When Mississippi marketing director Sara Trent reached for her usual self-tanning bottle, she had no idea the morning would greet her with a shocking green face. Trent, 30, from Tupelo, learned the hard way that even a common beauty ritual can turn into a horror story if you fall asleep mid-process.
Trent, eager for a bronzed glow, applied her tanner with plans to wash it off after the recommended one-hour development time. But life had other plans. “I just closed my eyes for a quick rest,” she said, “and woke up eight hours later—terrified.” Her reflection didn’t show a bronze glow but rather a deep, dark shade of green that seemed to mock her from the mirror.
“I was like, oh my God,” she told Caters. “I ran to the mirror, and I saw what it looked like. I was about to have a panic attack because it doesn’t normally look like that.” With humor and disbelief, she documented her predicament on TikTok, her face bearing an uncanny resemblance to something from a Halloween costume.
“I wanted to remember this forever—to remind myself, never fall asleep with a self-tanner on,” she said in her video post. The viral clip quickly resonated with viewers, who shared their own beauty blunders and sympathized with her plight. Others were simply curious, wondering what had caused the dramatic color change.
Though self-tanners typically warn users not to exceed the one-hour application time, extended use can produce a more intense—and sometimes unexpected—color payoff. The unique mix of ingredients in self-tanners, including DHA (dihydroxyacetone), reacts with proteins on the skin’s surface to create a tan, but prolonged exposure can occasionally result in colors that are far from the intended golden brown.
To her relief, a shower managed to undo the green tint—though not without effort. “It did shower off for the most part,” she said, “but I had to rinse twice.” Trent’s cautionary tale now lives online, reminding users everywhere to stick to the instructions on the bottle.
Her humorous handling of the situation won her a fanbase on TikTok and demonstrated a light-hearted side of beauty routines gone awry. With a laugh, she reflects, “Lesson learned! Always set an alarm, or you might end up glowing green.”
Trent’s story reminds us that even in a world of picture-perfect beauty trends, mishaps happen—and a bit of humor is often the best remedy.
