Fake tan timebomb; Chemicals can cause cancer and birth defects

SalonGeek

Help Support SalonGeek:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
My goodness, some of the chemicals they are mentioning are completely tenuous in the context of spray tan solutions... MSG is monosodium glutamate, which is a flavour enhancer; you're more likely to find it in a bag of crisps or a Chinese takeaway than in a bottle of spray tan solution!

Tartrazine is a yellow/green dye found in cheap sweets and fizzy pop; I guess it's feasible that it might turn up in a bottle of "el cheapo" spray tan solution, perhaps as one of the constituents of the guide colour, but it's not going to have much effect (if any at all) at browning your skin.

Benzophenone-3 is a sunscreen... Oxybenzone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - so I guess it would have some use in protecting the skin from UV if present in tanning solutions.

Sulphur Dioxide would probably be present, if at all, as a preservative. But there are other substances that I'd expect to see in spray tan solutions rather than sulphur dioxide; the parabens, for example, or DMDM-Hydantoin.

However, none of the above chemicals are what I'd consider essential ingredients in tanning solutions; the key ingredients in tanning solutions being DHA (dihydroxyacetone), which they did mention in the article - but which is pretty harmless (you could quite happily eat it without much if any in the way of ill effects, as it would be processed by your body as a sugar) - likewise with erythulose, which is a 4-carbon sugar (whereas DHA is a 3-carbon sugar). Then some tanning solutions might possibly contain juglone (walnut oil) or lawsone (from henna), which stain the skin brown via a process called Michael addition - which I think off the top of my head is different chemically from the Maillard reaction where DHA and erythulose react with amino acids in the skin. While I'd be less inclined to want to risk eating juglone or lawsone (versus DHA or erythulose), I'd consider neither to be a particularly nasty chemical when applied to the skin by a trained professional in accordance with the product's instructions.
You know we all love you at Nouvatan Ruth your like the Doctor Spock of the beauty world lol xx
Its nothing to worry about for any one who uses our products as they dont contain the listed ingredients in the article
but i think the company who have used these tactics for there own marketing have behaved terribly unprofessionally they are not the only company to produce a safe tan, and its not a "new thing". we have been organic from day one, that was a relatively "new thing" back in 2007 when we developed Nouvatan.
very few of the second generation tans (that includes Sienna X) do have these ingredients. and None of the listed chemicals are in our products any way. this is so irresponsible of the Sun Newspaper as no doubt the people who only read the headlines will all be having sun beds again.
Were turning it into a positive, by tellling our customers the truth and to be honest the last "scare" did not affect us in the slightest
 
Seriously doing a blog post about this on my facebook and my business facebook.

Wonder if any of the spray tan companies will respond because they should. This is our profession. Wonder how the cosmetic companies would feel if the papers wrote taht all cosmetics cause cancer, or teh drinks companies say all fizzy juice causes cancer.

There will always be something the papers report that cause cancer or something. Remember a few years back they had a front page story about how bacon caused cancer! At the end of the day, do what you like! We're here for a short time regardless, so have a good time!!

Not a very scientific or professional take on it, but I got so fed up with the papers telling me what I should/should not do...anyone with half a brain will read into whats actually being written and do their research.
 
. this is so irresponsible of the Sun Newspaper as no doubt the people who only read the headlines will all be having sun beds again.

^This! I think the worry about UVA beds causing melanomas and premature ageing has definitely contributed to to the huge uptake in spray tanning which is a much healthier way to look brown.

This marketing ploy is so badly thought out - most of the "positive" aspects of the press release didn't even make it into the paper which has merely sensationalised the worst parts of it! If customers feel that spray tanning is unsafe, then they're likely to wrongly assume that they're at just as much risk using spray tans as melanin injections or sunbed sessions.

To be honest, I find the most offensive thing is that the whole thing is so absurd and badly done that it makes a big company in the market look ridiculous, and by extension, doesn't reflect well on the rest of us. Some idiot at the PR company is probably congratulating themselves on finding a way to garner so much press.

I like the idea of using it positively to get in touch with people though and am working on a marketing email right now - whoever thought of that is brilliant!
 
