Sunless tanning

Sunless tanning: What you need to know.

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Sunless tanning is a practical alternative to sunbathing. Find out how sunless tanning products work, including possible risks and how to get the best results.

Don’t want to expose your skin to the sun’s damaging rays, but still want that sun-kissed glow? Consider trying sunless tanning products. Start by understanding how sunless tanning products work — and the importance of applying them carefully and correctly.

How do sunless tanning products work?

Sunless tanning products, also called self-tanners, can give your skin a tanned look without exposing it to harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays. Sunless tanning products are commonly sold as lotions and sprays you apply to your skin. Professional spray-on tanning also is available at many salons, spas and tanning businesses.

The active ingredient in most sunless tanning products is the color additive, dihydroxyacetone. When applied, dihydroxyacetone reacts with dead cells in the skin’s surface to temporarily darken the skin. The coloring typically wears off after a few days.

Sunless tanning products might or might not contain sunscreen. If a product does contain sunscreen, it will only be effective for a couple of hours. The color produced by the sunless tanning product won’t protect your skin from ultraviolet rays. If you spend time outdoors, sunscreen remains essential.

What about sunless tanning pills?

Sunless tanning pills, which typically contain the color additive canthaxanthin, are unsafe. When taken in large amounts, canthaxanthin can turn your skin orange or brown and cause hives, liver damage and impaired vision.

Is sunless tanning safe?

Topical sunless tanning products are generally considered safe alternatives to sunbathing, as long as they’re used as directed.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved dihydroxyacetone for external application to the skin. However, the FDA hasn’t approved the use of dihydroxyacetone for application to areas near the eyes, mouth or nose. If you’re using a sunless tanning lotion, it’s easy to avoid these areas. With spray tanning, this might be more difficult — since the product is usually applied to the whole body to ensure even color. Spray tanning might also cause you to inhale the product.

Further research is needed to determine the risks — if any — of this type of exposure. In the meantime, protect your eyes, mouth and nose when spray tanning and avoid inhaling the product. Be sure to wear goggles and nose plugs, and hold your breath while the spray is being applied.

What’s the best way to apply a sunless tanning lotion?

For best results, follow the package directions carefully. In general:

  • Exfoliate first. Before using a sunless tanning product, wash your skin to remove excess dead skin cells. Spend a little extra time exfoliating areas with thick skin, such as your knees, elbows and ankles.
  • Apply in sections. Massage the product into your skin in a circular motion. Apply the tanner to your body in sections, such as your arms, legs and torso. Wash your hands with soap and water after each section to avoid discoloring your palms. Lightly extend the product from your ankles to your feet and from your wrists to your hands.
  • Wipe joint areas. The knees, elbows and ankles tend to absorb more of sunless tanning products. To dilute the tanning effect in these areas, gently rub them with a damp towel.
  • Take time to dry. Wait to dress at least 10 minutes. Wear loose clothing and avoid sweating for three hours.

Easy, Natural Ways to Remove Facial Tanning.

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Homemade tips to get rid of sun tan.

 

 

self-tanning

Here are some of the most popular and effective home remedies and methods to remove that horrid sun tan.

You can apply these natural packs to get rid of the tan from your face, arms, hands, neck, back and feet the natural way. These age old home treatments need at least a week of regular use to obtain noticeable results against the tan and to get your natural colour back.

We tend to use fairness cream which contain bleach that are harmful to the skin in the long run and should be avoided.

– A mixture of lemon juice, rose water and cucumber juice should be applied on the face as a face pack. Lemon juice is citric acid that helps remove the tan and the cucumber and rose water are cooling agents.

– Mixing together some honey and lemon juice and applying it on the affected area can be one of the best anti tan pack mixtures.

– Preparing a paste of some raw milk, turmeric and some lemon juice. This mixture should then be applied on the skin and be allowed to remain till it dries up. Thereafter, it should be washed with some cool water.

– Prepare a mixture of oats and buttermilk. This mixture should be rubbed onto the tanned area as the oats will help in exfoliating the skin and on the other hand the butter milk is known to be extremely soothing for the skin.

