Jessica admits to commiting a beauty sin: she tans indoors. She’s been told that in order to maximize your skin’s ability to tan, you should use an indoor tanning lotion. They have ingredients such as Tyrosine that are supposed to make you tan faster/better, as opposed to regular body lotion. She wants to know if the ingredients in indoor tanning lotions make a difference in how you tan. The Right Brain reponds:
Jessica, Jessica, Jessica. We’ll skip the lecture about how bad tanning is for your skin and instead we’ll just jump right in and start bashing tanning accelerators. To put it scientifically, these tyrosine tanners are bulls**t. The companies that sell pills and lotions with tryosine claim that they stimulate the production of melanin, the natural pigment that makes you look tan. Unfortunately, that’s just not true.
How Tyrosine In Your Body Is Good For Your Tan
It is true that tyrosine plays a role in the tanning process. It’s an amino acid that your body forms by breaking down the protein you eat. This amino acid is then broken down by an enyzme called tryosinase that is formed by melanin-producing cells in your skin known as melanocytes. This reaction converts tyrosine into a chemical called DOPA. DOPA reacts further to form Dopaquinone which in turn forms the different types of melanin. (Eumelanin is black-brown and pheomelanin is yellow-red.) This chain reaction is triggered when your skin is exposed to UV light.
How Tyrosine in Tanning Pills and Lotions Is Bad
But taking pills with tyrosine or rubbing a tyrosine lotion on your skin doesn’t really help the process. In fact, according to the American Cancer Society, Tanning accelerators, such as those formulated with the amino acid tyrosine or tyrosine derivatives, are ineffective … evidence suggests they don’t work. FDA considers them unapproved new drugs that have not been proven safe and effective. It makes sense if you think about it – swallowing a chemical like tyrosine or rubbing it on your skin doesn’t necessarily make it available to the right metabolic pathways.
So shame on all the companies out there marketing tyrosine-based products! Shame on you Hawaiin Tropic Tan 2 Max. Shame on you Reviva Sun Tan Protection Lotion. And shame on YOU, Bio-tan Sunless Tanner.
The Brains Bottom Line: Don’t waste your money on tyrosine tanning accelerators, they don’t do anything special for your tan.
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Thank you SO much, Brains! I’ll stick to plain lotion with a low spf from now on
Jessica, I’m a tanning salon owner and obviously disagree with the above opinion. Go to http://www.tanningtruth.com or http://www.vitamindcouncil.com, get the facts about tanning and decide for yourself if it’s good or bad.
But don’t go to a tanning salon and use a “plain lotion with a low spf”! . You’re wasting your money by paying for UV exposure and protecting from it at the same time. Unless you’re applying it only on selected area( like your face) that you don’t want to be tanned.
Oh brother! Next thing you know we’ll get a comment from a cigarette company telling us how cigarettes are good for you and they don’t cause cancer.
With all due respect Marina, the tanningtruth.com is filled with biased, bogus research. The leading scientists of the day would completely disagree that indoor tanning is a good thing.
Beauty Brain community, be safe and stay away from these things.
Could you tell me the name of an indoor tanning lotion that would be the best to use on your skin? Thanks
Tyrosine was actually first used in Europe and was used to help even out people with discolored skin pigmentation.
Yet another piece of garbage posted on the internet intended to scare people. Quit using your scare tactics and properly educate people with respect to tanning and sunburning. Tanning is completely natural, smoking and burning are NOT. To compare tanning to smoking clearly shows a lack of understanding of both activities.
Putting an amino acid on your skin hoping it will absorb and be delivered to your melanocytes is crazy. Even if it is proven that some of the tyrosine will show up at the right place so it can be used, what is to say that the extra tyrosine will even be used by the enzyme that creates melanin? What if the limiting factor is not the supply but the conversion. UNBELIEVABLY STUPID.
Tanning is the natural response of the skin to Ultraviolet light exposure.
@tanning Facts – Cancer is the body’s natural reaction to UV damage too.
Cancer’s also linked to pharmaceutical drugs, birth control pills, microwaves, certain plastics, eating fish, and even hair dye and nail polish fumes, among hundreds of other things encountered in your daily life. Are people going to run out and stop doing all of those things too? Doubtful. While I agree that some people (with light skin types) should not tan because of their genetic predisposition to skin cancer and burning, I don’t think the rest of us should be constantly bombarded with half-facts. Yes tanning has been linked to cancer, in the same class as arsenic, as the media likes to constantly point out, BUT included in that exact same category, is birth control pills, something millions of women take daily.
