Spray tanning is becoming more and more popular as people look for quick solutions to looking tanned and toned while maintaining their hectic schedules. For those of you still holding onto the memories of orange-tinted nightmares, read on..

A little History

In the beginning, companies over-promised tanning results just as good as a real suntan in only 5 minutes of your time. Sounded great, but was not very honest.

The truth was the lack of solution choices available meant everyone looked the same, but not very close to their normal colour. The process was very messy, with rooms getting filled with over-spray, and the 5 minutes was often a very uncomfortable 15-20 minutes, followed by 6-8 hours of waiting for the very sticky, very smelly solution to set while trying not get the colour on everything and everyone around you. And oh, that month-long promise of a golden, usually more orange than golden, glow usually became patchy within a week or so.

But things got better. A lot Better.

Despite a serious false start thanks to some, er, misleading promotions, the industry was lucky enough to recover. Thank goodness.

First, the equipment started getting a lot better. This meant the over-spray was dramatically reduced and the spraying time got faster. A good therapist with good equipment should be able to complete a great spray tan in under 10 minutes.

Next, firms started offering more solution options, from chocolate to bronzed to golden. Truth is, a spray tan will almost never look exactly like your real suntan. Of course, this has to be true for those people who cannot tan at all. But, nowadays it will be very very close. You will notice the difference, but most people will just think you have a very nice tan. Even better, the solutions can now often set in 1-2 hours, and are not so sticky with little to no noticable smell.

I wish I could tell you the spray tans last longer now, but, they still last about a week. This is unlikely to improve much more over time. The reason is the sun, or UV, penetrates quite deep, creating colour quite deep within in the layers of your skin. DHA on the other hand, can only penetrate so far into the skin. Of course it has to be this way. Our skin is a barrier to the outside world that needs to be kept out. On the bright side, solutions are now nicely balanced with a combination of cosmetic bronzers and DHA. Cosmetic bronzers gradually fade within 3-5 days, with the deeper penetrating DHA fading another 3-5 days after that. The benefits are a significant reduction in the patchy appearance as the layers of skin slowly exfolliate to the surface. Plus, we have tinted moisturisers that can be used to prolong the appearance of your spray tan, meaning you need not worry of embarrassing, sudden dramatic colour changes.