I am deeply impressed with Piz Buin’s Tan and Protect range. I have used loads of Piz Buin products before, including the amazing In Sun Ultra Light Spray which is an absolute cinch to apply. I’ll hold my hands up and admit to the fact that I like having a tan. It’s almost like swearing these days, to say that you like to sunbathe,  but I always take great care when I’m going into the sun. I can’t believe that people still don’t – that in this day and age, when great sun protection is readily (and cheaply) available, there are still people purposefully frying themselves into pink lobsters! It makes me cringe when I see people walking along with blistered shoulders and the sun still beating down on them..

 The thing about getting safe sun exposure is that it’s just a matter of using your common sense – using an appropriate SPF, not sitting out like a pleb when all of the Greek locals have retired to the shade of the Taverna, and not frying yourself day-in day-out all year round. (Obviously if you’re in the UK that last part will seem like wishful thinking!) Not sure whether you’ve applied enough sun tan lotion? Put some more on! Think that your chest might be burning? Get covered up! Now and again we all make mistakes and fall asleep after that lunchtime Rosé (has NEVER happened to me, ever) but as a general rule, none of us should be getting burnt.

Lecture over. As I was saying, I like having a light tan. I like sitting in the sun – it cheers me up, my skin looks healthy and glowing and I can feel that it’s giving me that vital Vitamin D that many of us are so deficient in these days. In a way, I suppose you could say that the tan itself is a by-product of my love for sitting in the sun; I’m not sure that I lie there with the sole purpose of making my skin browner. If somebody said that I could lie out there all day and I would never tan, then I think I’d still lie out! And lying-out I have been – firstly in my friends’ garden on the Isle of Wight where I went for a wedding this weekend, and secondly in my roof garden which has the advantage of not being overlooked. Except by helicopters, which do tend to linger. (Ha ha.)

During these “lying-out” periods I’ve been giving Piz Buin’s Tan Accelerating range a good, thorough testing. The products contain a tan-accelerating ingredient called Melitane which speeds up the natural tanning process so that you need to spend less time in the sun to achieve a beautiful (and safe) golden glow. I have been using the oil sprays in factor 30 and 15. They are so easy to apply – the oil spreads very easily, especially on warm skin, but there’s no greasy residue. They’re more of a dry oil, so there’s no slick finish, but there is quite a glamorous sheen left on the skin. It does feel a little odd to apply an oil, because I associate oils with people who really want to fry themselves and turn themselves into dark prunes, but these protected me well and I really think that they did give me a golden glow more quickly than a standard SPF lotion.

There are three levels of protection (all of them with effective UVA and UVB screens): 30, the standard SPF to go for if you’re unsure of your skin’s needs (better to be safe than sorry!); 15 for those who never burn and tan very easily, and 6 for my Dad. (Seriously, if I could turn back time and take a photo of what my Dad used to look like after our holidays to France.. I’m pretty sure he used olive oil, actually, but please don’t follow his lead, for obvious reasons!)

Piz Buin Tan & Protect sprays are £17.99 each from Boots.com but there’s always an offer on! At the moment I think it’s buy-one-get-one-free…