Tanning can be good for people. Like, I have a skin problem that’s called Eczema(eg-zumuh), and tanning helps me, and all the people I know that have it. It’s like a rash and it’s itchy (no it’s not contagious) and you get it anywhere on your body. It’s actually pretty common. And since I’ve been tanning for about 2 months now, it’s gone.
And by the way, it actually does matter about what tanning lotion you use, because if you use a regular body lotion it can ruin the type of plastic on the tanning bed. That’s what one of my friends told me anyways. (: Hope that helps anyone somehow.
I am in the tanning industry and I stand firm on my belief that tanning, in moderation, is good for you. It is just like anything else. It can be over done.
Hello Jessica…. If we talk about any cosmetic product then it can be suit to anyone or not… it varies people to people… But the brand Peaudor has good tanning lotion.. You can go and check yourself on http://www.peaudor.com/
Then you will come to know that how is it?
Hey. Touchy topic, I know.
The thing about topics like these is that everything people say is true to a certain extent. For people who almost never see the natural light of day indoor tanning can be a replacement for the benefits of the natural sun, including getting a little color. Staying out of the sun for the purpose of tanning is still the healthiest option, but avoiding UV rays out of fear of cancer isn’t exactly healthy either.
You can take dietary supplements for vitamin E and melatonin to sleep, but everyone needs SOME light, even if it’s from a machine. For some people with skin conditions (like acne and eczema) a very small amount of indoor tanning can keep them off other medications that may do them more harm than good. However, tanning while taking certain medications (like certain birth control pills, which increase your chances of cancer anyway) can greatly increase your likelihood of developing cancer early in life.
If you do decide to tan indoors – or outdoors, using a lotion is very important. It doesn’t have to be a lotion marketed for tanning, however. Lotion moisturizes your skin and helps your skin stay healthier and replenish the vitamins it needs to function. Indoors, an SPF defeats the purpose of tanning and can make cleaning the bed difficult; don’t use them. Mineral oil will harm acrylics, as well as your skin, so avoid lotions with that ingredient. Think bare-bones moisture, water based, and little or no alcohol in the lotion; and read the ingredients not just the label. All high-quality indoor tanning lotions sport these characteristics, but many have additives to increase their market value to indoor tanners. Any “accelerator” tanning lotion will have a lot of good vitamins and oils in it, but they are costly and will likely have additives like copper and dyes as well either cosmetic or natural “bronzers.” Cosmetic bronzers wash off and will stain your clothes, lighter colors of hair, and nails. Natural bronzers are usually intended to increase the oxidation levels in your skin, theoretically allowing melanin production to take place faster, or could refer to a plant-based acid. Dihydroxyacetone is the most common natural bronzer used and is a plant derived acid. This is the colorant used to even out skin tone, which a previous commentor mentioned. Although natural bronzers typically do not induce any allergic reactions, if you have ever had an allergic reaction to a colorant or dye I would suggest avoiding these altogether.
Indoor tanning can theoretically be better for you than outdoor tanning IF, and I really stress IF, you don’t overdo it. If you want the look of a tan without all the sun, 8-9 minutes in a “high pressure” UVA bed will get you there in one shot; quickly and without a burn since there is less than 1% UVB. That would take up to 9 sessions in a UVA/UVB mixed bed totaling a minimum of 120 minutes for a light tan. Very few people want to shell out the extra money for a higher quality bed, but the time spent exposing your skin to UV rays can actually turn out to be less than if you didn’t tan indoors at all and sat out in the sun. You won’t get that Oompa-Loompa look using a plain moisturizer and rarely tanning, but if that’s what you’re after then yeah – skin cancer and wrinkle city is your future. Enjoy it.
(By the way, I read the primary study on tanning beds – yes the WHOLE thing, not just the findings, and the sample base they used was interesting. The ones who got cancer and aged skin were the ones who tanned daily or up to 4 times per week and some of their weekly minute totals were in the 100s. I do tan, and I don’t reach that in months! The ones who got cancer in their 20s or 30s were also ones who spent time outdoors as well as tanned indoors; some even had accounts at multiple tanning salons so they could go the maximum time every day or less than 24 hours after their last tan. So, if you want to compare smoking to tanning that would be the 3 pack a day smoker. Folks like me maybe have a cigarette once per month and they never finish the blamed thing. And no, I’m not in the tanning industry – I’m a professional editor who does fact-checking and market research copy.)
Excellent analysis Mags! Thanks for taking the time to comment. Your point reminded me little bit of the old “the dose makes the poison” argument which people tend to forget about.