Sunless Tanning: Facts And Myths
Page Two

Beta Carotene

This topic is now covered in great detail in Why Tanning Pills Don't Work.

Bronze Blast Drops

Bronze Blast Drops are a liquid product appearing under dozens of names in the airbrush tanning business: Intensity Drops, Bronze Blast Drops, Booster Blend, and so on. It is made by Biddiscombe Labs, which is based in Florida, U.S.A.

The premise of the product is: two to four drops, added to a sunless tanning solution used for airbrush tanning, will provide a darker, longer lasting tan. This claim is fine, so long as the product contains DHA or erythrulose, but it doesn't. It contains our old buddy, tyrosine, plus copper.

According to a Biddiscombe reseller, and a Biddiscombe employee, the ingredients in the product, copper and glucose tyrosinate, act on the skin to aid the formation of melanin!

But then wouldn't that be a drug? Isn't this company aware that the FDA has declared such products verboten?

If the claims were true, this product, used by itself on skin, should darken it. But it doesn't.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much of a company that markets indoor tanning lotions named Bitchen' and Napalm.

Copper is important to the skin, but it has nothing to do with melanogenesis.

This fraud of a product is sold for a high price, as much as $100 for two ounces. The airbrush tanning technicians who buy it are getting ripped off, and so are their customers, who are urged to fork over additional money for an "upgrade" to their airbrush tanning session.

Some airbrush tanning companies such as Fantasy Tan make a bronzer concentrate, also in drop form, which is used to darken the instant color or bronzer in a sunless tanning solution. These products are not related to the Bronze Blast Drops, and airbrush tanning clients are not charged additional money when bronzer concentrate is used.

Update: Since publishing this, I have received information from Biddiscombe that the Bronze Blast drops are a bronze concentrate, and provide an instant darker tan, but nothing else. It remains to be seen if their advertising copy and on-the-spot sales pitches follow suit.

Note: For an exhaustive article on the tyrosine scam, please see Why Tanning Pills Don't Work.

Canthaxanthin

Canthaxanthin is the classic tanning pill ingredient that you remember from those ads in comic books back in the 1970s. It's completely illegal to make or sell tanning pills based on Canthaxanthin. But why should that stop anyone when there is a buck to be made.

The dangers of these pills were academic to me until recently: I received an email from a woman who asked me about the ingredients of a pill that had been purchased in Mexico. I looked over the list of ingredients that she sent me, and sent an email back to her letting her know that she had purchased a variety of tanning pill, because Canthaxanthin was one of the ingredients. I sent her the list of possible side effects: liver damage, jaundice.

I was shocked to get an email back from her informing me they weren't her pills, but the pills of a friend who was in the hospital with what the doctors had diagnosed as hepatitis. She had been asked to go through his medication, where she found the illegal tanning pills, and was worried that they may have contributed to his illness.

She thanked me for giving her information crucial to her friend's recovery.

Tanning pills are no joke: they are banned for a reason.

This topic is now covered in great detail in Why Tanning Pills Don't Work.

Dihydroxyacetone

It's not unusual to read about the exciting new sunless tanning ingredient Dihydroxyacetone [or DHA]. But DHA is not new, although it's still exciting [to me, anyway].

Dihydroxyacetone works by reacting with the keratin protein in the top [or "dead"] layer of your skin. This is why the results are temporary; this outer layer of skin is continually sloughing off.

The DHA in your sunless tanner was refined from a vegetable source, most likely sugar beets or sugar cane.

Discovered to be a temporary skin coloring agent back in the 1920s, DHA was first sold in an over the counter sunless tanning product in 1960 as Coppertone Quick Tan, also known as QT.

In the 1970s the Food and Drug Administration added DHA to their list of approved cosmetic ingredients.

Then, in the late 1980s, the cosmetic companies found a way to produce better results [browner, less orange] with DHA. The secret: an improved refining process yielded higher quality, more predictable DHA.

Since then, DHA has been further improved, leading to the current explosion of products.

Deep Tan

This topic is now covered in great detail in Why Tanning Pills Don't Work.

EluSun

This topic is now covered in great detail in Why Tanning Pills Don't Work.

Erythrulose

The situation for erythrulose has changed dramatically since early 1999. It's appearing in more and more sunless tanning products, even drugstore brands such as Neutrogena Sunless Tanning Foam Deep and Extra Deep.

Manufacturers who use erythrulose along with DHA in their sunless tanning products include Clarins, Neutrogena, and Decleor.

