Walking through your local Boots I bet you've been spotting more & more tattoo reviving products lately. It's 2017 and tattoos are widely accepted - just as much as mini skirts and bikini. People wear them proudly on display and even many work places are much more acceptant of them that they were a decade ago (unless you have stars adorning your whole face like that lady in the Daily Mail the other day, we haven't come that far yet). Having a tattoo (or two, or hundred even) doesn't end with you sitting in a salon for a couple of hours and then coming out with bandages that comes off after a couple of days revealing your new art piece. Tattooed skin requires just as much as care as the skin on your face does. And this is where tattoo reviving products come in play - they are essentially just REALLY good moisturisers with properties that bring out the true colours of the ink that's under your skin. Here's a selection of top 4 tattoo revivers as chosen by Shaun (who's got a whole sleeve to test them on!).
WHICH TATTOO REVIVING PRODUCTS SHOULD I TRY?
✒️ L'Oreal Men Expert Tattooed Skin Reviver (£7.99, Boots - buy it here)
Due to its large size (200ml) L'Oreal Tattooed Skin Reviver is more of an all over the body moisturiser which helps in reviving tattoos that have been on your skin for at least a couple of years. It's none sticky and soaks in almost immediately leaving the colours of your tattoo slightly more vibrant. Without putting the product down it does act very similarly to the ever so popular vaseline (which works great on maintenance of tattoos!) yet it comes without the stickiness, greasiness and has a very pleasant subtle aftershave scent to it. If you're looking for an affordable maintenance reviver which will bring out the colours of your old tattoos then this might be it!
✒️ Balea Tattoo (ca £2, available at DM drugstores)
On the extremely affordable side of tattoo reviving spectrum sits Balea Tattoo. This product can be used for both healing & maintenance as it includes a crucial healing ingredient - 4% of panthenol. It also contains almond oil and shea butter oil which help with re-hydration of dry skin. This is a great and super affordable product which is however more suitable for women than men as it can leave a slightly sticky residue on long hairs (it's just not all that amazing for the Big Foot and other generally hairy blokes, sorry!).
✒️ Skinfix Inked Tattoo Balm ($18.99, soon to be available in Boots - browse their range here)
Skinfix comes at you from the opposite side of the spectrum - it's slightly costlier but has a ton of ingredients the two products we've just spoken about can only dream of. This balm is suitable for both healing and maintenance as it contains a medicated ingredient allantoin (0.5%) which is used to treat or prevent dry, rough, scaly, itchy skin and even minor skin irritations. Rice extract, rosemary extract, sunflower seed oil, shea butter, coconut oil, orange peel extract and jojoba oil area all ingredients that contribute to the healing process but also re-hydrate skin whilst bringing out faded ink colours. If you're having visible problems with your tattoo (flakes, irregular fading etc) or you're having a new tattoo done and your skin is not great at healing then this might be one to consider. You can read more about this product here.
✒️ Baldwin Moisturising Lotion & Nourishing Cream ($24 and $29, Dead Sea Minerals Cosmetics - buy it here)
As I've already mentioned tattoo reviving creams, lotions and balms are essentially moisturisers. If you simply can't get your hands on any of these products, not even vaseline, then a simple moisturiser is much better than nothing at all. You might have read about Baldwin moisturisers in Shaun's skin routine post - and no word of a lie they are still his favourite moisturisers in the world! Both moisturisers contain allantoin (that healing ingredient I mentioned above) and a range of natural ingredients (from Argan oil to Dead Sea minerals and algae extracts) which are suitable for both healing and maintenance of not just skin in general but also tattoos. These moisturisers make your skin ever so soft to touch & their scent fools you into thinking you're smelling a very luxurious aftershave! I can't see Shaun ever going off these moisturisers - he's on the 4th tube already (says a man who used to have a full armoury of Clinique skincare, fact)!
Have you (or your other half) tried any tattoo reviving products?
Which ones have worked for & which ones haven't?
I've heard Lush makes a nice one but Shaun's yet to try it!
💠Some of these products were given to Shaun for testing (thank you!) - all his recommendations are based on thorough testing on his own sleeve for over the period of 6 months.
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