What is Spray Tanning?

As a safer alternative to baking in the sun for 10 hours a day (which is certainly the case), spray tanning is becoming more popular today. All over film , television, and certainly in the streets of Los Angeles, there’s a fake bake, an alien orange shimmer of a spray tan. 

Spray tanning is a method of self tanning (or sunless tanning) in which you spray a fine mist on your body. This mist has an ingredient called Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) in it that interacts with the chemistry of your own skin to make it tan, or bronze. If bread is toasted and potatoes are roasted, the chemical reaction is similar. The amino acids on the skin surface react with DHA which results in tanning. Depending on several factors, the tan from DHA lasts from 3-10 days.

Also, the spray may contain erythrulose, derived from red raspberries. Tanning products together use DHA and erythrulose to ensure that the tan lasts longer and fades better and creates the skin’s appealing color.

Today’s best self-tanners use DHA and dihydroxyacetone as their active ingredient. DHA is a simple carbohydrate, specifically C3H6O3, and is typically obtained from plant sources such as sugarcane or sugar beets, or from glycerol fermentation. DHA isn’t a coloration, but rather causes a chemical response to the death layer of your skin with the amino acids on top. When you brown a piece of bread in the toaster or roast potatoes in the oven to a crispy brown, you witness this same chemical reaction (called a “Maillard reaction”). The effect of DHA lasts for 3-10 days, and spray tanners are also frequently enabled to increase their effect with erythrulose, another simple carbohydrate that works only slowly, like DHA.

DHA is approved for cosmetic use by the FDA and is regarded as being non-toxic and non-carcinogenic. However, DHA has not been licensed for inhalation, so it may be difficult for you not to inhale the fine mist as it coats your body-including your face. Forget the spray tan entirely to be on the safe side before the FDA confirms that DHA is indeed safe to inhale. This summer, if you’re on darker skin, spray tanning is a better alternative to sunbathing – and there are ways to reduce the chance of DHA inhalation.

• People with sensitive skin can respond with a case of self-tanner contact dermatitis; if this fits you, please check out a small skin patch before doing the full frontal.
• Don’t go to the “automated” tanner spray booths, where self-tanner streams fire at a shower stand. Instead, see a qualified spray tanner who can use an air gun to keep the spray away from your eyes, mouth and nose for most of the tanning session.
• Make your booking at a place specializing in spray tans. The smaller, shoddier stores are more likely to use tanners with smaller scents, less effective tanner tanners like tyrosine or canthaxanthin. Ask what kind of self-tanner the shop uses when in doubt, and do your own research.
• Wear lip balm, earplugs, and nose plugs during your tan. When your face is touched by the air brusher, she will advise you to hold your breath-do so for as long as you can with your lips squeezed together and your eyes closed. Otherwise, you could ask her to skip your entire head and only use bronzer for the next week to suit your face to the body. After your spray session, some people encourage you to wear goggles; but making “goggle-lines” is definitely not your idea of a sexy tan.
• Your skin is highly susceptible to free-radical sunlight damage for the first 24 hours after your spray tan, so remain indoors or slather on the PF.

The alternative to all this trouble is to learn how to love your body as it is, not how you have been convinced by consumer culture that it needs to be. Beauty comes in all shapes , sizes and colors, and it is a beauty secret that gives you a greater mojo than any fake baking ever could to learn how to be confident on your own skin, whatever shade you might be.