Hi Gem,
I appreciate your concern, but can't help but disagree with you. My sentiment was not so much an opinion as it was tested chemistry:
DHA is derived from sugar cane and sugar beets, and the refined powder generally smells sweet (personally i think it smelled a bit like coffee, but maybe that was just because i drink a lot of coffee haha)--all in all the powder does not have much of a smell at all (and kind of tastes like cotton candy). Once reacting to the skin, DHA does smell a bit like burnt sugar--but in truth it is more the other ingredients that produce any of the "spray tan/ DHA smell" that people experience.
Speaking generally, the "Spray-tan" smell is created when a formula introduces thickeners and other ingredients that themselves have bad smells-
--I suppose I should have qualified "improperly formulated" as: a formula that does what it is supposed to (I.E. tan skin), but that also includes unnecessary ingredients or lower-grade ingredients that have bad smells of their own, and thus also require fragrances that induce allergic reactions.
One way to get rid of this offensive odor is to cover it up with fragrance oils (which have been proven to cause allergic reactions.) Please see:
Allergies to Fragrance | LIVESTRONG.COM or:
Allergic reactions trigger blow to perfume industry | euronews, reporter for more information.
Another way to get rid of the smell is to formulate a solution that doesn't require fragrance oils/cover up smells: this is done by sampling the different thickeners and grades (Xanthan Gum alone has something like 10 different grades) and finding out which work best and produce the least/no smells. (and thus require no fragrance oils).
I completely agree that the statement was sweeping and not necessarily true--as i said:"it is most often a cover up". I'm sure there are great products out there that use fragrance oils simply because they think they smell good; however, that does not reduce the danger of causing an allergic reaction.