– Mixing together some gram flour, lime juice and some curd on the affected area on a regular basis gives best results against tanning.

– Applying some fresh lemon juice and allowing it to remain for at least 15 minutes on the elbows, knees or patchy areas helps remove the tan and making it fair.

– A regular use of fresh coconut water on the hands and face is known to be very effective in getting rid of a tan as well as making the skin supple and soft.

– Aloe Vera gel is an excellent remedy for taking care of dark tans. It will lighten the skin in as little as a week, if applied everyday to the affected area. However, aloe has the property of making your skin photosynthetic and can darken it if you go out in the sun without sunscreen lotion. This makes it important to remember to use sunscreen every time you go out.

– A cream with equal parts of milk powder, lemon juice, honey and almond oil can be applied and left on for 20 minutes. This will help lighten your tan. You can store this for about a week and use it thrice daily for best results.

– Apply a paste made with turmeric powder and lime juice thrice a week. This will lighten the skin colour considerably and remove the tan.

– Soak almonds overnight and grind them into a fine paste the next morning. Add equal quantities of milk cream to the paste and apply on the affected area to make the skin fair.

– Apply a paste of oatmeal, yogurt, a few drops of lime and tomato juice. Wash this with cold water after half an hour and see the difference.

– Mash the papaya pulp and massage the sun tanned area. Papaya is excellent for the skin and also helps in anti-aging.

– Combining ash gourd juice with multan mitti and applying it all over the face helps reduce the tan considerably.

 

 

Sun tanning remains a perennial problem for us with a long summer season where the sun is harsh enough to wreck our facial skin, inducing dryness, rough patches and overall tanning. While over-the-counter creams and lotions can reduce the intensity of the tanning, they cannot remove it comprehensively. For those with sensitive skins where using such chemically-formulated products is not an option, tanning becomes an even bigger issue. Thus, it makes sense to get familiar with some easy and natural ways of removing sun tan.

Daily Anti-Tan Remedy

You can use various types of flours to make a daily anti-tanning face pack. Your choices include jao atta or flour of oats that exfoliates in the gentlest manner. A similar pack prepared Corn Flour helps to lighten the skin tone. Flour prepared from lentils or dals combines the anti-tanning actions explained above.

Weekly Anti-Tan Remedy

Prepare a natural anti-tanning face-pack cum scrub at home by mixing some sugar and essential oil like mustard oil. Add a few teaspoons of honey and mix the ingredients vigorously until they turn into a smooth-textured paste. Add a few drops of lemon juice and beat the ingredients with a spoon. This paste acts like a scrubber due to the presence of sugar crystals. Scrubbing helps to remove the outermost, i.e. dead and darker, layer of the skin. Presence of honey and lemon ensure that the scrubbing doesn’t cause any harm to the skin and vitamin C of lemon acts like an antiseptic, alleviating the dryness too. To counter the dryness, apply pure aloe vera gel to the face. Rub this lightly over your face and wash it off with lukewarm water. This is best done before retiring to bed at night.

Monthly Anti-Tan Remedy

To ensure that the skin-darkening effects of tanning are neutralized, you need to use a face pack aimed specifically at lightening your skin tone. The safest option in this niche is using a Turmeric & Sandal Wood pack. Both these ingredients are commonly found in many skin creams. Both are easily available in the powdered form. Just mix equal amounts of turmeric and sandal wood powder and mix them with some rose water. Keep this face pack on for at least 25 minutes.

Keep Away From Tanning Foods

This might be shocking for you but there are food items with established tanning properties. These food items are commonly used in skin-tanning aids used by the fair-skinned Europeans and Americans.

Egg Yolks—high in vitamin A and High-Density Lipoproteins, a higher yolk intake and application has been a skin tanning formula in the West for decades.

Carrots—they contain carotene that is formed of carotenoids. Most natural tanning aids retailed in the West mention carotenoids as the main ingredient underling its tanning potency.

Besides these natural anti-tanning remedies and precautions, the most basic and potent solution remains restricting your exposure to sunlight. Use everything at your disposal, including wearing anti-glares, covering yourself with an umbrella, chunni/dupatta or just walking in the shade to keep out the sun.