I like the look of a tan. I do not like the look of wrinkles. I also do not like donning shorts just after winter and showing off my lily-white legs. I always swear I am never buying another self-tanning product again, though. They never come out looking natural at all… until now. Dove actually surprised me with their Summer Glow by working better than anything else I’ve tried, and I was sorely disappointed in Nivea’s Summer Beauty.
In order to do a fair comparison, I decided to get really brave and apply the Dove Summer Glow to my left leg, and the Nivea Summer Beauty to my right leg. I could only hope that either they ended up close enough at the end result so nobody would notice, or that they would be sooo crappy that they would wash off in the shower. It turned out that in the darkness factor, they were pretty equal. Both tanners lay down a pretty good color. Not too orange at all, except for Nivea’s streaking factor…
Oh yes. If you do not get the Nivea Summer Beauty on just perfectly even, you will see it. Man, that sucks sooo bad. And I really did expect going in that Nivea would easily beat Dove’s Summer Glow. Oh how wrong I was. The Dove did not streak at all. So I have one leg nice and evenly tanned, and the other leg a bit streaky. Nice.
As far as consistency, the Dove is a thicker lotion making it easier to apply. Nivea is so thin it is almost like water coming out of the bottle. OK, I exaggerate… a little. But if you are not careful, you will squeeze way, way too much lotion out of that Nivea bottle.
Absorption is another area where the difference is massive. Dove’s Summer Glow was easily rubbed into the skin, while Nivea’s Summer Beauty took some real effort to get it to rub in. What a mess that was.
Lotion color should not be a factor in purchase of these things, but I am mentioning it just because… the Dove is a nice light tan coming out of the bottle, while the Nivea is a pure white. When I saw this, I began to lose faith in my usually beloved Nivea line. It turns out it does indeed tan you, but like I said: streaky.
Then there is the scent. The Dove Summer Glow has almost a floral scent to it. Very light and airy with no hint of that kinda burnt odor most self-tanners have. Here Nivea Summer Beauty stood head-to-head. No awful scent here either. It is also a nice floral scent, but a bit deeper. Both are very pleasant, actually.
Price comparison brings no difference whatsoever. They both run 50SEK, or about 7 Us dollars, so this was a very fair pair of products to compare. Both the Dove and the Nivea are very affordable products at that price for 250ml.
Packaging is also a toss-up. I do prefer the look of the Nivea Summer Beauty bottle over the Dove Summer glow, but when the end result is so drastic like with these two, I’ll go with the product performance over how it looks on the shelf in my bathroom.
Since these claim to both be moisturizing lotions as well as tanning lotions, let’s look at well that claim stacks up. the Nivea has Jojoba in it, which probably accounts for the nice scent, but what can I say. It ain’t Shea. The Dove has glycerine, not a bad hydrating agent but again it just ain’t Shea. So they both fall off the mark in this hydration and skin softening area. Don’t toss your body butters.
The Dove Summer Glow lasts indefinitely if you follow their instructions, which is to apply it 3 days in a row, then once or twice a week after that. I admit I quit using the Nivea due to the streaking so can not tell you if it holds up there… and really, you shouldn’t care since you are going to listen to me and buy the Dove Summer Glow anyway, right?
In spite of my own initial prejudice in favor of the Nivea Summer Beauty, it did not produce next to its competition. Dove’s Summer Glow won this test by a landslide. I sooooo hate streaky legs and runny lotions…
