Shades and skin tones
Will a spray tan look orange on fair skin?
Orange is not what a spray tan looks like, it is what a mismatched one looks like. It happens when the solution is too deep for your skin, when its undertone is wrong for yours, when it has oxidised with age, or when the cosmetic guide colour is mistaken for the finished tan. Three of those four are the studio’s responsibility. Studio Rhema mixes each tan by hand in Dundas, Ontario.
Not if the depth and the undertone are chosen for your skin rather than for an average. Here is what actually causes an orange result, what fair skin and freckles really do, and what to ask for.
Written by Studio Rhema, Dundas, Ontario. Last reviewed .
What actually causes an orange spray tan?
Four things, and it is almost never the one people assume. Knowing which is which is the difference between never trying again and simply asking for something different next time.
| Cause | What is happening | Whose control |
|---|---|---|
| Depth too high | A solution mixed darker than your skin can carry. On fair skin the colour has nothing to sit against, so it reads as orange rather than deep. | The studio |
| Wrong undertone | Solutions carry a green, violet or neutral base to counter warmth. Put a warm-based solution on already-warm skin and you double the warmth. | The studio |
| Oxidised solution | DHA degrades with age, heat and light. Old solution goes orange in the bottle before it goes orange on you. | The studio |
| Guide colour mistaken for the tan | The cosmetic bronzer applied so the technician can see coverage is much darker and warmer than your actual result. It rinses away. | Nobody, it is normal |
| Poor preparation | Product, dry patches and leftover old tan hold colour unevenly, which reads as patchy rather than orange. | You, and it is the one thing that is |
If you have ever rinsed a tan off and been horrified at the colour going down the drain, that was guide colour. Your tan was underneath it the whole time.
It is worth knowing what is doing the colouring, because it explains why age matters. One ingredient does the work: dihydroxyacetone, a colour additive the US Food and Drug Administration lists for external application to the human body. It degrades with time, heat and light, and degraded solution reads warmer on skin than fresh solution of the same depth. That is why how a studio stores and rotates its stock is not a boring detail, and why a tan from a bottle that has sat in a warm room all summer can come out orange even when the shade was chosen correctly. What the ingredient is and how it is regulated is covered on is spray tanning safe.
Does spray tanning work on very fair skin?
Yes, and it is one of the things a custom-mixed tan is genuinely for. The rule on fair skin is to go shallower than you think and build across appointments rather than reaching for depth in one go. A light tan on fair skin looks like you have been outdoors. A dark tan on fair skin looks like a dark tan on fair skin, and everyone can tell.
Two appointments a week or so apart will take you further than one deep one, and you get to stop at the shade you actually liked. Say at the first appointment that you would rather start too light than too dark. Nobody will argue with you.
What happens to freckles, scars and stretch marks?
Freckles stay. A spray tan colours the skin around them, and because it evens out the background they often look softer and more scattered rather than more obvious. It does not cover them, and you would not want it to.
Scars and stretch marks behave differently from the skin around them and this is worth knowing in advance. Older, pale scars usually take less colour than the surrounding skin, so they can look slightly lighter against a tan. Newer scars can take more. Neither disappears, and no honest studio will tell you otherwise. What an even tone does do is reduce the contrast that makes them catch the eye, which for a lot of people is the actual thing they were hoping for.
Is spray tanning only for pale skin?
No, and the assumption that it is comes from marketing rather than from the method. On medium and deeper skin tones a spray tan is generally doing a different job: it evens tone, adds warmth and richness, and brings back depth that winter took away. The depth of the solution goes up accordingly, and the undertone still matters just as much.
The question to ask is the same one everybody should ask, which is what undertone the solution carries and why that one was chosen for you. A studio that can answer that is mixing for you. A studio that cannot is giving everybody the same thing.
What should I actually ask for?
You do not need the vocabulary. Three sentences cover it: this is my first one, I would rather be too light than too dark, and here is the thing I am worried about. That is genuinely enough, and it is more useful than naming a shade you saw on somebody else.
If you want to be more specific, ask what depth is being mixed and what undertone it carries, and say plainly if you have gone orange somewhere before. Knowing what went wrong last time is the fastest route to it not happening again. Why a person mixing for you beats a fixed setting is on hand-applied versus a booth, and what happens at a first appointment is on your first spray tan.
Ready when you are.
Nervous about colour? Say so when you book. Starting light is always an option and it is the one most people should take.
Keep reading
- Hand-applied vs a boothWhy a person beats an automatic nozzle, and why orange happens.
- Your first spray tanWhat happens, what to wear, and the judgement-free promise.
- Is spray tanning safe?What is in it, what the FDA and Health Canada actually published, and the three questions to ask any studio.
- Prep & aftercare guideThe full routine, before and after your appointment.