Truth About Tanning Accelerators
So, do you have to have a tanning accelerator to tan? Are they worth the investment (because lets face it they can be very expensive)? This article is intended to parse fact and fiction about tanning accelerators.
Basically, you get a tan when your skin produces melanin to protect yourself from UV rays. If you do not produce enough melanin to protect yourself, you get a sunburn instead. Tanning accelerators are used to help speed up the process so that you spend less time tanning.
The actual ingredients you should look for in your tanning lotion are Psoralen and Tyrosin. These two things are actually amino acids that speed up your bodies’ production of melanin.
So, do you need a tanning accelerator? No, you do not actually NEED any tanning lotion. But, just speaking for myself, tanning lotions do make a huge difference in the speed in which I tan and even the color of my tan. I am actually fair skinned. Tanning lotions with accelerators make my color more brown and less red.
Strangely enough, you can actually buy tanning pills that contain these amino acids. These vitamins supposedly help your body produce the melanin that makes you tan. The idea is that the vitamins just aid in the natural process of tanning. However, there are critics of tanning pills.
The best thing you can do is just to try the products for yourself to see if they work. Everyone’s biology is a little different, so what works for me may not work for you. My advice is to research ingredients and then find products with those ingredients. That way, you are not just buying the prettiest bottle or most expensive product and hoping that it works for you.