Mystic Tan: The Future Of Sunless Tanning
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Later, Laughlin became more consumer oriented while working for Schering-Plough, which is when he realized there was a need for technology to coat people with sunless tanners.

But all he had in October of 1995 was the idea and Troy Cooper's interest in it. Nothing further may have developed if, in October of 1996, Johnson & Johnson had not announced pending cutbacks and offered attractive packages to induce employees to leave. Recalling the event, Laughlin said, "If I am going to go down, at least I am going to go down in style."

In November of 1996, Cooper, now President of PBT, contracted with Laughlin to develop the world's first sunless tanning machine.

On January 31, 1997, Laughlin left the corporate world with the full support of his family to found Laughlin Products, Inc. His daughter Anne assumed the responsibility of Product Development Manager.

Just two months later, in March of 1997, Laughlin's wife Darline was the first person to get a sunless tan from the hand-held Wild Thing, the prototype for the Mystic Tan. While the Wild Thing could evenly coat a person in twenty seconds, Cooper wanted the process to be completely private, which required automation.

The first fully automated unit, The Bride, was tanning volunteers in October of 1997. The mere seven month delay belies the many obstacles that had to be overcome.

Laughlin "developed and filed patents for new methods and devices for coating the entire human body with a thin film of atomized solution in a matter of seconds" and "utilized microprocessor controls to integrate pneumatic, hydraulic, and electrical systems to perform the robotic-type functions required for automated coating."

"I call it Beam me up, Scotty technology," Laughlin said.

The first commercial unit, The Real Thing, went into operation in April of 1998 at the Preston Road location of PBT.

Customer number one, at four in the afternoon that day, is still a regular. "At this point, I estimate that we have tanned about 700 different customers for a total of about 3000 applications," says Laughlin.

Working underground, Laughlin did not inform his colleagues about his invention until June, 1998. In September of 1998 the second unit, Misty, went into operation at the Valley Road location of PBT.

Photographs courtesy of Mist-On Systems, Inc. All photographs are the property of Mist-On Systems, Inc. and cannot be used without permission.