"Until you have proof that over 14% is unsafe to use in spray tanning and not cabin tans, I don't think it's very fair to say that all companies who sell over 14% are just out to make money and are putting our health at risk."
Nails, there are two points to consider here, and you seem to be only looking at one of them. I'm not going around saying it's unsafe to spray with over 14% DHA. I am saying it's ineffective. I hear and accept your experience that high DHA solutions work for you, and I cannot explain it, in just the same way that someone will swear to me that they believe in their Tarot Card readings or can see ghosts. I'm not going to argue with them, because I'm not them, and have not had their experience.
All I know are the facts, and these facts are that scientifically, the skin cannot absorb more than around 10-12% DHA. Cannot. Human skin has a limit.
So if companies are going around selling 20% DHA tanning solutions knowing full well that there is no scientific basis to what they are doing whatsoever, it's not a massive stretch of the imagination to think that they may quite possibly be just a little bit more interested in their bottom line than in just about anything else.
I've never said that 14+% tanning solutions are unsafe, but while there are SCCS recommendations suggesting a limit on the DHA% of solutions, and while the press is abuzz with rumours about tanning solutions, I just personally don't think it's a good idea to be bringing out higher and higher DHA percentages. If they were effective and did their job, then it would be worth looking into, but they're not. Whatever these products are doing to make the skin darker (if indeed they even are for more than 48 hours), it's got nothing to do with their higher DHA content, so why put more chemical onto the skin than necessary? Just because you want to be able to say that your product has 1% more DHA than the next guy? Is that really responsible business?