25-year-old Lucy Fowler had decided to go out that day, to enjoy the “nice weather” outside. “I wanted to wear shorts and a t-shirt,” she recalled. But moments after she finished getting ready, her chest “started to tighten.”
That was when she remembered that she’d used St. Tropez Instant Wash Off Face and Body Spray.
Lucy thought, simply, that maybe she had used too much of the spray and needed more air, even though the bathroom window was already open. When no relief came from the fresh air, she went into her bedroom to attempt avoiding the fumes, “but it was really bad. It felt like my chest was getting crushed and I couldn’t breathe.”
The taste of the beauty spray lingered in her mouth, and Lucy could even feel the product in her lungs. When her chest kept tightening, Lucy finally called for medical help. She was immediately rushed to the Nottingham University Hospital in an ambulance and given oxygen upon arrival.
As Lucy underwent tests and a chest X-ray, the hospital medics contacted St. Tropez to find out more about the chemicals within the St. Tropez fake tan spray.
Evidently, the spray had been recalled from stores almost three years earlier in response to other users who had reported that they experienced breathing difficulties after using the product. Lucy, however, claims that she had bought the item only a month prior, from a “high-street shop.”
After hospital medics discovered what ingredients and chemicals were present in the spray, they told Lucy that she “was very lucky to be alive” and kept her in the hospital to stabilize her condition.
It took Lucy weeks to fully recover from the incident. Now, she’s “scared of using anything like fake tan again. [She’s] even frightened of using deodorant at the moment.”
St. Tropez has said that Lucy’s incident is “isolated,” given the previous recall of the fake tan product, but the company has reissued a warning to its customers about the spray and is currently investigating how Lucy was able to purchase the item so recently.
