#1 Dermatologist Recommended: A Clinician’s Guide to Self-Tanning

Abstract

Skin tanning is an evolving area of focus for dermatologists. For hundreds of years, fair skin was socially preferred. That is until Coco Chanel returned from the French Riviera in 1923 sporting a sun-tan. Since then, tanned skin has become a booming industry. As the perception of tanning evolved, so did the methods to attain it. Today, skin tanning is achieved by: outdoor UV tanning, indoor UV tanning, spray-tanning, or cosmetic self-tanning products. Dermatologists counsel against UV tanning, as UV exposure is correlated with increased risks of both melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. The question that remains to be investigated is the skin safety of self-tanning products. In this review, 20 products were chosen from five major U.S. retailers (Walmart, CVS, Sephora, Ulta, and Amazon). The product ingredients were then analyzed for skin safety. The resulting data suggests that there is no major difference in the number of ingredients that have been deemed safe by the major U.S. cosmetic regulatory bodies among the products, and that cosmetic products are likely getting safer every year. Therefore, clinicians should focus on application counseling and reiterate FDA guidelines by discouraging spray- tanning and tanning pills.