong (especially for RT) as they reflect on youth and better days lost. Dr. May plays the slide guitar but RT tackles the rhythm guitar, drums, and vocals on his own. I especially like the two segments of this song with the first two verses sung in a high falsetto and then a more rock end of the song. Unfortunately, this is not a song that RT performs live (even way back in the day) - I would love to hear his interpretation of this song now (and made a special request that he play it in the question I submitted via the Queen Online website a few weeks ago). *fingers crossed!*

I'm In Love With My Car is from the album A Night at the Opera, originally released in 1975. RT wrote and sang lead on this song which to this day remains a favorite for him to play in concert. Originally when RT pitched this song, Dr. May thought he was joking. RT so much liked this song that he alledgedly threatened to lock himself in a cupboard until Freddie Mercury agreed to make it the B side to Bohemian Rhapsody. This song is a perfect example of RT as a songwriter: growling (almost shouting) vocals mixed with high notes (using both falsetto and his chest voice), great drums (which he manages to play while singing!), and tell-it-like-it-is lyrics ("Told my girl I had to forget her. I'd rather buy me a new carburetor.")

This song is also a great reflection of the fact that RT's voice remains in top form to this day. This version of the song is from the Queen Rock Montreal Blu Ray filmed in 1981. This version is from the Queen + Paul Rodgers 2008 tour. Recorded 27 years apart and RT's voice still sounds just like it did when he first recorded the song in 1976. (And for anyone interested in bloopers - check out this version. Poor RT forgets the words and Freddie Mercury has to help him out.)

Back to the trifecta...

I did a little bit of research and discovered that they are both written in 6/8 time. Now I know absolutely nothing about music, but I have at times in my life had flashes of musical brilliance regarding beat. I subconsciously pick up on things like whether the song's time is unusual or different when most people just listen to the song itself. 6/8 time is relatively unusual for a rock band to use, but, for some reason, it really worked for Queen and quite a few of their songs were written in 6/8 time. So armed with this information, I can now shop for more Queen songs written in 6/8 time that I can use for running!

Other 6/8 Queen songs:
A Winter's Tale
Somebody to Love
We are the Champions (I refuse to link this. You've all heard it.)
Millionaire Waltz (some portions)

I own some of these but am very much looking forward to purchasing the rest. The obsessions trifecta indeed!

Happy Listening!
and
Happy Running!
and
Happy Shopping!

Queen Song of the Week: '39

One of the really unusual things about Queen is that despite having who many would consider the greatest frontman of all time, they recorded several songs where other band members took over on lead vocals. Throughout the 1970s, RT sang most of the songs that he wrote, but Dr. May sang far less of his compositions (likely because he wrote many more songs than RT did!)

This week, the Queen Song of the Week is '39 from A Night at the Opera, written and sung by Dr. May. '39 was chronologically Queen's 39th song and was released as a B side to You're My Best Friend in 1975.

I will admit I heard this song many times, usually in the background to real life, and never thought twice about it. Then I saw this particular video. Because Dr. May sings this song, Queen has been able to replicate it relatively accurately in concert since it was written. The band would come to the front of the stage, gather around a few microphones and sing together while Dr. May sat and played guitar. This video really caught my attention because it taps into the sad (even haunting) mood of the song by linking together live performances spanning 30 years. That means, performances with Freddie Mercury and more recently performances without him. Really beautifully done. Also take note of RT's ridiculously high notes (I'd say singing but it is really more of a shriek, isn't it?) at both the beginning and the bridge of the song. At the very end of the video, poor RT throw his tambourine into the air, but doesn't catch it, so it hits him in the face. Adorable!

To hear a genuine live version of '39 (unfortunately with no video) sung by Freddie Mercury and including live falsetto by RT, check out this version from the Queen: Live Killers album. I remember once reading an article where RT commented that people thought that his falsetto had been overdubbed in the studio so for one entire tour, he went ahead and sang all the high parts to show that he really could hit all those notes. Unfortunately I can't find the article right now, but the search continues!

Dr. May wrote this song about a man who goes into space to search for a better world. When he returns, he discovers that time has passed for him much more slowly than it did on Earth and now he's approximately the same age as his grandchildren. Twilight Zone buffs (like me) will appreciate this storyline which is rather similiar to one of my favorite episodes. Perhaps that's why I have a particular appreciation of this song.

According to the band, the musical arrangement of this song is a bit of a "sci-fi folk song" (I can't recall if RT or Dr. May said that, but it's from Classic Albums: A Night at the Opera - Part 1 available here or the entire documentary for sale here). Regardless of who said it, the description is absolutely perfect. Dr. May's guitar is the focal instrument with RT playing only the bass drum and tambourine and John Deacon playing minimal bass. This allows additional emphasis on the harmonies which are absolutely stunning, especially in the last two repeats of the chorus.

Despite the song not being released as a single and not being a typical "Queen" song, it is very much a fan favorite at concerts with Dr. May encouraging the crowd to sing along. It's really amazing to watch the videos of live performances where Dr. May stops singing but the crowd continues on without him. What a great atmosphere!

Happy Listening!