Tanning Lotions – Can They Produce a Good Tan?

Tanning lotions are a very popular type of product among the sunless tanning crowd – or, in other words, people who prefer to get their tans without exposing themselves to sunlight. If you’re new to this concept, it should be enough for you to know that the Sun’s UV rays are linked with various harmful conditions, including skin cancer.

Interestingly, the first sunless tanning product was actually a lotion – in 1960, Coppertone released Quick Tanning, the first lotion for artificial tanning. The product was successful, although compared to today’s products it was very ineffective – the color it produced wasn’t really natural, and fell more into the orange shades than the body’s natural color. Still, it was all people had for a while, and they used it.

Afterwards, cosmetic science caught on pretty quickly and the concept has evolved dramatically. Today, the market is full of lotion-based products for you to choose from, and if tanning is what you’re after, there’s definitely something for you out there.

DHA tanning lotions should be your starting point. Currently the most popular type of tanning lotions, DHA-based products work without actually applying any pigments to your skin. Instead, they act on the layer of dead skin cells on a chemical level, causing them to darken. This process is completely harmless to you, but it has one downside – because the tanning is done in the horny skin layer, it’s lost very quickly, as your body removes those cells on a daily basis. How fast it will happen exactly depends on you, but don’t expect to retain the tan for more than 7-10 days.

If you still want to get your tan in a semi-natural way, but don’t want to rely on UV rays entirely, there is a “middle ground” – tanning accelerators. Those are also available in lotion variants, and they increase your body’s melanin production (through an amino acid called tyrosine), thus enhancing the effects of any natural tanning you might be undergoing at the moment.

Take note though, tanning accelerators are only useful in combination with UV rays – using them on their own will likely have no effects on your tan, so it would be pointless. If you’re thinking of using such a product, you should spend some time to carefully plan your tanning, otherwise you might waste money for nothing.

More short-term solutions are available as well, in the form of bronzers – they normally give you a tan for a day or two. It doesn’t look quite as natural as DHA-based tanning, and it goes away as soon as you take a shower, but it can be great for single occasions.

If you’re going to tan yourself with a bronzer tanning lotion, make absolutely sure you know what you’re doing – or better, get a friend who’s already done it to help you. The reason for this is that bronzers can give you an orange hue which can be unattractive, so they should be applied carefully.