The slimming effects of a hint of colour on the skin have not been lost on us. It’s undoubtedly the reason we stay up for that extra half an hour a couple of times a week, painstakingly buffing skin with all manner of tints, and why we’ll easily overlook the dirty tinge that lingers on our side of the bed that no amount of hot-washing can erase.
But whether it’s the subtle contour affected by a well-blended daub of Tom Ford’s Shade & Illuminate palette, £55 or the all-over trimming effect of a head-to-toe glow – faux or from that 5-day Ibiza retreat, we had never anticipated that bronzing, albeit super bespoke, could result in the illusion of sculpted pilates-honed muscles, or even imitate Gwyneth Paltrow’s sugar-gluten-wheat-and-everything-else-free diet abs.
But then, as one of the beauty industry’s best kept secrets – and hidden treasures – we’d never encountered Amanda Harrington before.
With a tanning technique like no other – there’s not a whiff of biscuit, an airbrush gun nor even tanning mitt in sight – Amanda has spent the last decade contouring, shading and seamlessly blending custom-made tints onto some of the most famous bodies in the world. Using nothing but her hands and a variety of tightly-packed bristle brushes which she sweeps in a variety of motions over the body, Amanda works a bespoke blend of lotions, creams and tints into the skin. She starts with a skin-mimicking foundation-like base and tops with deeper shades concentrated onto areas of natural shadow and muscle-tone to streamline and sculpt; even subtly contouring the face for those who don’t naturally boast Kate Moss-esque cheekbones.
But for all the clever contouring trickery, and multi-dimensional tan tones, Amanda’s tan is far-and-beyond the most hyper-natural we’ve yet to discover from within the confines of a treatment room.
And luckily, that treatment room is now open to the public, as the Amanda Harrington Bespoke Body Contouring system launches in Harrods’ Urban Retreat this month.
Amanda Harrington Bespoke Bronzing, Urban Retreat, Harrods, from £60 for 30 minute standing Bits on Show tan, or £110 for 60 minute lying down Full Body.