Sunless Indoor Tanning Products
There is a wide variety of sunless, indoor tanning products available today. There have been huge advancements made in the chemical formulas to give a more natural coloring. Now there are tanning pills, bronzers, and self-tanners. Many of these take time to apply and could be a few hours before achieving your desired tone.
Contained in indoor tanning lotions is the active ingredient dihyroxyacetone (DHA) which is a sugar that interacts with the dead skins cells on the surface of your epidermis. The reaction is a coloration of the dead skin cells. So the tan created is actually an external layering on top of your living cells. Since dead cells are constantly being discarded the tan eventually fades at the rate of dead cells being worn off your body. That’s why many product labels recommend reapplying the self-tanners every three days to maintain the tan.
An interesting self-tanning product is the tanning pill. It’s a simple concept of using canthaxanthin, a food
coloring agent and getting it into your skin through ingestion. However, as a food coloring agent in small quantities it is deemed safe by the FDA. But in larger quantities such as the pill it is not approved by the FDA to be used as a tanning agent and the side effects reported range from hepatitis to canthaxanthin retinopathy, a condition in which yellow deposits form in the retina of the eye.
Another self-tanner is the bronzer. It works much the same way as make-up for the body. Usually in powder or moisturizer form, it only gives you a tan as long as you don’t wash it off. A simple shower with body wash is enough to take it completely off.
And after a long day of showing off that sexy tone, who wouldn’t want to relax in a hot shower covered in your favorite lavender body wash from head to toe. The point is, bronzers are great for one day wears.
Even when using these products, remember to use a strong enough sunscreen to protect yourself if you will be outdoors. None of these products offer sun protection and with lotions, these are designed for indoor use and thus we tend to refer to them as indoor tanning lotions.
Filed Under self-tanners | 1 Comment
What is Tanning Lotion?
Do you even know what tanning lotion is? It seems to be the best treatment of PWC. Never heard of PWC? It’s a very serious condition for those of a particular ancestral line and stands for Pasty White Complex. Recently it’s been discovered that those who were fortunate enough to have skin tans naturally in the sun have a misunderstanding about tanning lotion.
It’s easy to mistaken tanning lotion with a sun block type product when in actuality it’s the other way around. Tanning lotion is not a sun block and offers zero protection from the sun. In fact, the purpose of tanning lotion is to increase your skins sensitivity to the ultraviolet rays which stimulates melanin production, thus, the name indoor tanning totion as most skins are required to stay indoors or risk over burning with the use of tanning lotion. For those people who have had cosmetic surgery face lifts, indoor tanning lotions are the only way to go since they can’t take in excessive UV rays for a while.
Many products also serve as a skin moisturizer, and why not when every skin could use more moistening. But it does not serve as a sun block. One person mentioned that everyone at the beach uses tanning lotion. No. Everyone at the beach may use sun block, if everyone at the beach used tanning lotions you might think a disease had gone viral eating at human skin.
So, to my non-Caucasian friends whose skin continuously produces melanin pigments, its understandable why you wouldn’t know exactly what tanning lotion does. But when white people ask what self-tanning solutions are good don’t make assumptions when you clearly never used a product or contributed to the bajillion dollar industry designed to take advantage of our western culture’s ridiculous obsession with tanned skin.
Filed Under indoor tanning lotion | 5 Comments
Selecting a Self-Tanning Lotion
Did you use a tanning lotion to get that healthy bronze tone? Then my next question would be which product you used. When I went to the pharmacy section at the market for self-tanning lotions, the number of choices was just overwhelming. Then you think you come online for information on what to look for in a tanning lotion only to learn that the available selection exploded exponentially.
So I figured the best way was to ask people what brands they use to become the envy of the party. Some people won’t admit that they use a self-tanner and get offended. What I’m learning is that more people are using sunless tanning lotions than ever. Usually it is just a slight tint in their skin so it looks hardly noticeable and very natural.
So how do you decide which product to use? It’s one of those products, so specific in its function and purpose that all the brands seem the same. Unlike acne skin care products, it’s not specific to skin type. There is no major variation in ingredients or production process. And by what criteria do you measure tanning lotions.
One thing I’ve learned is that new formulas don’t turn your skin orange anymore. Apparently manufacturers realized they don’t have to use as much of the same ingredient that turns your skin orange. Many tanning lotions are also designed to serve as skin moisturizer but I guess that just makes the selection process more complicated.
Filed Under Tanning Advice, self-tanners | 1 Comment
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