Carroten is the Greek suncare brand built around one stubborn idea, the carrot, and this edit follows it from tan accelerators to no-sun self tanners. It ends on four body oils for glow that never needs a beach.
Carroten and the Coconut and Carrot Smell of a Greek Summer
Carroten is the smell of a Greek summer for a lot of people: coconut, warm skin and a little carrot somewhere underneath. The brand says it was born in Greece in the early 1980s with the carrot as its big idea, borrowing the vegetable's vitamin content and antioxidant reputation, and it now calls itself the number one suncare brand in its home country. Greece gets more than 250 sunny days a year, so a company there has had plenty of practice. I love a brand that picked one stubborn idea and kept it for forty years. Before the products, the boring and important part. The American Academy of Dermatology says a tan is a sign that your skin has been injured, and it points anyone who wants the look toward a self tanning product, with sunscreen still on top. Sunscreen stays on, every single time. The gels and oils in the first grid print SPF0 in their listings, so they are color helpers and nothing more. I have split this edit three ways: a tan accelerator for people who are going to be outside anyway, self tanners for the no-sun route, and body oils for glow with no sun at all. I went deeper on a related idea in Dolce&Gabbana Light Blue, Still the Smell of a Sicilian Summer.
The no-sun route
The no-sun route is where Carroten surprised me, because these are properly modern self tanners. The two mousses come with color-correcting bases, green to neutralize pink and red tones and violet to neutralize yellow and golden tones, which the brand says keeps the color away from orange. Both use DHA from plant sugar and are meant to be rinsed off after an hour or more, depending on how deep you want to go. The drops are the easiest of the four: a few into your moisturizer, or straight onto the face, with color developing over one to three hours. I like them under makeup. The gradual body butter is the slow one, with cocoa and shea butters and a little shimmer, and the brand says it doubles as a daily moisturizer. My tip is to exfoliate the day before, moisturize knees and elbows, and wash your palms as soon as you finish. If your skin is sensitive, test a small patch first, and remember that self tanner is not sunscreen, so sunscreen still goes on top.
Glow with nothing to rinse off
Moroccanoil Shimmering Body Oil blends argan, olive and avocado oils with pearlescent minerals, and it is the one I would hand a beginner. The brand's co-founder, Carmen Tal, first met argan oil at a Tel Aviv salon after a color process left her hair damaged, and the brand grew from that one treatment. Phlur Beach Skin smells like tiare blossom, bergamot, coconut milk and sandalwood, with a sheer golden shimmer and no glitter. Phlur started in 2014 as a digital-first fragrance brand from Eric and Cynthia Korman, and after The Center acquired it in 2021, Chriselle Lim became co-owner and creative director. The amika oil, I'm Glistening, carries oil-soluble vitamin C and papaya oil, and amika itself began in Brooklyn in 2007, its name meaning friend in Esperanto. Patrick Ta's Major Glow is a light mist with meadowfoam seed extract. What I would skip is treating any of these like a sun product before a day outside. None claims SPF, so sunscreen goes on first, and the oil is for the evening. A shimmer body oil looks best on collarbones, shoulders and shins.
Where I would start
Where I would start depends on what you want from the summer. If you are going to tan anyway, Carroten makes the accelerator, but I would reach for the self tanners first and keep sunscreen within arm's reach. If you just want the color, the mousse in your undertone or the drops are the gentlest entry. Then the oils, which are the party trick: a bare shoulder, a little shimmer, and nobody asks how you got it.
