When you tan, you expose you skin to UV light which produces something called "melanin" in your skin. This melanin is then oxidised which gives you your tan (colour). So, in very basic terms, tanning is a two step process.

The most important thing about tanning lotions is that almost all of them will moisturise your skin, which is one of the key ways of developing and maintaining a tan as well as keeping your skin in a better condition by keeping it hydrated.

However, the difference between a normal moisturiser and a tanning lotion is that the tanning lotions contain additional ingredients that help the skin become more responsive to UV light.

Tanning lotions, fall into two categories – those that help your skin produce melanin (these are called accelerators) and those that help with the oxidisation process (these are called amplifiers).

Accelerators

Accelerators increase the amount of oxygen in your skin. This increased level of oxygen then helps the skin to produce more melanin. If you look at the ingredients of the lotion, you will find that most of them have in them a product called Unipertan or Tyrosine.

Just about all manufactures have their own “special” accelerator ingredient too. And this is why it is good to try different lotions as there is power in the combination of ingredients.

There are also different strengths in the ingredients. For example, there is Unipertan and Unipertan V242 which is stronger than straight forward Unipertan.

Following so far? Don't get too bogged-down with all these new terms!

Accelerators can also help you keep you colour for longer. A number of people use the accelerator as their moisturiser too, in order to keep the increased oxygen flowing and therefore keep their colour longer. Admittedly, these then become expensive moisturisers, but for those that do use them as a moisturiser – they work really well and it is worth the extra cost.

Amplifiers

Amplifiers simply change the reflective properties of your skin. In real terms they make your skin duller, and therefore less prone to reflecting the UV light away.

As a result, your skin absorbs more UV light – hence the name, it amplifies the amount of UV absorbed by the skin.

Other terms

OK, that covers the two basic types of lotion. “Hang on” you say, “what about tingle lotions, bronzers and cooling lotions?”

Well, we are glad you asked! There are a number of other terms that you should be familiar with when thinking about choosing your tanning lotion. So, let’s dive in there:

Tingle Lotions

Lotions can now be thought of as either ‘Tingle’ or ‘Tingle free’ thanks to the clever marketing of certain lotion manufacturers that came up with Tingle lotions.

What do Tingle lotions do?

Remember that I said that accelerators work by increasing the amount of oxygen which in turn increases the amount of melanin? Well that melanin then has to oxidise to get its colour (stage two of the tanning process).

Think of a half eaten apple – when you leave it for an hour, it goes brown. This process is called oxidisation. For this process to occur you need, as the names suggests, oxygen. Your skin is just the same. Tingle lotions increase the amount of oxygen in the skin’s surface (by increasing blood flow to the skin), and therefore boost the oxidisation process.

There are two types of people in the world; those that love tingle lotions and those that hate them.

Most of the tingle lotions increase the flow of blood to the skin by irritating it. When using them, your skin goes slightly red, hence some people don’t like them.

On the other hand, we have a lot of customers that think Tingle lotions are fantastic and really boost their colour.

Our experience is that they work for some and not for others, and the only advice we can give you is try a weak tingle lotion (they come in various strengths) on a small area of your body first before taking the plunge.

One customer wrote to me and told me that she loves Smoke Hot from Supre. It has a very powerful tingle in that lotion, and it works very well for her. She let her friend use it, and really regretted it. Fortunately, they had a good moisturiser with them to cool her off.

Tingle lotions can give quite an intense feeling, and they are aimed at advanced tanners. Try tingles on small areas of your skin, and then build up in the strength of tingle until you find what is best for you. Don’t be too upset though if you find tingle lotions are not for you!

Cooling

Some of you may prefer to keep cool whilst using a sunbed, especially in a salon that has inadequate ventilation on the beds – they can get incredibly hot under there.

