Indoor tanning took a giant leap forward when the spray tan was introduced. You no longer had to expose yourself to harmful UV rays or risk burning under bulbs that were too hot. With the spray tan you no longer had to wonder how old the bulbs in your bed were or if you were getting you money and 30 minutes worth.

But spray tans weren’t perfect. In the beginning there was streaking and runs and missed areas on your body. Many tanners were confused about the signals that told you when to turn or lift your arms. Complaints about mouthfuls of tanning solution or stinging eyes were common. Not so anymore. Today’s spray tans are often accompanied by a full-service spa treatment and the results are nothing less than a weekend in the tropics looking tan.

The first notable difference is the pre-tan service. Many salons will start your tan with a skin scrub made of sea salt, green tea, rice or sugar. This exfoliates your skin leaving a smoother surface and cleaner pores – both of which really lend themselves to a great looking tan. And by the time you’re halfway into the skin treatment, you’re so relaxed the tan is a bonus. And if you think putting on the scrub and having your knotted muscles worked is great, just wait until you experience how they clean the scrub off. Steaming towels, seaweed and warm loofahs all make your skin feel like you’ve gone to heaven.

Now for the tan. Most mid to high end salons hand spray now. While you do have to be comfortable with a stranger seeing you naked or half naked, they customize your tan and make you look like you just stepped off an exotic beach. Hand sprayed tans use contouring to make the curves of your body like armpits and your neck, and boney areas like shoulder blades and knees look natural and not splotchy or streaked as rub on self tanners or machine spray tans so often do.

Facial tanner are custom blended so your face doesn’t look orange or fake, but sun kissed. The T-zone is tanned a deeper or rosier shade than the rest of your face just as it would be if you were sitting in the sun.

Because a technician is customizing your tan, he or she is also able to spend time examining your color and making sure there are no runs or streaks. You should expect a good tanning treatment to take about an hour including dry time. You should be sprayed from forehead to feet and limb by limb. Special attention should be paid to you face – this is the dead give away area. If you looked sprayed, you didn’t get good service.      

Related Articles
	How to Fake a Fall Tan It’s the time of year when only a privileged few live in places where the sun is still shining enough to maintain a tan. For the rest of us, we must begin the fall and winter toil of tan maintenance. We could, of course, just embrace the trend of pale, sun-shunned skin, but who are we kidding!   ...Read more		All about Airbrush Tanning With the hazards of the sun and skin cancer rates climbing, more people are looking for better alternatives to tanning that don’t require lying out in the sun or in a tanning bed. Self-tanners can do the trick but even those come with bad outcomes such as streaks, missed spots or that horrible   ...Read more