I have tried several times to sit down and write this guide and every time I do, I find it kinda overwhelms me and then I just need a minute.. So, sorry for the delay! Ya girl is emotional.

Firstly, I am so sorry to be leaving you, I never wanted it to happen this way. I always thought, one day when I moved on I’d be passing this knowledge on to someone I could train ‘hands on’ for as long as it took for them to be at least as good as me (hehe) so that I could be leaving you in capable hands. Unfortunately, it just hasn’t happened that way, but I didn’t want to leave you with nothing. So, I have put together this pretty extensive guide on what makes our tans the best. It is genuinely horrible for me personally to be just giving away all my tricks to anyone and everyone but at the end of the day I want you guys to be able to find new tanners and if that means you have to teach them a thing or two then I guess so be it.

I know a lot really comes down to the actual human doing the tanning, so remember that this is just a guide to a few of the more important factors that come in to play when I plan the perfect tan for you. What’s not covered in this guide – my personal skill, experience, my judgement of both what you say you want vs what I think you’re actually asking for, as well as exactly how much tan you personally need put where (based on your natural tan and your unique body and maybe even the outfit you’ve mentioned that has specific skin on show), as well as how comfortable you are with me/our rapport and vibe. Even if you cover all these below points, it still may take you some time to find a replacement for me… My ego wants that to be kinda hard for you, like I hope you feel that the vibe with me was unique, but genuinely I also hope you find someone you are comfortable with who ticks all (or enough) of your boxes to get your future tans.

Below I’ve highlighted some of the most important factors when finding the perfect tan. These are important things you should understand so that you can ask some questions before booking in and so you’ll be able to tell from their answers if they know what they’re talking about, or if maybe you should give that salon a miss.

Plastic Guns

We have always used the highest quality equipment. Quite a bit more expensive than most tanning machines/guns on the market (I’m talking almost 9-10x the price of some cheaper options I’ve seen), but I’m sure you’ll agree the quality of the end result speaks for itself. When a tanning gun (the handheld piece that you’re sprayed with) is cheaper- or made with plastic parts, the mist of tanning product will typically be a lot heavier than with a fully metal gun. And over a very short period of time, this plastic will degrade with wear, years and years faster than a metal piece. So normally, you know how when we’ve finished your tan, you can hardly see the tan on the surface of your skin? This is due to the very fine droplets/mist that the tan is applied with.

So- long story short– if they have plastic bits on their gun, you will likely see a plastic cup full of tan but especially if you see a plastic nozzle at the front- the droplets or mist of tan will likely be very heavy, and you will be very unlikely to get the perfect tan application you’re used to.

Exhausts

As you know, we have 6 exhausts in our tanning room. This firstly ensures that we are both comfortable during the treatment. Have you ever had a tan without exhausts? It’s like standing in a thick cloud or fog of tan, super uncomfortable! Not to mention standing for 12 hours in that fog tanning client after client! It also helps to minimise the amount of tan that settles on your skin accidently, meaning that the tan that lands on your skin is only the tan that I’ve planned to land on your skin. Picture when I’m spraying your face or your arms, the excess tan flows back into the exhausts as opposed to the majority falling onto lower parts of your body, leading to excess tan or pooling tan on your legs or feet.

So- long story short– If a salon doesn’t have exhausts or has insufficient exhausts in the tanning room, you know the experience will be uncomfortable and the end result is likely to be less perfect than usual, even if other factors are ok.

“Will I be really dark or really wet?”

This is a huge one. If you are a client of mine, you already know the answer – but this is a great question to ask a new salon! No, you should never be “wet” dripping in tan, or dirty/grubby looking. You shouldn’t even be able to see the tan on the surface of the skin. If your tan looks obvious right after application, it’s a good bet that it will still look obvious after washing it off (though to a slightly lesser degree). There are some exceptions to this, like if you’ve asked for a really really heavy application for some reason (stage/dance tans/performance products etc) but generally speaking, you should feel just slightly sticky after your tan. This feeling should only last about an hour and should feel similar to how you feel after moisturising. It shouldn’t feel gross, and you shouldn’t be looking in the mirror feeling like you’re being racially problematic or that you look like a completely different person.

You all already know how your tan should look and feel after application. If you find yourself leaving a salon super wet and dripping and sticky and way too dark, head to your nearest shower and wash the product off straight away! You might not end up as tanned as you wanted but at least you’ll minimise the damage of a terrible application.