Cooling lotions are specifically designed to help the skin feel cool whilst you use a sun bed. Using a cooling lotion will not inhibit the tanning process

It is important to know that heat does not help tanning. A complaint you hear often in a salon is that the bed is not hot enough. The customer thinks that if the bed feels cool it is not working. If this was the case – then you would never tan whilst skiing snow-capped mountains. But you do!

A good tanning salon should have sunbeds that are well ventilated and may even offer sunbeds with air-conditioning in them.

Moisturisers

The skin depends on moisture to keep it in peak condition. Dry skin will not tan as efficiently as moisturised skin!

One of the causes of sunburn is also the rapid dehydration of the skin, so keeping your skin moisturised can help prevent burning.

We cannot emphasise enough the importance a good moisturiser plays in the development of a healthy tan and the maintenance of healthy skin. We have a number of great moisturisers on the website that you can choose from, all designed to work in harmony with your skin and with tanning lotions.

Bronzers

These contain additional ingredients that provide instant colour to the skin (working on the sun-less tanning principle). These are great lotions because they not only work as an accelerator or amplifier they actually give you an instant colour too (albeit fake!).

When using a sunbed, it is important to know that it can take around 4-6 hours for the fullness of the tan to come through. You skin has to go through the whole melanin and oxidisation process. Bronzers work by filling in this gap and giving you a colour instantly. This of course will fade, but your natural tan will have come through by then.

Bronzers do require careful application to avoid streaking and there are good ones and bad ones! As with all lotions though, you have to test to find what suits your skin type best. The good news is that sun-less tanning products are developing all the time and are now much better. They have many happy and satisfied customers all over the world!

Sun Less Tanning

We thought it would be worth mentioning this here as they are a type of tanning lotion. Recently, the amount of these lotions sold has been exceptional. All major cosmetic companies now make these lotions and some of them really are quite good.

Add to this the appearance of spray-tanning booths and you have something which is becoming more and more popular.

These lotions contain dihydroxyacetone (DHA), a colourless sugar that interacts with dead surface cells in the epidermis, staining the skin darker. The effect is temporary, because as the dead cells naturally slough off, the colour fades. The colour will usually disappear within a week unless the lotion has been reapplied.

It should be noted that, despite rumours to the contrary, DHA provides little protection from UV light. A tan caused by UV exposure (especially a base tan) can provide some protection from the sun – but sun less tanning lotions will not.

SPF (Sun Protection Factor) Creams

Have you ever wondered what SPF 15 means? It measures the length of time a product protects against skin reddening from UVB, compared to how long the skin takes to redden without protection.

If it takes 20 minutes without protection for you to begin reddening, using an SPF 15 sunscreen theoretically prevents reddening 15 times longer - about 5 hours. (It may take up to 24 hours after sun exposure for redness to become visible.) However, to maintain the SPF, reapply sunscreen every two hours (even if it gives you 5 hours protection) and right after swimming.

We recommend that you use SPFs of at least 15, which block 93 percent of UVB. Whilst SPFs higher than factor 30 block only 4 percent more UVB, they should be used by people with more sensitive skin, especially people with skin type 1.

Apply them often, and not too thinly. We also recommend that you wear sunglasses, stay in the shade and try not to sunbathe when the sun is at its hottest (around lunch time, usually between 10 and 3).

It is important that you do protect yourself from over-exposing your skin, especially if you use sunbeds too. Don’t be afraid to use a good SPF – it can actually help your tan, keep your skin moisturised, prevent burning and help you keep healthy skin.

What do you want?

So there you go - a list of all the features of tanning creams. Our advance is to go through the list and tick the features that you want. Then, have a look on the website and find which lotions meet your criteria. You can also mix and match a little, for example you can get bronzing lotions that also have a tingle factor or cooling sensation.

Do remember to mix up your lotions from time to time, and if you want to use a tingle lotion – increase the strength of it gradually. Always test the lotion, regardless of type, on a small area of skin before applying to the whole body.

If you have any particular comments or tips - please let us know!