Full body transformation – No surgery or pills required!

Plastic surgery is BIG business. People pay thousands of dollars on surgeries, injections, lotions, potions, pills, and powders in order to make themselves look younger, slimmer, and more beautiful. What if I told you that there’s an easy way to look your best that you’re probably overlooking and it costs less than $30 and takes only a few minutes?

I’m talking about an airbrush tan! You probably think a tan is just a little color, but with a custom airbrush tan, it’s way more than that. Skilled technicians personalize each tan and can contour the application to make you look thinner, have bigger cleavage, and even have more toned muscles. It’s incredible what some well-placed color can do.  It also makes you look healthier and more youthful. The color helps to hide and diminish blemishes such as varicose veins, age spots and cellulite.  An airbrush tan can even your skin tone without any foundation and will look amazing even after you wash your face at night.

Spray tans have gotten a bad rep in the past for looking orange or streaky. That’s because spray tans USED to use dyes to stain the skin. An airbrush tan today doesn’t need all that artificial color! We use a safe, organic compound called DHA which works on the very top layer of your skin and doesn’t penetrate or damage deeper skin cells the way that tanning beds can. It creates a tan in a natural way and is approved by the FDA. The risks of cancer and skin damage associated with UV rays in tanning beds and the sun are not found with airbrush tans. And forget about those streaks! Your tanning technician is specially trained and will apply this formula evenly over your body to create a tan so natural that no one will know it isn’t real.

An airbrush tan won’t last forever sadly, but if you exfoliate before your appointment, avoid showering or swimming right after it, and then keep your skin nice and moisturized for the next week, you can prolong your tan up to 10 days, sometimes even longer!  It’s great to do all year round, especially for special occasions or big events. You’ll look like a whole new, healthier version of yourself.

Time to see what an amazing make-over it can be – Make an appointment today!

Is there a difference between an “airbrush tan” and a “spray tan”?

Airbrush tan, spray tan; tomAYto, tomAHto… right?  Not exactly. Not all tans are the same! Let’s explore a few different types of tanning…

♦ Spray Tan Booths

Spray tan booths are large booths that you stand in, and the tanning solution sprays out of nozzles and onto your skin. There’s no one there spraying you, you’re on your own.  If you accidentally turn your arm the wrong way or clench your legs together in the booth, the spray might not hit you evenly, leaving you with an unnatural looking tan. You need to be extra vigilant in order to get an even tan. You also need to be wary of tanning areas like your underarms or palms of your hand which might look unnatural with a dark bronze color! Booths can also make people feel slightly claustrophobic, so if you feel uneasy in tight spaces, this might not be the method for you.

 ♦ Self-Tanners

We’ve all seen these, and let’s be honest – most of us have tried at least one variety. They’re cans of spray-on liquid or lotions found everywhere from posh salons to your local drug store, and they promise perfect golden skin in the privacy of your own home. But how well do they work? I’ll be honest, you MIGHT be able to find one that you’ll swear by. But chances are, it will take a lot of time, money, and misery before you do. There are so many different formulas out there, and everyone’s skin is different, so it’s hard to tell which lotions, potions, and sprays will look natural on you. Some are made from dyes that stain your skin and look orange, some are made from other chemicals that might irritate your skin, and some are just plain ineffective. It’s also hard to apply sprays and lotions evenly on yourself, so you might need a friend to help. You might THINK you’ve gotten every inch, but the next day you look in the mirror and there’s that big patch of white skin, or even worse, thick streaks or blotches of dark color! Many at-home products will not only color your skin, but leave stains on your clothes, sheets, and furniture as well, so you’ll need to be careful. As the saying goes, you usually get what you pay for. You’ll get much better results letting a professional handle it. Which leads us to….

♦ Airbrush Tanning

Airbrush tanning is the preferred method for many people, including Hollywood’s biggest celebrities. With an airbrush tan, you’re working with a professional technician who knows how to pick the perfect formula to make each person’s unique skin tone look naturally colored.  They will then spray you by hand to ensure that the solution is applied evenly to all areas you want to tan, and eliminate excess spray from getting into areas you DON’T want – like knees, elbows, and underarms! It’s not a dye or stain like other self-tanning products. The active ingredient is something called DHA which is an organic compound that safely and naturally causes a tanning reaction in the very top layer of your skin. Airbrush technicians can touch up specific areas to even out skin tone or eliminate tan lines, and can even do things like give definition to thighs and abs. Airbrush tanning won’t leave streaks or stains like most at-home products, and it only requires one application. An airbrush tanning session is a truly personalized experience. You can even have an airbrush artist come to your house! They will bring all the equipment necessary to give you a great tan in the privacy and convenience of your own home.

For an affordable airbrush tan in Denver, Shine salon is the place to go!  We can also come to you and we offer special group packages for spa nights, bachelorette parties, weddings, pre-prom, etc. Give us a call to make an appointment and see why airbrush tanning is the best kind of spray tan you can get!  (303)-722-4040

Imperfections? What Imperfections?