What is erythrulose? According to the Pentapharm Ltd web site:

"Erythrulose is a ketose with the chemical property to perform a Maillard reaction with free primary or secondary amino groups of amino acids from keratin. This reaction leads to the formation of brownish colourod [sic] polymers called melanoids. Therefore, erythrulose was developed to work as a novel-skin tanning compound complementary to Dihydroxyacetone."

Those of you who have been studying for the sunless tanning quiz will feel a sense of deja vu because erythrulose does exactly the same thing as DHA or dihydroxyacetone.

Because erythrulose is so similar to DHA in form and function, an urgent question pops immediately to mind: would it be acceptable to make an erythrulose only sunless tanning product for people who are allergic to DHA [and there are lots of them]?

I finally got to test this theory, thanks to Fantasy Tan, who provided me with an erythrulose only formula. I used it for a period of time and learned that erythrulose alone is no picnic. It has to be applied every day, and it never gets terribly dark. But it does work.

The other question is: is erythrulose so dang similar to DHA that people allergic to DHA may have an allergic reaction to it, too? The answer to that seems to be yes, thanks to feedback from visitors to sunless.com. In our vast testing group of five people, one person with a DHA allergy also got a rash from erythrulose.

However, Fantasy Tan has been applying an erythrulose only formula, Just E, to hundreds of people who are allergic to DHA without any problems.

With sales of sunless tanners in the U.S. estimated to be $200 million this year, the small slice of that business for people who are allergic to DHA could add up to more than $20 million. Nothing to sneeze at.

So it is with great pleasure that I announce that Decleor has come out with a DHA free sunless tanner, Decleor Auto-Bronzant SPF 6 Self-Tanning Age Prevention Cream, available from Sephora.com. The active ingredients are erythrulose and Mahakanni. Unfortunately, its steep price tag, $35 for for 50 ml, makes it an impossible option for most.

Mahakanni

"Faking it without DHA" is the eye-catching headline at Campo Research.

So what product are they pitching?

"Mahakanni STLC is a self-tanning liposome concentrate which is transgenically cloned from the organically grown herb Eclipta alba. It brings about a natural tanning of the skin which is both natural looking and even. The tan also develops more quickly [three hours] and is longer lasting than DHA."

And wow. Look at all this scientific stuff they throw at you:

"When the sun's UV rays strike the skin, DNA welds together to form pyrimidine dimers which are snipped by excision repair enzymes. This repair process triggers melanocytes to synthesise melanin, the pigment that tans the skin naturally. Pyrimidine dimers containing pTpT [dithymidylic acid[1,2], a thymine dinucleotide] segments preferentially accumulate during the repair process."

"The sunless self tan milk contains pTpT, Lawsone and its sclero-derivatives, 2-hydroxy-1, 4-napthoquinone and eumelanin and its sclero-derivatives [a natural skin pigment cloned to the Eclipta alba herb's genes] as natural isolates extracted and reconstituted in Mahakanni STLC."

If I didn't know better, I would think that Campo Research wanted me to believe they are selling pTpT, a non FDA approved drug. But, oddly enough, the only sunless tanner available [Touch of Bali Mahakanni Self Tanner] which contains the wondrous Mahakanni also contains DHA. Why would it need to if Mahakanni is what it is said to be? I'm just going to step over it while holding my nose.

I emailed Campo Research three years ago and asked them to set me straight. They didn't respond. "Faking It Without DHA" has a publication date of September, 1996.

Sunless.com visitors who have used sunless tanners with Mahakanni inform me that Mahakanni functions as a temporary stain. Used alone, the color is yellow, but added to a sunless tanning product with DHA, it is an effective ingredient that complements a sunless tan.

In 2001, Decleor introduced a DHA free sunless tanner, Decleor Auto-Bronzant SPF 6 Self-Tanning Age Prevention Cream, available from Sephora.com, with the active ingredients erythrulose and Mahakanni.

Melanotan

Everyone pale got excited back in 1991 when it was revealed that the University of Arizona had developed a "tanning drug." It made a big enough splash that people yacked about it in elevators and at bus stops. I even remember the moment I first heard about it.

What's been happening in the last ten years? Did Melanotan get tested on people? Is it safe? Will you be able to buy it at the corner drugstore in time for summer?

Melanotan is a synthetic hormone that mimics the action of MSH, or melanocyte-stimulating hormone.

