Sunless Tanners – Safer

One reason I chose to offer sunless tanning products on TGR Body was personal. I laid out, went to tanning beds and never wore sunscreen or sunblock as a child or teen.

In my 20’s, when I got pregnant, the hormones and my previous sun damage had a war on my face: melasma. Melasma is a darkening of the skin. Which was exactly what I was shooting for when I was sun worshiping. The problem was, it was a blotchy darkening of the skin. Blotches on my cheeks, forehead and around my mouth.

I had it in my first pregnancy and even more pronounced in my second. And it didn’t go away after the births. I kept waiting. Then I started spending dough on over-the-counter creams. When that didn’t work, four years after my son’s birth, I plopped down some more dough and bought the pricey creams that finally faded those blotches. Except they can come back, which is why I am adamant about sunscreen use.

The other reason is that I interviewed several dermatologists for a skin cancer article I was hired to write. It wasn’t pretty. Every single doctor I spoke to – doctors who treat people for melanoma from sun exposure – was crazy in love with sunless tanners. They love the invention. Understanding they weren’t effective in fighting the beauty ideal which promotes a tan, they praised sunless tanners as the happy medium. The solution to a practical issue.

Girls, seriously, stop laying out and hitting the tanning beds. It’s dangerous. It feels good now and by virtue of youth, you think it won’t matter to you whether you have great skin when you’re over-the-hill at like 30. But, when you turn 30, you still care about your skin. You do. When you’re 60, you care. Mothers, promote sunless tanners and sunscreen. It’s a safer alternative.

Tracee Sioux is a Law of Attraction Coach at www.traceesioux.com.  She is the author of Love Distortion: Belle, Battered Codependent and Other Love Stories. Contact her at traceesioux@gmail.com.