Not fresh

Since the Jersey Shore season finale last week, my Thursday nights – okay, all of my nights – feel dark and gloomy. Do I miss the fist pumping, body bumping, tanning-bed-humping cast of the MTV reality show? A little. Do I miss the warm, beachy season in which the show took place and constantly reminded me of? A lot.

Thankfully, I’m smart enough to know that Snooki’s aspiration for world tanning (she’d like to change the world by “putting tanning beds in everybody’s homes”) is a surefire way to increase the globe’s skin cancer risk by 75%. Even more thankfully, Whitney Port, MTV’s other loveable reality star, shared her secret to dewy summer skin in the off season in an interview with Kelly Gould back in November, and it didn’t involve baking in a coffin. What it did involve was High Noon by Fresh, a lightweight liquid bronzer that has finally taken the ho-hum out of my winter.

Founded in the early 90s, the Fresh brand pioneered the use of basic natural ingredients like sugar and milk in personal care products. Since then, the brand has gone on to market the benefits of more innovative ones. The High Noon’s sun kissing formula incorporates pomegranate extract, peony root, lotus flower, meadowfoam seed oil, cucumber extract and vitamins A, C and E. The bronzer is also free of silicones, sulfates, synthetic fragrances, and bedazzled Ed Hardy t-shirts.

Totally fresh

High Noon’s only shade is a medium golden beige tint with subtle shimmer. It’s substantial enough to pick you up in the winter and show you off in the summer. The liquid feels lightweight but offers more coverage than most tinted moisturizers. To tone down the coverage and the color, mix some of your favorite moisturizer in before you apply.

You can apply High Noon under your makeup as a sunkissed primer, dab it over your makeup as a glowing highlighter or alone for an equally bronzed effect. There is no SPF, so don’t forget your sunscreen.

One ounce of High Noon Freshface Glow retails for $36.

Photos: MTV, fresh