“How I look after two hours in the sun,” boasts an Instagram post from an Australian tanning oil company.
These tanning accelerators are meant to work by encouraging melanin production, producing a darker-than-normal tan when skin is exposed to the sun.Professor Georgina Long – are appalled. They have slammed the companies profiting from products that work by sending their customers out in the sun or into solariums, accelerating skin ageing and increasing users’ risk of skin cancer.
Terri Jones, an experienced cosmetic chemist and founder of Australian skincare company Synergie Skin, explained that the amino acid could help accelerate melanin production, the substance in the human body that causes skin pigmentation. She said the premise appeared to be that by giving the body the extra raw material it needed, it could make more melanin in the sun.
“I think the way that it mostly works is actually just by increasing UV’s into skin … If you’re in the sun for two hours, then you get more UV into your skin, which does accelerate the tan I guess, but it’s also increasing skin damage by a lot.” A fourth tanning accelerator product, Melanoboost, contained different chemically synthesised ingredients designed to induce melanin production, Jones said. She was concerned by claims from the company that its “unique combination of peptide actives” could “strengthen the skin’s natural photoprotection” in the lead-up to UV exposure.
Kate Thomas, seen here on holiday in Italy, was shocked when a stage-one melanoma was removed from her leg in 2020. She used tanning oil as a teenager during frequent beach visits.