No body’s perfect. Everyone has something they’re self-conscious of or wishes they could hide. You’re beautiful and you should embrace your body, with or without your imperfections… but if there were a quick, safe, pain-free way to look healthier, slimmer, and younger for under $50, would you be interested? You might be surprised to learn that an airbrush tan does all this!

These aren’t your mother’s spray tans. Back in the day, people used stains and dyes to color the skin a “tan” color, but it often ended up looking orange and streaky. Today, we use a safe, organic compound called DHA in our airbrush tans instead of artificial colors and dyes. DHA works on the very top layer of your skin and doesn’t penetrate or damage deeper skin cells the way that tanning beds can. It creates a tan in a natural way and is approved by the FDA. Our products are vegan and cruelty-free so you can feel as good as you look.

Our technicians are specially trained and know which formulas will look best with your unique skin tone. We will apply it evenly over your body so that it won’t look blotchy or unnatural in any areas. We can even contour the application to make you look thinner, have bigger cleavage, and even have more toned muscles. We can even out your skin tone and do wonders to hide varicose veins, age spots, cellulite, scars and stretch marks. It’s incredible what some well-placed color can do.

Pale skin washes you out and can leave you looking frail and sunken-in. A little color livens you up and leaves you looking younger and healthier in minutes.

Time to see what an amazing make-over it can be – Make an appointment today!

Tips to extend the life of your airbrush tan.

Nothing lasts forever. Unfortunately that’s true about spray tans. But there are some tricks for keeping that tan as long as you can!

Some of the most important things to help with you tan are done at home before you step foot in the tanning salon. That begins with exfoliating!  Spray tans only work on the top, outermost layer of your skin. This makes them much safer than tanning beds or laying out in the sun, but it also means that the tan won’t last quite as long. We are always losing skin. The top layer of skin dies and falls off or gets rubbed away by clothes, showers, etc. To make sure you’re not applying your tanning solution to a layer of dead skin that is just about the fall off, you should exfoliate the day before your tanning session so that the fresh skin underneath is the skin that gets tanned. There are tons of exfoliating scrubs, sponges, and gloves on the market that can help you with this task. You can even make your own natural sugar scrub if you’re handy like that! There are tons of great recipes out there. Whatever you choose to use, make sure you do it the day before your appointment.

Also be sure you shave (or wax) the day before your appointment. When you remove hair, you often remove a bit of skin as well. If you wait until after your airbrush tan, you’ll be removing a layer of the newly tanned skin with your hair, and that will reduce the time you get to spend with that glow. Plus, if you have hair on your body, the tanning solution will get on the hair and it can block the solution from getting to your skin and working it’s magic.

On the day of your appointment, don’t put on any creams, sprays, perfumes, or lotions. A layer of lotion on your skin can block the tanning solution from absorbing into your skin. Choose your outfit carefully before you leave the house, too.  Skinny jeans are great, but don’t wear them to your airbrush tanning appointment. The tanning solution dries pretty quickly, but it’s still a good idea to avoid tight-fitting clothes that will rub against your skin and potentially rub your solution off before it has a chance to fully penetrate and give you the best possible tan.

After you’ve gotten your treatment, avoid water for a few hours if you can. It takes about 6-8 hours for the solution to completely settle in and do it’s job. Until then, avoid showers, baths, saunas, and heavy work-outs since sweating opens pores and washes away the solution just as much as a shower can.

Once your tan has settled in (after that initial 6-8 hours) then be sure you keep your skin moist to lock that skin in. You know how your skin gets flakey when it’s dry? Those flakes are dead skin shedding off. Your hydrated skin will stay healthier longer. Once your skin is nice and tan, we want to keep it! Keeping your skin moisturized will ensure that you keep that tan as long as possible. We recommend moisturizing at least twice a day. If you can find a moisturizer that has SPF sun protection built-in, even better! It will help protect your skin from those damaging UV Rays we mentioned earlier!

When your skin is nice and tan, it’s best to limit your time in chlorinated pools. Chlorine dries your skin out and sometimes can even have a bleaching effect. So it’s best to avoid chlorine altogether if possible, but if not – be sure to shower it off as soon as you can when you get out of the pool and keep that moisturizer flowing!

Following these tips can ensure that your tan lasts as long as possible.

Science of Tanning

There are several ways you can get a natural tan. The most obvious is from the sun. Light from the sun reaches the earth in three different forms: visible light, infrared light, and ultraviolet light. The last type, ultraviolet light, is classified into three separate categories:
* UVA or black light, which causes tanning.
* UVB, which typically causes damage in the form of sunburn.
* UVC, which doesn’t affect us because it’s filtered out by the atmosphere before it can get to our skin.
The problems we associate with sun exposure, such as premature aging, skin cancer, sun spots, etc. are primarily caused by harmful UVB rays. Research suggests UVA might have a hand in these things as well. Most of the sun’s UV radiation at sea level is UVA rays.
UVA can be reflected, as well. Snow actually reflects roughly 90% of UV light, which is why you can get severe sun burns while skiing or snow boarding. Sand reflects up to 20% of UVB too, so at the beach, you’re getting more UV exposure than you would be getting if you were sitting in your backyard. Water also reflects UV light, although it doesn’t prevent it from penetrating the surface of the water. You can still get burned while swimming. Some surfaces can absorb these rays rather than reflect them. Certain types of glass do this, and our own melanin in our skin absorbs UV light to some degree.