Colour bases/ product percentages

We always kept a wide range of products stocked so there’s something for everyone and you wouldn’t need to compromise on what would work best for you. If a salon only offers 2-3 product options and they don’t have the perfect product for you, they will likely have you using something “close” to approximate what you want rather than say they just don’t have what you need. They may ‘suggest’ you use a rapid tan (a 1-2 hour tan) when you prefer an overnight tan because they don’t have a light enough product for you to wear overnight. Or, they may just tell you that rapid tans or a specific colour base (that they happen to stock) is “better”. Be aware of sweeping statements like these – tanning is not an exact art – what is “better” or perfect for one, will be worse for others. Everyone’s skin is different and will of course react differently. I’ve actually tanned several sets of twins/triplets over the years who still had slightly differing results from the same product and same application. There just is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to the skin or to tanning. Overnight (8hour) tans are typically better; you find these tans will usually last longer, fade more evenly and be overall more consistent and predictable with less room for error or variant. What you’re really doing when choosing a rapid tan, is choosing a product with a higher percentage DHA (the potential to go much darker than you’re wanting), and then washing it off before it has the chance to reach that potential. So you can probably see how this is a lot less exact, and how a salon can decide to stock 1 product and tell 5 clients 5 different things and get different results. Not knocking rapid tans though – rapid tanning can be super convenient if you’re a busy human with minimal time spare to sit still without messing up your tan, or if you have little humans or fur babies who require you pretty frequently, or if you’re like me a big sweater even in winter months haha. The important thing to remember is that the longer you can opt to wear the product the better/longer lasting the results and the less room for error. For example, if you can keep the tan on for 6 hours, that’s better than 4 hours, 4 hours is better than 2 and 2 is better than 1. But you must decide how long you can have the tan on before selecting a product so that you and your tanner can select the correct product for that wear time. Another big thing to remember is that a rapid tan will continue to develop after you shower. Some people assume they can get a tan at 4pm- wash it off at 6pm go out and be tanned ready to go! While this is the case for some, for most people, your tan will continue to develop for 1-2 days after your appointment (with majority of the colour present after 8-12 hours). But, again, everyone is different and we don’t know until we try. If you’re a regular tanner, and typically use an overnight tan, it can be helpful to try a rapid tan one week, just to see how you develop and see how much colour is visible at the time of your shower, so that you know if it will work next time you’re in a pinch. But it’s always better to tan 2 days before a big event (but 1 or 3 days is also usually ok).

Green and Purple based products are what I have the most experience working with, as they’ve been the highest standard in the industry for the decade that I’ve been tanning. However, clear, blue, brown and red based products also exist and advancements are being made with these colour bases becoming slowly more natural looking. The commonly held industry belief is that yellow based skin reacts better with purple based products and pink based skin reacts better with green based products. No one has purely pink or purely yellow based skin, we all have a bit of a mix so it is impossible to know exactly what will work until you try, even when it may seem obvious that you’re ‘more pink than yellow’ or vice versa. In my experience after 10 years of tanning, I have found that you will either suit one or the other better, but you’re always better to try a green first as someone who will end up suiting purple better will usually still look fine with the green (typically they will show up slightly lighter than we’re expecting so the risk is minimal with a green based tan) however, someone who is going to suit a green based tan better, will sometimes have a yellow tinge come through when using a purple based product, so personally I will only use a purple based tan on a client if they come to me saying they already know they prefer it, or if we have tried a green based product previously and not gotten the results we’re after.

So long story short- We stocked “Solaire spray tan”. In my research, they are clearly the best when it comes to quality and consistency and while other brands have products that suit ‘most’ (statistically speaking), Solaire really has products that suits ‘all’. We primarily used a green based product but always had purple options available. We had as light as a 9.5% and as dark as a 22% and 7 different shades in between for both colour bases. Overnight tans are generally better but there’s a time and place for rapid tans as long as you’re aware of the pitfalls. Any salon trying to sell you on a general sweeping statement as though it’s right for your skin is likely talking BS and a salon with less than 3-5 product options will be far less likely to have exactly what you want. Reach out to me ASAP if you want me to let you know exactly what colour base and what percentage we have used for your events in the past – I do have a record of every tan but I will likely not keep this forever now we are closing.

“Do you mix products?”

No. Just… No. Don’t mix products *face palms and shakes head* I’m not quite sure where this idea came from… maybe salons who do not have a wide enough range are trying to offer something to clients who need products they don’t stock? I’m not sure exactly… but this just has so many problems with it, I barely know where to start…

Plainly said, if a salon says they mix their products for whatever reason, this is a red flag. How are they going to ensure the same results for you next time when they’re mixing products in salon? Leave the formulation to the solution professionals and leave the tanning application to the spray tanning professionals.

Summary

Hopefully I’ve given you a great place to start looking for your next spray tanner and I truly wish you the best with your hunt! If you have specific questions or want to know what tan we have used in the past, or you want clarification on any of these things or something I haven’t covered please feel free to reach out ASAP. I will definitely hold on to my phone and my database etc for a while, but it doesn’t make sense for me to keep these forever.

Remember- take up the space, ask the questions, call their salon or send an email or text first and question them about these things and trust your gut! If something feels wrong or they are giving you some of the above red flags, or are not able to give you what you want even when you’ve clarified then simply leave. You are not obligated to book with someone just because you called them. If they cannot answer your questions satisfactorily, if they make you uncomfortable, or if they are not tanning you correctly, OR more importantly, if they make you feel like you’re too much or that you NEED them in order to be beautiful, then please please please do not keep giving them your money. You deserve to feel like the beauty that is you, regardless of whatever beauty treatments you choose to get. Any salon is lucky to have you and don’t you forget it! You know how things should look and feel so you know when things aren’t right

xxx big love and happy tanning

Tara