The Middletan: Kate Middleton has the most requested tan in London

For someone so photographed, Kate has the perfect skin tone to counteract those unforgiving flash bulbs.
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Emma McCarthy24 May 2012

There are a few hot topics of conversation that surround Kate Middleton — her healthy appetite for high-street fashion, her eternally glossy, frizz-free locks, her lithe physique — but one element of her ever-refined look that’s proving even more consistent than the Richard Ward blow-dries or the frequent trips to Reiss is her lightly tanned and glowing skin.

Far from the fake bakes and tangerine tones of the WAG pack and TOWIE’s inner circle, the Middletan — as it has been coined by beauty buffs — has given bronzing the royal seal of approval.

Top tanning firm LDN:SKINS, which runs 1,000 booths across the UK, has reported that 70 per cent of all female customers are now requesting this softer spray tan.

“For years, women have opted for level four, the Jordan-style dark tan, in the booths but, in the wake of Kate regularly showing off her shapely bronzed pins, level two is now the colour of choice,” says the brand’s UK representative, Lena White. “More and more of our clients have told us they want to emulate the Duchess of Cambridge’s radiant skin tone and have requested the more subtle tan.”

Now considered the quintessential British look for 2012, the Middletan is about achieving a sun-kissed, rather than sun-drenched, tone that replaces the long-standing trend for coating the skin with layers of tropical colour. “Kate’s tan tone looks very jet-set,” continues White, “as if she has just returned from a European weekend break, not a two-week holiday where she tried to go as dark as possible.”

“Refreshed”, “well-rested” and “luminous” are the new terms associated with London’s most in-demand tan, available at salon’s such as Daniel Galvin in Marylebone. And this consistently biscuit-beige shade certainly has numerous advantages for the new Mrs Windsor. Aside from being the ideal shade for a host of rich jewel tones such as jade, turquoise and sapphire — consistently favoured by the duchess — the tan has also become a must-have for brides-to-be everywhere since Kate and Pippa both showed off their honeyed skin beneath their ivory Sarah Burton creations. For these relentlessly photographed women, helpfully, the tone — also known as the “complexion tan” — helps to counteract the washed-out effects of the paparazzi’s flash bulbs. So, their demure fashion choices aside, the Middletons ensure that when they do flash the flesh there isn’t a pasty limb in sight.

Never mind the only way is Essex — when it comes to tanning this summer, the only way is Middletan.

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