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New Dragon Piers Linney with Kate Cotton and Louise Ferguson and their Skinny Tan models (Picture: File)

There was a showdown the Den when new Dragons Kelly Hoppen and Piers Linney took on the old guard to snap up the latest top tanning product.

Skinny Tan – a coconut scented self-tanner that aims to combat cellulite too – is already a success Down Under.

So when co-founders, and ex-pats, Kate Cotton and Louise Ferguson stepped into Dragons’ Den on Sunday offering 10 per cent of their business for a £60,000 investment to expand in the UK, all five of the entrepreneurs began fighting it out.

‘It was a surreal moment for us. We didn’t expect to get so many offers but it was probably the best feeling in the world,’ said Kate, 37.

‘We were excited by the fact that Piers and Kelly were both new Dragons and we could potentially be their first new investment.’

Before becoming mums, Kate worked for the company behind Skin Doctors and Naturopathic, Cat Media, in Australia looking after new product development, while Louise was an account executive at an advertising agency in Australia.

The pair knew they wanted to use their skills to build a business after having a family. Louise, 38, said: ‘There is pretty much no maternity pay in Australia, so if you want to have children you have to find some way to keep working.

‘We were both working freelance using our skillset after we had children so we decided to put those together to come up with a new business. I really don’t think we would have done this if we hadn’t had children.’

The ‘mumrepreneurs’ were both avid fans of fake tan and also using cellulite creams, but they found the two products didn’t work well together – and Skinny Tan was born.

The product is made with seeds of the Brassica napus plant so is unlikely to cause the dryness or irritation associated with chemical tanners, and because it’s designed and made in Australia not having that ‘Oompa Loompa’ look was imperitave.

‘They have a big tanning problem in Australia,’ said Louise. ‘Because of the Ozone Layer and the risk of skin cancer, there is lots of education around sunbathing and you will never catch an Aussie on Bondi Beach in the midday heat – it’s all tourists.

‘But it’s important in a country where people are used to constantly having a natural tan that any product looks real. It can’t look orange or make people look like Oompa Loompas.’

Skinny Tan is currently available online and the firm is in negotiations with retailers nationwide.