Selena Gomez opens up about infamous fake tan mishap after she was accused of 'blackfishing'

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By Nika Shakhnazarova

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Selena Gomez has opened up about her infamous fake tan disaster at the 2018 Met Gala.

The singer, 29, explained that she was "completely orange" by the time she realized her tanning lotion had darkened, leaving her mortified.

Ahead of the annual bash, themed "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination," Gomez was getting ready in her custom gown and decided to "add some color" to her look, she told Vogue.

"We put on some of this tanning lotion and it looked really beautiful and very even," she said, adding: "As the evening kept going on, it's getting a little darker and darker and I didn't notice it."

When she arrived at the red carpet, which she described as "one of the most prestige, beautiful events," she said she was too preoccupied trying to "look all beautiful" on the red carpet to do a status check on the self-tanner.

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Credit: Sipa US / Alamy

Only when Gomez sat down at her table inside of The Metropolitan Museum of Art did she finally have a moment to do a once-over of the photographs paparazzi had taken moments prior.

"I look at a photo of myself when I sit down, and I'm completely orange," she recalled. "I was like, 'This is going to be terrible because I'm going to get eaten alive about this.'"

The red-carpet photos did lead to a round of memes and online jokes.

"My first reaction was just to get the hell out of there. I'm running to my car and I'm literally hauling ass to get to my car," she explained.

Gomez posted the video on Instagram and disabled comments, captioning it: "Me when I saw my pictures from MET."

It wasn't long before fans and critics alike took to social media to slam Gomez over her look, with some even accusing her of doing "blackface".

"Hahahahaha Selena Gomez honors black culture at met gala 2018," wrote one Twitter user.

Another added: "Why is Selena Gomez using being black as an outfit for #metgala? She is unnaturally dark in every single picture that’s been taken. Like she went and got darkened for some reason."

A third tweeted: "That's a tan? no babe, Selena Gomez met gala 2018 was a tan, that's just blackface your fave did."

Featured image credit: Sipa US / Alamy