Years ago, long before I realized the harmful effects of the sun and fell in love with SPF, my holidays consisted of spending entire afternoons covered in oil at the beach. Yes, really. If you look up “roasting human turkey” in the dictionary, you’ll find me there. One day, after 4 more hours of sunbathing, I returned to the apartment to prepare dinner. When I took a shower, the skin on my chest peeled off cleanly with my hands. Lesson learned. Like many black women who love to tan, I still longed for the “healthy” (but not really healthy) glow I got from the sun, but I didn’t want to do it myself. I was no longer willing to risk my health. Sunless tanning products are now available.
In 2019, I wrote an article for British Vogue about my first experience tanning as a black woman. It was tanning expert Amanda Harrington’s body contouring skills that won her an impressive A-list clientele (she is known as the “Michelangelo of tanning”). The result was extraordinary: golden brown, delicious and even, and my confidence increased. I told myself at the time that this was the beginning of a lifelong relationship with spray tanning. I was wrong. I haven’t done that since. My options were frustratingly limited. Self-tanning products were either loaded with alcohol or simply weren’t compatible with deeper skin tones. I knew some black people who secretly used sunbeds. They knew the risks and were willing to take them, but I wasn’t. Five years later, the changes across the industry have been pretty amazing, from the evolution of how we think about tanning to the mass launch of beautifully formulated sunless tan products for all skin tones. With brands like Clarins, James Read, Isle of Paradise, Tan-Luxe and Vita Liberata leading the way, the message is being heard loud and clear. A huge number of consumers (yes, that includes black people) want to look tanned. Without the wrath of the sun or sunbeds.
Gemma Jones, brand trainer at Institut Esthederm, agrees that this accountability from the tanning industry is encouraging. For skin cancer. ”Nevertheless, Jones said, “there is, and likely will continue to be, a strong consumer-driven desire to look tanned, to have a tanned glow, to look healthier.” “I guess so,” he readily admits. As someone whose tanning booths have always had a diverse clientele, Isle of Paradise founder Jules von Hepp feels it’s “ridiculous” for brands to create products that exclude people of color. I did. “Unfortunately, this idea was originated in marketing campaigns by self-tan brands in the 1990s and 2000s, targeting only lighter skin tones. Today, TikTok and Gen Z are leaning into #BlackGirlTanning So it’s clear that the idea that self-tanners only apply to one skin tone is becoming obsolete.
Another appealing element of self-tanners is the old formulas that can dry out your skin. A new generation of all-encompassing self-tanning products are as good as skin care products as they focus on hydration. James Reid, one of the heavyweights in the tanning industry, recently launched his latest brand, Self Glow. To accommodate all skin tones, he avoided synthetic colorants and used cacao extract as a natural color guide. “This was discovered through years of testing on multiple people, including different ages, skin tones, and skin types. It naturally adapts to all skin tones, while removing ashy tones from the skin. , delivering a warm glow.” His moisturizing and whitening-biased ingredient list also includes hyaluronic acid, squalane, kakadu plum, vitamin E, and aloe vera, all unheard of in its predecessor. Probably. But Reid says it’s not just the formulation that needs to be reconsidered. If it was his fault, we wouldn’t use the word “tan” anymore. “The tanning trend is moving towards glowing and improving skin rather than physically altering or transforming the skin. This is the main reason why my brand is called Self Glow. Aspirations And the final product is all about the skin’s natural warmth and radiance, as opposed to changing the skin. ”
