Fake tans are under attack, but does it come down to snobbery, or the poor bottle tanning solutions and techniques?

Most people like to look brown. The appearance of a deep, glowing tan gives many people confidence and sets them up to deal with the world. It’s also to do with attitudes to wealth. People associate those with a deep tan as people who can afford to regularly go on holiday and are not stuck behind desks, or work in dismal shops and factories. People who look white and sickly, so goes the popular misconception, cannot afford to go on holiday and therefore cannot be wealthy.

Ironically, in Victorian times, a tan was a sign of poverty. Upper class women especially guarded their porcelain looks as a way of proving they did not have to work out in the field and become weathered by the elements.

Things really began to change with the onset of the package holiday when lying on a beach for 14 days and securing the maximum tan, was the ambition of most tourists.

And eventually, for those that didn’t have the time for a holiday, along came the sun bed which offered the chance of a year-long glow. And if you had a year long glow, that suggested that not only could you afford a summer holiday, but you could afford a winter holiday in the Caribbean. Hence, your standing, in your own eyes, went up quite a few notches.

But, along came the horrors of  skin cancer to spoil the party and for a while, the sun tan out of a bottle seemed to be the ideal solution. A very safe way of looking like you’d just stepped off the plane from somewhere hot and exotic.

So how did the fake sun tan become a thing of hatred by the trend setters?

C-List celebrities didn’t help of course, with the tabloids and glossy weeklies showing acres of poorly bronzed has-beens, would-bes and never quite made it. But, what made matters worse, that even some very well known celebrities, even A-Listers, were being accused of being a little too enthusiastic with the bottle.

Jodie Marsh, the reality TV star, has been cruelly labelled the ‘Ronseal-dipped horror’ – comparable to many garden fences – Welsh rugby star Gavin Henson has a day-glow tan that could never be gained in the valleys and Italian designer Valentino is known as the world’s most orange man. Although some might say he has competition for that title from daytime TV star David Dickinson.

And many social observers wonder how Christina Aguilera and Victoria Beckham would look pale.

Then Royal Ascot pronounced that it was becoming a little tired of the Chav look, personified by fake tans, short skins and large, exposed bosoms. It later clarified its remarks by saying that it wasn’t so much the idea of the fake tan that it hated, but the tide mark that many people seemed to create when applying it.

And therein lies the problem with fake tanning. It’s not so much that it comes from a bottle, meaning that you are pretending to be something that you are not (a jet set traveller to hot climates), but that it can be too easily abused. Not only in the strength of the bottled tan, but also in its application.

That’s what offends fashion writers and social commentators. Seeing women and men with obviously too dark a tan, with tide marks and badly applied areas, marks them out as true pretenders and is to many people quite offensive.

So, the moral of the tale is, if you want to look glowing and healthy, be very careful with the type of tanning cream you buy (make it a high quality brand) and also be very careful with how you put it on (avoiding poorly applied areas and marks). Also, build, up your tan in stages. Do not go from lily white to bronze in a matter of minutes. The better the tanning solution, the better coverage you will get over a period of weeks, gradually building up your look to the desired level. It would seem, in the area of fake tans, less is more.

Tags: Beauty, Fake Tanning, Make Up, Tan