Not yet approved for use by the FDA, Melanotan may be an effective preventative treatment for people at risk for skin cancer. So far, it is effective only when administered by injection, not orally.

Curiosity about Melanotan increased in 1998 when we all learned that Melanotan II had an unexpected side effect: it caused spontaneous erections in men with erectile dysfunction.

The ACC conducted clinical trials with Melanotan II in 1999 as a treatment for erectile dysfunction. Initial studies showed a positive result and a second study took place in May of '99 through the American Association of Urologists.

What's the difference between Melanotan I and Melanotan II? The ACC filled me in:

"Melanotan I and II are both synthetic hormones of melanocyte stimulating hormone that were created, synthesized and developed at The University of Arizona and the Arizona Cancer Center. Melanotan I is a linear, full length peptide [containing all 13 amino acids]. Melanotan II is a shortened, circular version of the same peptide. Both have sunless tanning capabilities but because Melanotan II had spontaneous erection as a side effect, it is not being further developed as a tanning agent. It is now being evaluated as an erectile dysfunction drug."

The ACC hopes "it can reduce the risk of skin cancer in high-risk individuals by offering them the protective benefit of a tan without the harm of sun exposure – in essence, Melanotan could be a super sun screen to protect fair-skinned, high-risk people from skin cancer. Furthermore, as the ozone layer is depleted, Melanotan may become useful in many more individuals – even those that may tan moderately well."

But is melanin really an effective protection for those at risk for skin cancer? The ACC replied that they demonstrated Melanotan I is effective in promoting skin pigmentation with little or no risk and that its role in actually preventing skin cancer had not yet been determined.

A little known fact about Melanotan is that it produces a darker tan on the face, arms, and legs. I do not know if this would make it objectionable as a cosmetic product [some people might see it as a plus].

My final question to the ACC: Will Melanotan do anything for people with albinism and vitiligo? Unfortunately the answer is no as "these patients do not have skin cells with receptors for melanin. For this reason, the synthetic hormone has no mechanism for action and therefore cannot cause change in pigment."

What does the future look like for Melanotan I and II?

Researchers at the University of Arizona are no longer conducting research with Melanotan I, although research continues for Melanotan II.

A U.S. company, Competitive Technologies, announced in March of last year that they would be developing Melanotan [don't know if it's I or II].

A company in Australia, EpiTan, is raising funds to start production and trials for Melanotan I as a tanning agent to prevent skin cancer. Unfortunately, rumor has it that the Australian equivalent of the FDA will not be accepting the research already done in the U.S., which will greatly delay approval in Australia, as all the tests will have to be repeated.

Recently, EpiTan announced it is working on a time release injection version of Melanotan, moving away from an oral formula. As there are already time release injection hormone drugs on the market [Depo Provera, for instance], this is extremely promising news.

Many questions are still unanswered. For instance, how effective would Melanotan be for redheads, whose melanocytes produce the less effective form of melanin, red-yellow pheomelanin? As one redhead asked me, "Would it just give me more freckles?"

MelanX

MelanX is also a synthetic hormone that stimulates the melanocytes, and the same issues that apply to Melanotan apply to it. Like Melanotan, it could be years away from approval.

First developed at the University of Oklahoma, MelanX has enjoyed a chaotic history. Like most drug innovations, it all comes down to funding, funding, funding.

The original MelanX Corporation in Texas which was "developing a topical application that includes the formation of pigmentation" is no more.

But a new company, Cutanix, has picked up the MelanX ball and is running with it.

This information comes from the Cutanix Web site in the section titled Pigmentation Stimulation Technology:

Human skin pigmentation is caused by the presence of a skin pigment, melanin, in the epidermis. Specialized cells called melanocytes, which are found in the lower part of the epidermis, synthesize this pigment. Melanocytes contain a unique enzyme, tyrosinase, which converts a simple amino acid, tyrosine, into melanin. Melanin is then packaged within melanocytes into specialized vesicles called melanosomes, which are then transferred to young keratinocytes and carried upward to the surface of the skin, eventually sloughing off. Since melanin is constantly leaving the skin, it must be replaced or else the skin will lighten. If more melanin is synthesized than is needed for replacement, the skin will darken. Hence, controlling the rate of melanin synthesis is the most natural way to control pigmentation.

