Easy Tanning

Being Irish and fair skinned beyond belief, I of course get a sun burn at the mere thought of going out into the sun. When I was a teenager, I literally burned so badly that I had blisters on my shoulders several times. So, couple that with learning that sun exposure, especially burning to that extreme, is a major contributor to skin cancer and I was looking for something that would help me look tan without the health side effects. I finally decided to try airbrush tanning after hearing about it several times.

I was probably in high school when the self tanners made the big splash onto the scene. I tried those, but the early days left something to be desired. I ended up looking like an Oompa Loompa from Willy Wonka on several occasions. You could always tell which poor souls tried this method because their knee caps and hands were stained orange, and you could see the streaks from a mile away. The only good thing was that none of the products at the time really worked, so if you tried one and ended up looking all orange you weren’t going to be alone. While it was a good idea (and still is), there certainly were kinks that needed to be worked out.

Before my wedding, I upgraded to a department store brand and thought that maybe things had changed. This was before the advent of airbrush tanning, so this was the best option. Let’s just say that luckily I tried this a few weeks before my wedding so that there was enough time for the orange and streaks to wear off. It seems as if the people that need these products most – the pale and pasty – are the ones that can’t use them because of the orange side effects. I’ve seen some people using them to just achieve a more bronzed look, and they look perfectly fine. Not so in my case.

Finally, a year ago I tried airbrush tanning using a gift certificate to a local spa. I will never ever use another tanning product again, and I don’t feel the need to go out into the sun unprotected to achieve a sun kissed glow. Sure, airbrush tanning has its drawbacks, like that it only lasts about two weeks or so, but if you ever have a special event or are willing to drop the money regularly, airbrush tanning is leaps and bounds above self applied self tanners.