Karoline Leavitt's Fake Tan Fails Are Hard To Look At

We can't fault Karoline Leavitt for being a fake tan fan. A spray tan or at-home bottled product is far safer than exposing your skin to the sun or tanning beds, and the correct product applied the right way can leave your skin glowing, your body looking more toned, and you feeling more confident. But faux tan can be harder than it looks to get right. That's something these celebs know too well, as they had major fake tan fails that left us cringing.

Unfortunately, Leavitt, who's made a common beauty blunder, has fallen into the faux tan fail category a few times too. We've noticed a handful of occasions where she should have read our beginner's guide to all the types of self-tanner while using a more comprehensive application technique and a product with a more natural-looking color. From pale hands, to a muddy face, and almost everything in between, these faux pas are hard to look at.

Look closely at Karoline Leavitt's right arm around special assistant to the president and White House director of media affairs Sonny Joy Nelson, and you'll notice it's a totally different color to the rest of her body, suggesting she may have missed it while applying her faux tan. Forgetting areas is seriously easy to do, so we'd have recommended she use a tan with a guide color so it's easier to spot where she missed.

Karoline Leavitt forgetting her inner arm while tanning is a regular occurrence, because she did the same thing in 2021. In a Facebook photo showing her posing next to a car, her inner, right arm was around two shades lighter than the rest of her body. In addition to a self-tan with a guide color, Leavitt would've benefitted from using a large tanning mitt — like Bondi Sands' Self-Tanning Mitt or St. Tropez Double-Sided Luxe Velvet Applicator Mitt — in circular motions over her whole arm to cover more surface area.

Karoline Leavitt shared a gorgeous family photo on Instagram in 2022, but we barely noticed her kin over her loud tan. The shade was unnaturally orange and she stood out (sadly, not in a good way) as she posed next to her mom. The political figure's tan would have looked obvious if she'd used a product with a green or purple undertone, such as St. Tropez Self Tan Suprême Violet Bronzing Mousse or b.tan Violet Base Self Tanner Mousse, which can neutralize orange hues.

In early 2025, Karoline Leavitt experienced a common fake tan fail at the White House when her hands were far lighter than her face and neck. That usually happens because we wash our hands more regularly than the rest of our body. In Leavitt's case, it was made more obvious because she'd seemingly matched her foundation to her tan. To sidestep this mishap, she could have re-applied a thin layer over her hands or opted for a lighter foundation knowing the only body parts showing were her hands and face.

Karoline Leavitt clearly didn't learn her lesson about ensuring her whole body is the same color, because she made the same mistake a couple of months later. That time, it was obvious where her tan had rubbed off during an appearance at the White House, as her arms and face were bronzed but the backs of her hands weren't. Applying a gradual tan product after washing her hands would help maintain the color without looking streaky, while avoiding soaking her hands would've helped the color stick around longer.

When Karoline Leavitt attended a Holiday event at the White House in 2020, we couldn't see past her distractingly deep tan. The color was way too dark and looked out of place at Christmas, while making her arms and decolletage appear leathery and muddy over bronzed and glowy. The deep hue may have been the result of her applying too many layers or because she choose a product that was too intense. Of course, there's nothing wrong with being tan in winter, but dark products are better saved for summer.

In 2022, Karoline Leavitt shared Instagram photos of herself working inside the White House, but it was hard to ignore how muddy her face tan looked. The controversial figure's orange hue gave us president Donald Trump vibes because it looked seriously unnatural. More comprehensive exfoliation could have stopped her tan clinging to the wrong places, while using face-specific tanning products, such as St. Tropez Self Tan Purity Face Mist or Coco & Eve Antioxidant Face Tanning Micromist, may have given her a more subtle glow.

Karoline Leavitt's face color didn't match her body again in 2022, but that time she had the opposite issue. While posing outside the White House with her parents, Leavitt's legs and arms were tan, but her face was not. Her likely mistake? Applying a dark product without matching her makeup to it. We'd suggest keeping at least two shades of foundation on hand (one lighter and one a shade or two darker) so you can mix and match to get the perfect tone while tan.