The rate of melanin synthesis in most individuals is increased by exposure to UV light. When UV light interacts with epidermal keratinocytes, it stimulates the transcription of hundreds of genes and the release of hundreds of chemical signals from these cells. Many of these signals bind to surface receptors on melanocytes and initiate a biochemical cascade within the cell which results in the activation of tyrosinase, and hence melanogenesis. One early step in this cascade is an increase of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) levels within the cell. Cyclic AMP then activates an enzyme, cyclic AMP dependent kinase (kinase A), which in turn causes an increase in the activity of tyrosinase. Cutanix has patent rights to two families of compounds which artificially elevate the levels of cAMP in melanocytes and thereby stimulate tyrosinase activity and melanogenesis. Compounds from both families have been shown to stimulate tanning in Yucatan pigs when applied in a topical formulation.

Many thanks to John who contributed this update.

Melasyn®

Introduced in 1999, Melasyn has had a rocky history.

What is Melasyn®? According to the now defunct www.vitiligosolution.com, it is:

"A patented, water-soluble, melanin-like compound, MELASYN® is blended exclusively into Vitiligo Solution cosmetic formulations. MELASYN® is synthesized from plant-derived precursors, with a principle component being aloin from the aloe vera plant. Application is easy, and quickly produces natural looking skin colors...In addition to its natural tones, MELASYN® exhibits adaptive characteristics on skin that allow it to mimic an individual's own coloration."

What's important to note is that Melasyn® is a cosmetic. It is not a magical way of getting melanin into your skin topically. The synthetic melanin acts as a temporary coloring agent which is washed off with soap and water. While Melasyn® has been misrepresented [not by its manufacturers] as a sunless tanning product in some publications, it is intended for people dealing with vitiligo.

In 2001, Johnson & Johnson added Melasyn to a new line of Dermablend® products, Reflections^TM. The product line includes a face and body bronzer, a foundation, a concealer, and a sunless tanner.

Here's what the Dermablend Web site has to say about Melasyn:

Melanin is naturally found in skin, which is genetically pre-set to determine your skin and hair color and protects against sun burn.

MELASYN® is patented technology developed at Yale University Medical School and has many of the same proprieties as natural Melanin.

Dermablend® reflections^TM, works with the natural light that surrounds you and your own natural melanin. Dermablend® reflections^TM, reflects the light to give you the glow and appearance of perfect matched skin-tone.

Only a limited number of Sunless.com visitors have tried the new Reflections line, which is readily available at Sears and JC Pennys department stores. All who have tried the products have emphasized that the high cost would make them unlikely to purchase the products again.

OSI Pharmaceuticals

Recently, other creams that may affect melanogenesis have been in the news. The newest one doesn't have a name yet, but it is backed by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which takes care of that most important issue regarding new drugs: funding. Here's an article about the new unnamed, tanning cream, published July 15, 2001.

The cream would have an enormous market, for it can also be used as a skin lightening cream. Worldwide, millions of sufferers from vitiligo who have darker skin tones use skin lightening creams on pigmented skin when treatments to restore pigment fail. There is also evidence that the cream could be used to fade age spots, uneven pigmentation caused by the sun.

Psoralens

Trimethylpsoralen, 8-methoxypsoralen, Methoxsalen

Psoralens were made infamous in 1959 when John Howard Griffin, the author of Black Like Me, took psoralens in conjunction with medical grade UV lamp exposure to darken his skin. After his death, it was rumored that the psoralens had killed him, but in reality he died from complications of diabetes.

Psoralens do not make the skin darker without exposure to UV, and that exposure must be carefully regulated. Psoralens in conjunction with regulated UV exposure is called PUVA treatment, and has been used for years for vitiligo patients. It is also used for treatment of psoriasis, which can be life threatening in extreme cases. The hazards of the treatment have caused many dermatologists to recommend it only for patients with dark skin, never for people with red or blond hair, blue eyes, etc.

I am shocked when visitors to this web site inform me that their doctor prescribed psoralens to them so that they could get a tan on vacation. What's next? Maybe the doctor will prescribe some methamphetamines for you so you can lose weight.

Psoralens work by making the skin hypersensitive to the sun: damage, and therefore melanin production, is accelerated. Any doctor who prescribes psoralens to someone merely for tanning purposes is putting their patient at serious risk for skin cancer.

pTpT [thymidine dinucleotide]

If you have read I am Joe's Melanocyte, then how pTpT works won't be too mysterious. When the body repairs the DNA damage done by UV radiation, pTpT is a byproduct. It seems to be one of the triggers to the melanocytes that melanin must be produced to protect the skin from further damage.

