'Fake tan emergency' ruins first day of school for teen

"Now of course she has orange hands on her first day back."

As students attended school this week for the first day of 2025, thousands of Aussie homes were abuzz with preparations.

But one Sydney teen was doing something that might not be considered 'traditional' back to school prep, such as making her lunch and packing her school bag.

She was applying fake tan to her legs... for the first time ever... completely unsupervised.

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"Fake tan emergency"

Unfortunately, the girl's mum had no experience with fake tan removal, so when she discovered her daughter's stained orange hands and splotchy legs the first morning of term, she took to an online parenting group, desperately seeking solutions for her "fake tan emergency."

“My grade 8 child starts school today and unbeknownst to me tried some fake tan on her legs unsupervised,” she wrote.

“Now of course she has orange palms on her first day back. Does anyone have any tried and tested remedies for removing it asap please?”

Posted in the early hours of Thursday morning, the teen and her mum didn’t have time to head to the shops and needed at-home remedies, so users were quick to suggest their own tried and tested techniques, including olive oil, lemon juice, and Windex. 

Yep, you read that right - the glass cleaner. 

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One commenter shared a TikTok video, which showed how Windex could quickly remove fake tan.

In the video, the creator had under an hour to remove fake tan from her hands before an event. After a few sprays of the product onto her hands, she let it sit for a minute, and the results were almost immediate. 

“This is not perfect but it’s way better… so much better,” she said. 

According to the original Facebook post, the teen tried the Windex solution and it worked for her. However, this time she applied a solution under her mum's supervision!

(And of course, we don't recommend using Windex for anything other than its stated purpose.)

Image: iStock

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The young student is certainly not the only person to be caught out with fake tan application.

This mum with large boobs left an impression with her fake tan, and this mum was slammed for breastfeeding and using fake tan.

But this mum wins, with the cutest consequence of fake tan gone wrong that we've ever seen.

Originally published as 'Fake tan emergency' ruins first day of school for teen