I bet my life on it the idiot that released the info, the idiot that wrote the article, the idiot that published the article, and the idiots that let the biased article go out all have fake/spray tans! It is a total joke makeing up these allegations. Many years ago I remember they said if you use a mobile phone, sleep with one under your pillow or have one near your head all of the time you would get a brain tumor or cancer. Xxx
 
If you breathe you will get cancer and birth defects. It's gotten ridiculous. Let's just live our lives the way we want and leave these to be silly...x
 
This scare story has being doing the rounds for some time. It appeared more recently back in April talking about phthalates and it's potential link to diabetes and birth defects - probably in the Daily Mail then. I thought the Sun article was laughable, clearly not thought out, didn't even name the "dodgy" ingredients which they make the claims about. The thing about phthalates is it often doesn't appear in the ingredients as it can quite often be "hidden" in the fragrance. It's "hidden" because it's in such a minute concentration that legally it doesn't have to appear in the ingredients listing. It's also in perfume, hairspray, deoderant etc etc. If this bothers you then don't use products with added fragrance. The most common way we get exposure to phthalates is through plastics. I know Unreal doesn't have any of the suspect ingredients as I'm sure most brands don't and we went to the trouble of checking with our raw material suppliers to ask the question if phthalates was a "hidden" ingredient in any of the ingredients we used and it wasn't.;)
 
my sister in law told me my saucepan will give me cancer. Aparently its the non stick coating?

the world has gone mad!

I use sienna x and whilst I am worried about the ingredients, i certainly dont think I will be giving cancer to all my clients.

I hate scaremongering articles like this.

As soon as I read the end bit, it hoguht it as a marketting ploy, how very very underhand of them!
 
Of course it's also well know that reading the drivel printed in papers like The Sun and the Deadly Mail can lead to brain rott, I'm sure there's studies to prove it!!!
 
The thing to drive sales is to scare people from the competition into buying YOUR product Seems like companies do this all the time to each other. Shallow.

Everything we do or eat will now have a government health warning.

I'm now so scared of living - I may not leave my home for the rest of my life.
 
I'm seeing this as a positive. I will be contacting all of my tanning clients to reassure them that my products are safe and encouraging them to book in. Make the press work for you, not against you.

I like the idea of using it positively to get in touch with people though and am working on a marketing email right now - whoever thought of that is brilliant!

I have 4 tans booked in tomorrow! :)
 
Actually, getting in touch with clients to reassure them has given me a bit of boost too - am really busy! (Although I think Mr. Blue Sky's been lending a hand with this too!)
 
Last edited:
...seems like someone missed out Phenoxyethanol from the list. This is an ingredient in the amazing new Phenonamuddle tan...

Phenoxyethanol is classed as toxic or harmful and linked to organ system toxicity when used around the mouth or lips.

Please see here: PHENOXYETHANOL || Skin Deep® Cosmetics Database | Environmental Working Group

Phenoxyethanol use is restricted in Japan as it has been linked to central nervous depression, eye and lung irritation. In fact, Phenoxyethanol was ranked among the top 10 most likely chemicals to create allergic reaction in users.

More details here:

Phenoxyethanol – Should Increased Use Concern Us? « Ingredient of the Week
 
Am I right to say that the product tantruth that is alcohol and paraben free does not contain these "harmful substances" ? :confused:
 
Fisrt it was spray tan booths, now it's spray tans in general....

Has anyone actually seen the original study that started this ball of fluff rolling...

It's full of 'may's' and 'possible's' and so on and so on...

In the USA the FDA approved DHA to be used in 'hand' applied products not in sprays...

And thus the story begins.... It was a dark stormy night, three robbers sat in a cave, come my brothers, come my brothers come let me tell you a tale and thus the story begins.... blah blah blah......

It's bad for business until the next rubbish story appears, then they forget about spray tans and argue over wether some dodgy footballer is gay, straight, not able to play for England cos he cant speak English...Doesn't that apply to all footballers?

I wish I could find the study I read about but nay it is not to be. So until the powers that be tell us otherwise, reassure your clients about the quality of your product, check your data sheets to make sure your happy with the ingredients and CARRRY ON SPRAYING!!!!!
 
Fisrt it was spray tan booths, now it's spray tans in general....

Has anyone actually seen the original study that started this ball of fluff rolling...

It's full of 'may's' and 'possible's' and so on and so on...

In the USA the FDA approved DHA to be used in 'hand' applied products not in sprays...

And thus the story begins.... It was a dark stormy night, three robbers sat in a cave, come my brothers, come my brothers come let me tell you a tale and thus the story begins.... blah blah blah......

It's bad for business until the next rubbish story appears, then they forget about spray tans and argue over wether some dodgy footballer is gay, straight, not able to play for England cos he cant speak English...Doesn't that apply to all footballers?

I wish I could find the study I read about but nay it is not to be. So until the powers that be tell us otherwise, reassure your clients about the quality of your product, check your data sheets to make sure your happy with the ingredients and CARRRY ON SPRAYING!!!!!

:lol::lol::lol::lol:
amen to that misus :hug:
 

Latest posts

Back
Top