A sunless tan gives you no protection from the sun — you still need sunscreen.
The first choice to make is booth or airbrush, and it is a genuine choice rather than a budget tier. An automated booth sprays a fixed pattern in a couple of minutes with nobody else in the room. A hand-applied airbrush tan takes fifteen to twenty minutes with a technician working around your body. Each is better at different things, and knowing which you want before you book avoids the most common form of disappointment — expecting the result of one from the price and duration of the other.
A booth is fast, consistent, private, and generally the cheaper option. For an even all-over color on a body without much that needs working around, it does a good job and it does the same job every time, which is genuinely valuable if you tan regularly.
Its limitation is that it sprays a pattern rather than a person. It cannot see that your elbows are dry, cannot lighten your hands, cannot blend around a tattoo you would rather keep uncovered, and cannot adjust for one shoulder being held differently from the other. Areas that are shadowed by your own body — under the arms, the inside of the thighs, under the chin — are where booths most often come out light.
That is manageable with technique on your part. Following the positioning instructions properly matters far more in a booth than people assume, and applying barrier cream to your own palms, knuckles, elbows, knees and heels before you step in makes a visible difference. Most studios will provide it if you ask.
A hand-applied tan buys judgment. The technician can see your skin, adjust the amount of solution area by area, go lighter on the hands and feet, blend the face into the hairline, work around tattoos, and contour if that is what you want. For a first tan, for an event, or if a previous tan came out patchy, this is the one to choose.
It is also the right choice for anybody whose body does not suit a fixed spray pattern — which is a lot of people. Height, mobility, body shape and skin condition all affect how well a booth covers, and a technician simply works with what is in front of them.
The trade-off beyond price is privacy, and it is worth knowing in advance what a session involves so it is not a surprise. A good studio explains what you will wear or not wear, what will be covered, and what the process looks like before you are in the room. If that has not been explained, ask.
Whichever you choose, the thing that makes a repeat tan good is a record of what worked. The solution, the base, the strength, the development time, and any notes about dry areas or problem spots. A studio that keeps those notes can reproduce a result; one that does not is starting from scratch every time.
If you move between studios, keep the notes yourself. Knowing you had a medium strength violet-based solution left for eight hours is far more useful to a new technician than saying the last one was "about right".
For regular tanning, spacing matters too. Applying a new tan over one that is fading unevenly builds unevenness, so the usual advice is to let a tan fade down and exfoliate properly before the next one rather than layering. A studio that tells you to come back sooner than that is selling appointments.
For some things. A booth is fast, consistent, private and cheaper, and for an even all-over color it does a good job repeatably. What it cannot do is see you — it cannot lighten your hands, allow for dry elbows, blend around a tattoo, or reach areas shadowed by your own body, which is where booths come out light. Following the positioning instructions and using barrier cream yourself makes a real difference.
For a first tan, for an event, if a previous tan came out patchy, or if a fixed spray pattern does not suit your height, shape or mobility. What you are paying for is judgment: adjusting solution area by area, going lighter on hands and feet, blending the face into the hairline, working around tattoos. A good studio will also explain what the session involves beforehand.
Let one fade down and exfoliate properly before the next rather than layering, because applying a new tan over one that is fading unevenly builds the unevenness in. A studio pushing you to return sooner than that is selling appointments. Also keep a record of what worked — solution, base, strength, development time — because "about right" is not useful to a new technician.
Tell us what it is for and when, and we will match you with a technician and build the timing around it.
Book a Sunless TanTell us the date you need it for — timing matters more than most people expect.
