Sunless tanning is a type of tanning achieved by special chemical substances. These substances act one of two ways - they either force the skin to produce more melanin pigment or they saturate the dead skin cells of the epidermis (the outermost layer of skin) and color its proteins brown. Nowadays sunless tanning means are divided into 2 main categories.
Sunless tanning is a tan achieved by special chemical substances. These substances act one of two ways - they either force the skin to produce more melanin pigment or they saturate the dead skin cells of the epidermis (the outermost layer of skin) and color its proteins brown.
Nowadays sunless tanning means are divided into 2 main categories - external and internal means. External means (lotions etc.) use Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) as their active ingredient. In the 1970s Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) was added by the FDA to its list of safe cosmetic ingredients,
and it is still on that list. The internal means (tanning pills etc.) contain beta carotene or canthaxanthin - the ingredients which were banned by the FDA many years ago due to being unsafe.
The main advantages of sunless tanning include:
- You can achieve the tan in several hours after applying sunless tanner onto your skin. This eliminates the need of taking weeks or even months to achieve a nice tan.
- Modern sunless tanners give you a completely naturally looking tan. You just want to make sure (by reading what other users say) that the tan will be of a brown, and not orange-shade brown color.
- Sunless tanning will not give you tan lines - you can apply them in private all over your body.
- You will achieve a nice tan even if you are a person with fair skin due to which your skin does not produce much melanin (pigment that gives skin the pink, brown or black color)
- Sunless tan is a temporary tan - it will disappear in about a 5-7 day course of time.
There are people that are actually obsessed with their tan. They can not picture themselves without having a tan. If those people want to keep their skin looking younger for years to come they should opt to use sunless tanning instead of tanning in the sun.
What about people with psoriasis? Will they benefit or not from the use of sunless tanners?
There is no information about the sunless tanning helping to treat psoriasis. But there is information that some people with psoriasis say sunless tanning helps them to feel better about their skin and they started wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts in the summer. This happens due to that sunless tanning makes your skin brown which makes the red psoriatic lesions much less noticeable than if they were on a pale skin.
It is probably more comfortable to apply sunless tanning means with the use of special tanning towels saturated with the tanning lotion. After you wipe your body with such towels and rub the tanning lotion into your skin, the tan will start appearing in about 1 hour. First it may look red or orange. But within a few more hours the orange nuance should disappear and the tan will turn brown.
Scaly psoriatic lesions may also first appear orange but after you shower (in about 24 hours of the achieving of the tan) these scales will be gone.
You may want to shower right before you apply the tanning lotion because after applying of the lotion it is not recommended to take a shower or even to sweat (like with exercises) for about a 24 hour period.
Sunless tan will usually last for about 5-7 days and then disappear. Tiny remainders may stay for up to 2 weeks.
Most people with psoriasis that have tried sunless tanning did not experience any inflammation nor blocked or clogged pores. However, some people with psoriasis noticed that a sunless tanning lotion can block skin pores and dry up psoriatic scales, making them look flakier.
