It’s totally the wrong time of year for this review, but I didn’t go on holiday until late September so even then it would have missed the boat a bit. For those of you going away to sunny climes over the Winter break, here is a way of rubbing it in even more. For those of you who won’t be going away until next Summer, it gives you chance to stash a couple of quid a month so you can buy this in June!

This Summer, the folks at Imedeen were kind enough to send me some of their Tan Optimizer to try. I have very pale skin that just doesn’t seem to tan, so I thought I was a fairly good test subject. Some people argue that everyone tans, but I promise you that for 26 years I’ve found it really difficult to get my skin to go any colour other than bright lobster red. I lie in the shade, I top up my SPF 50 every couple of hours, and still if I get any colour it’s pink to say the least. And don’t tell me to use a lower SPF, try sunbeds or ’sit in the sun for a bit to get used to it’. I don’t want cancer, kthnx.

So a product that tops up all the stuff in the body that encourages a tan seemed like it might be a good solution. Tan Optimizer isn’t a miracle formula, and to be honest, you could probably get the same result from feasting on tomatoes (for the lycopene), taking loads of multivitamins and so on, but this offers all that in one smallish daily capsule. You take the capsules for four weeks before your trip, continue taking them while you’re away, and then continue after you return to prelong the tan. The idea is that it “supports your skin’s own sun protection mechanism”. You’ll still need to use an SPF, but if you take it properly, you should get a more even, longer-lasting tan.

So did it work? Well, if you bear in mind that I didn’t really sit out in the sun much, but walked around a lot in desert heat of 30 degrees plus and didn’t burn at all, then yes it definitely did. I didn’t go St Tropez bronze, but that wasn’t my plan. On my return people actually commented that I’d picked up some colour – a miracle for me. Looking back on photos of the holiday, I can see that my arms in particular did indeed tan lightly, and that colour lasted a good few weeks after I got home. For me, this is worth £40. It may sound a lot but I spend that on a taxi to the airport without thinking twice. Protecting my skin for a fortnight is worth far more than that (because every bad sunburn increases the risk of skin cancer).

Imedeen Tan Optimizer £38.50 for 60 capsules (2 month supply)