You might be planning your tropical getaway for spring break or just itching to break out the hot new mini skirt you have hiding in your closet. It can be a little daunting to think about strutting your pasty white stuff on the beaches when you’ve spent the winter all covered up. Like bears coming out of hibernation we all swarm the tanning salons to bake and bronze ourselves to perfection. Fact is the trade off of having tan skin might not be worth it.

I grew up on the beaches of Cocoa Beach, Florida. I am naturally glow in the dark white. That bottle of “Tropical Goodness” promised that fair ole me would look like I was from the islands. Instead I burned myself to a crisp and waddled for a few days. I came out of the gates too quick. And it took me years to learn that if I cooked myself up a little slower I could eventually get a “tan”. The fact is at the age of 31 all that baking is starting to show up on my skin.

I’m not talking about the 10-15 minutes a day of sun exposure recommended to help our bodies make Vitamin D and I’m not going to bore you to death with a lecture because we all have to learn our own lessons. With more than 1 million people in the US diagnosed with skin cancer every year this is a topic worth bringing up. I’m just going to skim over the most important things to remember:

Sun damage can turn cute freckles into nasty little age spots. Check. Yep at 31 I just spotted my first age spot.

Over exposure to sun can break down collagen and cause the skin to sag. Yep, got this one too.

Skin cancer is ugly and is the most common form of cancer and approximately 90% of all skin cancers can be traced to UV exposure. Skin cancer most often occurs on the face, and almost never on the buttocks, inner thighs, or under the arms. Malignant melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and its incidence is rapidly rising in women under 40.

So now that I’ve accepted my paleness I have 2 options to fit in. Start rocking some red lipstick and platinum hair just like Gwen Steffani. She really makes fair skin cool. The other option is spray tanning which has started to become an affordable option to those like me or others wanting the bronze without all the risk. Spray tans and self tanners have come a long way from the days where QT was the only thing on the shelves and you looked as orange as an Ompaloompa when you were done.

She She is now using South Seas Formula for our custom spray tans. Spray booths can over saturate you and can also miss hard to reach spots. So in 5 minutes you can have a custom spray tan and not feel sticky for the rest of the day. The formula consists of DHA which has been listed with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 1973, and has been used in cosmetic preparations for almost 30 years. It is a sugar derivative that reacts with the amino acids in the skin to create a tan. We searched high a low for something that didn’t smell and decided on South Seas which is a cucumber melon scent.

Heading into spring and summer keep in mind that skin health is cumulative. The long term effects of the damage you do today adds up and can pack a punch when it’s all said and done.