Pregnancy and breastfeeding

Can you get a spray tan while pregnant?

The decision belongs to you and your midwife or doctor, not to a tanning studio. Here is what is published: the US Food and Drug Administration approves dihydroxyacetone, the active ingredient, for external application to skin, and says it is not approved to be inhaled, swallowed, or applied to the eyes, lips or mucous membranes. In pregnancy, the open question is the mist, not the skin. Studio Rhema is in Dundas, Ontario.

The honest version, with the published guidance quoted directly and the gaps in it named rather than papered over. This page will not tell you what to do. It will tell you exactly what is known, so the conversation with your midwife or doctor is a short one.

Written by Studio Rhema, Dundas, Ontario. Last reviewed September 20, 2026.

Why this page will not just tell you yes or no

Because an honest answer does not exist in that shape, and you deserve to know that rather than be reassured by someone selling you a tan. There is no regulator anywhere publishing a clear verdict on spray tanning during pregnancy. What exists is guidance on the ingredient, a known gap in the evidence about inhaling it, and your own circumstances, which a studio knows nothing about.

A business that answers this question for you with a confident yes has told you something about itself, not about the evidence.

What is actually published about the ingredient?

The clearest published guidance comes from the FDA, and it is worth reading carefully because it is more specific than the summaries of it. DHA is approved as a colour additive for external application to the human body. The FDA defines externally applied as “applied only to external parts of the body and not to the lips or any body surface covered by mucous membrane”. It states that industry has not submitted safety data for the other routes, and so specifically that the use of DHA in tanning booths as an all-over spray has not been approved.

Read that precisely. It does not say inhaling DHA has been found harmful. It says nobody has given the regulator the data to decide. In everyday life that distinction is academic. In pregnancy, it is exactly the distinction that matters, because the reasonable response to an unstudied exposure while pregnant is usually to reduce it.

The question is the mist, not the skin

This is the part most articles skip, and it is the part that decides everything. The concern in pregnancy has never really been about colour on your arms. It is about what you breathe while it is being applied. That is why the FDA’s published questions for a spray facility are all about containment rather than about the product.

Where the evidence is settled and where it is not
The exposure	What the FDA says	What that means for you
Colour on external skin	Approved for external application to the human body.	This is the studied, approved use.
Breathing the mist	Not approved. Safety data has not been submitted.	This is the open question, and the one worth controlling.
On the lips or in the eye area	Not approved for either.	Protection for eyes and lips is not optional.
All-over spray in a booth	Specifically stated as not approved.	An unattended nozzle cannot answer the FDA's questions.

The FDA also publishes what to do about it, and the wording is worth quoting because it puts the request in your hands: “Consumers should request measures to protect their eyes and mucous membranes and prevent inhalation.” You are entitled to ask for that anywhere, pregnant or not, and a studio worth going to will not find the question awkward.

What to ask your midwife or doctor

Bring them something specific rather than the word tanning, which will make them think of sunbeds. Three sentences is enough:

It is a sunless spray tan, the active ingredient is dihydroxyacetone applied to the skin, and the only open question is how much of the mist I would breathe during the appointment. That framing gets you a useful answer in one visit instead of a vague one. MotherToBaby, run by the Organization of Teratology Information Specialists, publishes free fact sheets on specific exposures in pregnancy and breastfeeding and is a reasonable place to look one up before you go in.

What about breastfeeding?

The same two ideas apply, with one practical addition. The published guidance is about external application to skin, and the open question remains what is inhaled rather than what is absorbed. The addition is simply contact: a newborn spends a lot of time pressed against your skin and chest, so the timing of a tan relative to feeding and skin-to-skin is a practical thing to raise with whoever is supporting your feeding. Again, that is their question to answer, not ours.

If you decide not to, that is a real answer

Plenty of people read the above and decide to wait, and that is a completely reasonable reading of an unstudied exposure. Nobody at this studio will try to talk you out of it. Wait until after, and book then. The tan will still be there.

Before booking while pregnant or breastfeeding, message the studio first and say so. That conversation decides whether an appointment makes sense and what would be done differently, and it is much better had beforehand than on the day. Nothing on this page is medical advice, and Studio Rhema is not a medical practice.

If it is the ingredient itself you want to read more about rather than the pregnancy question, that is set out in full on is spray tanning safe, including how it compares with a tanning bed. The difference between a hand-applied tan and an automatic booth is on hand-applied versus a booth.

Ready when you are.

Say where you are in your pregnancy and what your provider said. No pressure either way, and no appointment gets booked until you are comfortable.

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