What is fake tan?
We all love it.. I’m literally fake tans biggest fan, but how does it work, and why is it so hard to get off your skin!?
Inside every bottle of tan is a substance called Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) which is a carbohydrate that leads the skin to change colour.. DHA reacts with the oxygen in the air and the amino acids, in the dead skin cells in the top layer of your skin, causing it to darken gradually through a natural chemical reaction.. so the higher the DHA percentage in the tan formula the darker the tan will be, along with a few other factors.
It seeps into that top layer of skin and once that chemical reaction has took place your tan will stay until you shed that top layer of skin, which can take diffrent amounts of time and can occur quicker in some areas of the body then others, hence why we end up patchy!
The best way to get fake tan off is to make the skin as dry as possible that way it will shed quicker..
Keeping it moisturised will help keep your tan locked in for as long as possible but once the body naturally starts to shed the dead skin cells away that’s when you should stop the moisturiser and start to exfoliate as much as possible, take long soaks in the bath and scrub!
There are a few tips to help try to remove fake tan fast..
Exfoliating body washes along with exfoliating gloves! Scrubbing away all those dead skin cells that have been tanned!
Go for a quick swim! Chlorine helps speed the shedding process up.. so the chlorine helps to loosen the skin cells once your out the pool get ready to exfoliate!
Lemon juice is a popular one.. the Lemon juice acts like a bleaching agent and removes the dark pigmentation formed on the skin after having a spray tan.. but lemon juice can be harsh on the skin and sometimes cause irritation so it’s only good to use this on really stubborn areas..
Mixing it with sugar to make an exfoliating scrub is also helpful and easier to use rather then just the juice alone, and one step better is to use your exfoliating gloves also!
This is a good tip for those orange knees and ankles!
Another good one that I like to use.. especially on my hands is bicarbonate soda and coconut oil mixed together to make a paste, rub it onto the hands and then run under warm water.
All in all.. get showering get scrubbing, buy some lemons and some bicarb haha!
Waiting for tan to shed off is just one of those annoying parts of having a spray tan.. but trying the above steps and doing them consistently will defo speed up the process!!