If you are anything like us, you will want your spray tan to last as long as possible.
There’s nothing better than being sprayed every week with a fresh spray tan. That’s why you want your tan to last at least a week, but you also want it to fade evenly and come off easily.
At Tropicoco beauty salon, we avoid sunbed tanning salons at all costs, and so do our customers. That’s because we don’t want to worry about the risk of skin cancer and premature ageing when we can have a safe and quick spray tan each week. Just like a tan from the sun or sunbed tanning salons, your spray tan will fade when your skin regenerates itself and the old skin cells fall off to reveal your paler skin beneath.
Ingredients
Every spray tan solution will have different ingredients inside it, and it’s these ingredients that will have the biggest impact on how long your spray tan will last. When you hit your local spray tanning salon, ask your spray tan therapist if the spray tan solution the salon uses has alcohol as an ingredient. Although we’re partial to a Bellini or four, alcohol is not good for your spray tan. Alcohol is very drying for the skin, and it can therefore irritate your skin leaving it unbearably itchy. Not only will the drying effect of alcohol make your tan look cracked or ‘scaly’, the need to scratch your itchy skin will make the tan come off.
A good spray tanning salon will also know that their spray tanning solution needs to have good moisturising ingredients inside. A good example of this is Moroccan Tan, a premium brand with Moroccan oil in it, well known for its moisturising qualities.
A good quality brand of spray tan solution will also use premium DHA. DHA is the prime ingredient in spray tans, it’s what turns you that glorious bronze colour, but if you use a cheap brand you could end up orange. A premium quality spray tan brand will apply brown and stay brown for the duration of the week, but a cheap one will be brown on application, but gradually change to an orange hue after a few days.
The Therapist
An inexperienced spray tan therapist and spray tan customer might be under the misconception that the more layers of spray tan applied to the skin, the darker it will be. The truth is that although your spray tanner may be charging you double the price for two layers, you might be a slight bit darker than usual, but your tan will look cracked in the first few days.
This is because of DHA overload, let’s explain; Once DHA is applied to the skin, it reacts and turns the top layer of your skin brown, but DHA isn’t designed to react with another layer of DHA, therefore it doesn’t make any difference to the depth of colour. Instead, you should ask your spray tanning salon to give you a higher percentage spray tan. This way you can get the colour you desire without feeling wet and sticky with all those layers of spray tan on.
What you can do to prolong your spray tan
Ex-foliate
Exfoliating before your spray tan makes sure the dead skin cells that are about to slide off your body come off before your spray tan is applied. If you don’t ex-foliate you risk the spray tan solution lying on your tanned dead skin cells and shedding a few days later. Ex-foliating with a mitt or face cloth is best.
Moisturise
One of the biggest spray tanning companies in the world, St. Tropez, have discovered that Aloe Vera moisturisers are best for prolonging your spray tan. They also recommend that you should avoid using oily moisturisers as oil strips tan off your skin.
You will probably have more luck finding the right moisturiser in a store that has lots of choices such as House of Fraser or Debenhams.
Water
Quick showers are best when you want your spray tan to last, but long showers and baths are best when you want them off. Do you know how easy it is to clean dishes once they’ve been soaked in warm water for a lengthy period? Well, the same thing happens when you go for a long bath after a spray tan. Bathing in hot, soapy water will soften your skin and make your spray tan easier to rub off.
After you’ve been in for a shower, make sure you pat dry with a towel rather than rub dry. Rubbing dry with a towel will exfoliate your skin and cause the spray tan to come off more easily.