Unlike Melanotan, pTpT has never undergone clinical trials on humans, so whether it will be an effective preventative treatment for skin cancer is unknown. Melanotan has been around for ten years and still hasn't been approved; pTpT is just getting started. So don't look for this anytime soon.

Because pTpT is applied topically, and not by injection, interest in it is keen. This also makes it much more likely to spawn false claims by tanning lotion manufacturers, such as the ludicrous claims made by the makers of Mahakanni extract.

I first learned of pTpT back in 1999, when I requested information on pTpT from Boston University and was provided with several research publications. All of it was incredibly over my head, but I slogged through it to the best of my ability.

Of all the new developments in tanning without the sun, pTpT is the most exciting. There is strong evidence that not only will it cause the skin to tan, it may also assist repair of damage done by the sun, much like Retin-A, but better. As a result, pTpT does not have the same burden as Melanotan, proving that increasing melanin production has any medical benefit.

To put it with misleading simplicity, the presence of pTpT makes the skin think it has been zapped by ultraviolet radiation. The skin's defense system then goes into action, one of these actions being the production of melanin, another being the repair of sun damaged cells. This defense system is referred to as the SOS response.

But what is pTpT and what is it doing? When something gets repaired, whether it is a car or a cell, there are parts left over. In the case of sun damaged cells, what is left over is pTpT, a DNA fragment whose full name is thymidine dinucleotide. I could grasp the concept that the presence of pTpT could therefore serve as a signal that it was time to make some melanin. What I could not grasp is how it might serve as a signal that it was also time to repair damaged cells. Eventually I realized I was looking at it the wrong way: pTpT does not signal the repair process. Rather, pTpT enhances repair capacity in the way compost enhances the growth of plants in your garden. I may be wrong in this conclusion, but I like its neatness.

What I found disturbing was that the SOS response is portrayed as linear. Skin cells get zapped by ultraviolet rays, damaged cells are repaired, melanin is produced. I feel it is unwise to make this assumption. What if it is more like a rock thrown in a pond with big ripples spreading out in every direction? What else gets triggered when the skin thinks it has been exposed to ultraviolet radiation? This is a murky area requiring additional enlightenment.

After reading the research materials, I was convinced that pTpT will cause the skin to tan, and I felt reasonably certain that it would help repair sun damaged skin cells. But what I was truly certain of was that this is an extremely potent drug which will require years of testing before I would be willing to put it on my skin.

A visitor to sunless.com recently put some of my fears into concrete form:

"I have a doctoral degree in molecular biology and I work with DNA all the time. I have read scientific material on the theory behind pTpT providing increased pigmentation without exposure to sun or sun damage. Personally, I am not 'sold' that this is harmless even if it did prove to work. I think I mentioned previously that cells have an 'SOS' repair system that is only recruited during times of extreme damage to DNA. This is a system prone to errors [i.e. it fixes the DNA by breaking incorrect bonds, etc., but may not put the correct base or 'letter' of DNA in the right place]. So though pTpT (a two-base long piece of DNA) may trigger this response and the body's increased production of pigment, I am still not convinced of any real benefits."

And this brings up a sad bit of business: pTpT has spawned false posts from visitors to the sunless.com message board, who claim to have purchased and used pTpT to get a tan.

A scientist who read the posts was deeply concerned:

"Every time I come to this board I am more and more alarmed at the fact that people are willing to try this out on themselves. As you mention, there is been NO work done on humans. And if and when it is done, it will be in controlled clinical trials with strict supervision. This home experimentation is extremely dangerous. The individuals who are doing this do not know what they are talking about, or even what they are purchasing. And the lotion they are putting pTpT into is questionable. If it is just a regular body lotion, pTpT is not able to get into cells, and therefore will do nothing. You can take a bath in DNA all day long with no affect whatsoever. However, if they are using a lotion that can penetrate into cells ... in uncontrolled and untested quantities you are introducing not only pTpT but any contaminants. Scary..."

"As so far as making pTpT via PCR [polymerase chain reaction] to reduce the cost: It is IMPOSSIBLE. First, you cannot use PCR on such small fragments. Also, for PCR you not only need controlled temperature water baths or a thermocycler, you need expensive enzymes that "make" DNA, the DNA template, DNA primers, and a complicated buffer system. It would be impossible to do correctly and accurately [especially when you need quality control like you would for pTpT] at home."

At this time, I delete any posts in the message board from individuals who claim to have pTpT, as I fear they are con artists attempting to sell who knows what.

