Getting Color With Sunless Tanners
May 24 -- Rub it on. Rub it all over.
You can now get that bronze glow of summer from a cream, lotion or spray without baking under the sun's dangerous rays.
As the public has become more savvy about the sun's cancer-causing ultraviolet rays, spas and cosmetic companies are now offering products that give the illusion of a tan without the burn.
Indeed, sales of sunless tanning products through grocery, drug and mass merchandise stores totaled $83.7 million as of April this year, a 10.3 percent increase over a year ago, according to the market research service ACNielsen, in Schaumburg, Ill.
Gone is the unnatural orange of yesterday's sunless tanners. Cosmetic companies have fine-tuned their formulas to produce better results. (See sidebar.)
"It's the hottest accessory this season," says Donna Turro, director of Soho Sanctuary in New York City.
People with color are even considering it an option: At African-American-owned Visionaries Spa in Chicago, president Sheila Rashid says the firm does "quite a bit of body bronzing" for its clientele, 80 percent of whom are people of color.
How Do They Do It?
Sunless tanners work like hair dyes, explains says Dr. Bruce Robinson, a New York City dermatologist.
The key ingredient in the majority of products is a chemical called dihydroxyacetone. Dihydroxyacetone reacts with skin proteins to produce a brown coloring that looks like a tan. It colors the top layers of your skin.
The dye does not wash off. But it fades over a period of days, as skin is naturally sloughed off.
Sunless or self-tanners are different than "bronzers." Bronzers, which usually do not have sunscreens, are brush-on powders and tinted cosmetics, which come off with soap and water. Some bronzers, though, contain dihydroxyacetone.
Sunscreen Still Necessary
Dihydroxyacetone was approved by the Food and Drug administration in the 1970s, but was known for its properties years earlier.
Other approaches to chemical tanning have not fared as well as dihydroxyacetone. In the '50s, writer John Howard Griffin experimented with the chemical Psoralen as a tanning agent. Products today don't use this drug because it drastically increases susceptibility to UV light, which can lead to dangerous burns.
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