By Tracey Strange
Beauty has a reputation for weird treatments. The latest is using Coke (as in the soft drink) as self-tan and/or tan enhancer. Coca-Cola contains a caramel dye, which when applied to the skin, turns it brown. Not so different to your standard fake tan? The colour in traditional self-tanners does indeed come from sugar - mainly dihydroxyacetone or DHA (the smelly ingredient in self-tans), which is notoriously difficult to stabilise. The sugar in Coke isn't intended to turn anyone brown, therefore it's more likely to be patchy than a self-tanner. But the main problem is that it's acidic, so acts like an exfoliator. Dousing yourself in the stuff and going out into the sun is quite literally playing with fire. It's a simple equation: exfoliating + sunlight (without sunscreen) = madness.
But spring is here, your skin (to reference the Brothers Grimm) is snow white, and even just a touch of extra colour - let alone a full-body bronze - will make you look healthier and feel more alive.
First things first
It's pretty impossible to get a completely natural-looking fake tan. As the skin sloughs, marks appear, and any tan can look more orange. Clothes, too, play their part in making you look less than naturally sun-kissed. Try to get dressed while your self-tan is even slightly damp and you'll get tan "demarcation" lines. But natural tans also have their issues (apart from the obvious health ones). They, too, result in tan marks, but you can also add to that peeling skin and sunburn. A fake tan is always the safer option.