If you want to follow pTpts progress, do it the smart way, and register for information on clinical trials at www.centerwatch.com. And be patient. To learn more about clinical trials, and how new drugs get approved, drkoop.com has great information.

DNA Damage and Melanogenesis
Nature, Volume 372, December 1 1994

DNA Damage Enhances Melanogenesis
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Vol. 93, pp. 1087-1092, February 1996

Photoprotection and Repair
Cosmetics & Toiletries Magazine
Vol 111, October 1996 pp. 93 - 97

Enhancement of DNA repair in human skin cells...
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA
Vol. 94, pp. 12627-12632, November 1997

The UV-Induced SOS Response: Importance to Aging Skin
Journal of Dermatology
Vol. 25, No. 12, pp. 775-777, December 1998

Tanning Accelerators

Perhaps you are smart enough to stay out of the sun. But what if someone promises you a fast tan? If you could tan faster with UV radiation, whether from the sun or a tanning bed, wouldn't that be safer than tanning "normally?" Seems like it would be because you would be spending less time exposing yourself to those damaging rays, right? Nothing of the kind. The Food and Drug Administration exposed the myth of safe or effective tanning accelerators a long time ago:

"In recent years, 'suntan accelerators have appeared on the market. They claim to enhance tanning by stimulating and increasing melanin formation. Because their intended purpose is to affect a function of the human body, they may be considered drugs. One type of suntan accelerator is based on bergapten [5-methoxypsoralen] which is found in bergamot oil and is a well-known phototoxic substance [responsible for Berloque dermatitis]. Bergapten increases the skin's sensitivity to ultraviolet light, intensifies erythema formation, and stimulates melanocytes to produce melanin. It has also been reported to be photo-carcinogenic in animals."

What do the terms phototoxic and photocarcinogenic mean? photo = light, toxic = poison, carcinogenic = cancer causing. Are they saying it could cause skin cancer? You betcha.

I went on a hunt to see if I could find any suntan lotion makers still using the term accelerator. I found them, but I also found a plethora of other misleading and meaningless adjectives. The occasionally sued California Tan is fond of maximizer and intensifier. Checking their ingredients reveals many moisturizers and something called Vitatan™, an "exclusive tanning technology that supplies the skin with moisturizing nutrients to help build a spectacular, golden brown tan."

I like to pick on California Tan because they do cynical things like sell a lotion called Insurance. Gee whiz, I guess that will keep me from getting skin cancer, huh?

Not that many suntan lotion manufacturers can hold their heads up high. What about the abhorrent practice of selling suntan lotions with zero SPF? Now that is a caring attitude. Banana Boat, Coppertone, and Hawaiian Tropic are all guilty.

The new meaning of terms such as accelerator, intensifier, maximizer, amplifier, etc., seems to be zero or practically zero SPF. That could accelerate something. Care to guess what?

Tanning Pills

This topic is now covered in great detail in Why Tanning Pills Don't Work.

Tantastic

Everyone is very excited about Tantastic even though no one knows what it is or where it can be bought. But it is supposed to be great. And it can continue to be great for we have no information to the contrary. Entrepreneurs take note: Slap something in a bottle and call it Tantastic. You could make millions.

Update: Tantastic turned out to be an amazingly average tyrosine based tanning pill made in Germany. [Thank you, everyone, for the help.]

Tyrosine

This topic is now covered in great detail in Why Tanning Pills Don't Work.

Conclusion

Let us think fondly upon DHA, or dihydroxyacetone, the active ingredient in sunless tanners today. It has been in widespread use since the 1960s. If it did anything bad, we would have found out by now.

So is there a safe and effective alternative to DHA sunless tans today? Erythrulose shows promise, but its similarities to DHA don't make it a true alternative, except for those allergic to DHA. Will there be one in the future? Very likely, but not in time for this summer. Recent advances have convinced me that we will see an effective tanning drug in our lifetimes; but, like all drugs, they won't work for everyone, and could have intolerable side effects. This has been true of even mild mannered Retin-A, which is used to treat acne and sun damaged skin.

While the new tanning drugs may be important in skin cancer prevention in the future, for purely cosmetic purposes, exciting developments in DHA, such as the Mystic Tan, the Mist-On Tan, and the Fantasy Tan, hold more promise than an ocean of Mahakanni extract.

Got a sunless tanning myth that needs to be put out of its misery? Please email clara AT sunless DOT com to help her track it down and kill it.