Ultraviolet light in the sun stimulates the production of melanin. This pigment protects cells from damage by absorbing as much UV radiation as it can. Imagine you put a sponge on top of a piece of paper and slowly dropped beads of water onto it. The sponge would soak the water up before it can ruin the paper. That’s sort of what your melanin does to UV rays. It can become saturated, though. Eventually if you keep dropping water on it, the paper will be ruined.

It’s this protective melanin in your skin which gets darker and creates what we call a tan. Caucasians typically have the least amount of melanin in their skin on a day-to-day basis, but in many other races, there is a continuous melanin production, which causes the skin to remain pigmented and also offers more protection against UV rays.

It’s important to note that all UV rays are potentially dangerous. They can cause deep damage to your cells, which results in painful sunburn at best and fatal skin cancer at worst. It’s important to protect yourself from skin damage by wearing sunscreen when you’re outside. Avoiding direct sunlight is the best way to protect yourself. This really ruins your chance at a tan, though.

There is one more way that you can get naturally darker skin, however. That’s through DHA.  DHA is an organic compound naturally found in your own body that creates a chemical reaction within the amino acids in the outermost layer of your skin when applied directly to the exterior of your body. This reaction does not involve the underlying skin pigmentation, nor does it require exposure to ultraviolet light to initiate the change in color.  It is similar to the maillard reaction which occurs in food. It’s a natural, temporary color that looks just like a tan that occurs from melanin. The active ingredient in airbrush tanning is DHA. The color produced in an airbrush tan typically lasts 7-10 days, but it is much safer than roasting yourself in the sun or using a tanning bed.

The Truth About Tanning Beds

I have to admit that I have been seduced by the idea of the tanning bed. All you have to do is lie down in a bright room for a few minutes and walk out with gorgeous tan skin? Sign me up! If 28 million Americans are tanning in beds and booths every year, there must be no harm in it, right? Wrong… like any other seemingly easy fix, it comes at a high price – and not just from your bank account!

Dr. Felix Müller invented the first tanning unit with UV lamps for the public consumer in 1956. Fifty-five years later, tanning beds and stand-up booths are made up of high pressure bulbs that hold a higher ratio of UVA light than that of the atmosphere. The UVA and UVB lamps used in tanning beds are 2-3 times stronger than then sun because of the pressure levels and proximity to your body. Call me crazy, but I’d think twice before entering any device that claims to be stronger than the sun itself!

Low pressure beds and booths are also an option, and are recommended for beginners because of their low pressure release of only UVB rays. I find this recommendation completely ridiculous considering that UVB rays are the most harmful to your skin! Because of their deep penetration, UVB rays are the leading cause of skin cancer. It has been proven that indoor tanning increases your risk of developing melanoma by 74%. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, “melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, killing approximately 8,650 Americans in 2009.”

Even the kids on the Jersey shore have come to realize the life-threatening effects of indoor tanning! On an episode of Extra, Dr. Deborah Sarnoff, the Vice President of the Skin Cancer Foundation, did a life changing intervention with the cast of Jersey Shore to enlighten them about the dangers of the “T” in their daily GTL. Pauly D even admitted that he was going to put his tanning bed up on craigslist! Whatever happened to the age of the parasol and the over-sized hat?

What is Airbrush Tanning?

What is Airbrush Tanning?

Airbrush tans are made from a DHA solution. DHA is a simple carbohydrate, not a harmful chemical! Additional bronzing solution is added, which adds a layer of color to skin. DHA reacts with the top layer of skin cells to form a tan. The solution is applied by a professional, while you stand with arms and legs spread. The tanning professional walks around and evenly sprays the bronzing solution on your skin. We do all the work, and in less than 20 minutes you’ll have a beautiful tan! Airbrush tans naturally fade away instead of peeling off in blotches and don’t leave orange streaks!

Is it Safe?

Airbrush tanning is a safer alternative to indoor tanning beds or to outdoor tanning, because you are not exposed to harmful UV rays. There is no risk of skin cancer associated with airbrush tanning. The solution used is completely organic! It’s dermatologist recommended and FDA approved, with a very low allergy risk.

What do I need to do before I go airbrush tanning?

24 hours before your appointment, you should exfoliate all areas which will be treated. An exfoliating body wash or scrub does wonders! You want to get rid of any dead skin so that the spray doesn’t stick to it and then flake off. Making sure you’ve exfoliated will ensure that you get the longest-lasting, most even tan possible!

What do I need to do after my airbrush tan?
Showers or baths should be avoided for the first four hours after airbrush tanning. Ideally, no soaps or shower gels should be used for the first eight hours after applications. You don’t want to wash off the solution!

How Long Will My Tan Last?

An airbrush tan can last up to a 10 days, particularly when hot baths and chlorine are avoided.

If you have any other questions, feel free to call! We welcome your questions and consultations are always free. (303)-722-4040