The statistics are frightening – 70,000 new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK and every year 2,000 people die from the disease. Experts agree that exposure to UV rays is the primary cause of skin cancer worldwide, and Cancer Research UK asserts that the use of sun beds in men and women under the age of 35 increases the risk of developing skin cancer by up to 75%.

Thankfully most of us are starting to take this message on board and the beauty industry is reflecting our shift in attitude.

No, we haven’t all been converted to the pale and interesting school of beauty; most of us still lust after that gorgeous golden glow, but increasingly we are reaching for the bottle – and not hitting the sun bed to achieve it. ‘The market in self-tanning products is booming at the moment’, says Claire Crouch of the International Dermal Institute, ‘because everyone is realising that the only safe tan really is a fake tan.’

The array of fake tanning products and processes available today is overwhelming, from mousses and gels designed for use at home to salon applied treatments and spray booths, beauty companies are battling it out to create the perfect natural tan. At last, it seems we can comfortably kiss goodbye to unsightly streaky finishes and that telltale tangerine tinge.

WAGs do it best
The burgeoning popularity of the false tan is nowhere more apparent than among those bastions of glamour, footballers’ wives. While their 90s counterparts may have sweated it out on sun beds to get their trademark year-round glow, today’s WAGs are famed for their dedication to the art of faking it and have successfully showed us all how to look beautifully-bronzed without fear of premature ageing or risk of skin cancer. True, most of us probably can’t afford the £15,000 Alex Curran and Coleen McLoughlin are rumoured to have spent on flying out personal tan therapists to Germany during last year’s world cup,
but we can still get gorgeous results from local salons and DIY products.

Spray away
For a flawless finish and tailor made tan most beauty salons and tanning shops now offer spray tans or airbrushing treatments during which a therapist will lightly mist your body with tanning product, often a special formulation of familiar brands like St Tropez or Sophie Anderton and WAG favourite, Fake Bake, designed for salon spray use. Most formulations deliver an instant hint of colour that gradually deepens throughout the day. Good therapists are able to create a truly natural result by varying the depth of colour applied to specific areas, highlighting shoulders and collar bones, for example, to mimic the effect of the sun.

Prices vary enormously and start from around £25 and treatments can take anything from 15 to 45 minutes.

If speed and convenience are your top tanning priorities then you can’t beat a spray booth. A beautifully even, streak-free glow can be yours in as little as thirty seconds, making it the perfect lunch hour treat. Sinead Armstrong, one of the UK’s leading tanning authority and the expert behind the American tanning range, California Tan (whose fans include Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie and Penelope Cruz), explains that technological advancements like the use of electrostatics in automated tanning have contributed to the flawless finish we can expect from a spray booth today.

A California Tan at The Tanning Shop, where experts will assess your skin type, body size and desired depth of tan to tailor the tanning solution to your precise needs, will set you back around £25.

Get salon results at home
For those of you who prefer the DIY approach to fake tanning, the range of products now on sale is staggering. Thanks to recent developments in the refinement of Dihydroxyacetone (DHA – the active ingredient in most fake tans), the results are better than ever. Choose brands that contain organic silicones which allow the product to glide over and melt into skin rather like a foundation. Tanning expert, Sinead Armstrong is a fan of aerosol self tans ‘the closest a consumer can get to a professional spray tan.’ Self tanning products can cost anything from £5 for the popular moisturisers like Johnson’s Holiday Skin which, when used daily, gradually builds a subtle tan, to £30 for high end brands like Fake Bake and St Tropez.

Whether you’re after a natural glow or a deep tan, there’s no excuse for baking yourself on the beach or sun bed any longer – the future’s fake but it’s not orange!

Faux Tan
Now you can achieve a tan-tastic glow all year round without lying in the sun with id.bareMinerals Faux Tan All-Over Face Colour, £21. An application of this will leave your skin with a sunlit bronze colour – natural enough to have all your friends believing that you’ve spent two weeks on the beach!

Made up of 100% ground-down minerals with zero added preservatives or irritants, it claims to leave your skin silky smooth.

Visit www.skin-health.co.uk

Five Safe Sunless Tanning Tips
Follow tanning expert, Sinead Armstrong’s advice for a tip-top tan that leaves you gorgeously glowing and totally streak free.

Exfoliate every day. It doesn’t take long and it makes such a difference. If your skin is naturally dry, you need to pay special attention to this important step. Your skin should turn slightly pink during the process and will feel much smoother when you have finished.
Don’t rush the self tanning process – you will only end up with streaks and missed spots. You have invested in high quality products, now you have to invest the time to achieve an even glow.
Make sure you’re in a well lit room. What looks good in shadowy light may
look uneven in the light of day.
Dilute your chosen self tanning product with moisturiser to perfect notorious, tricky areas including hands, feet and ankles. If you are using a spray or a foam, apply the self tan, wait 30 seconds or until it feels dry to the touch and
then rub a small amount of moisturiser in to blend.
Dihydroxyacetone is the active ingredient in every self tanning product and can make skin dry and parched. It is therefore vital that you moisturise daily and if you are using a tan extender or a ‘gradual tan’ product on a daily basis, make sure you give your skin a break every 3 to 4 days. Don’t use this kind
of product consecutively for any longer than a week if your skin is naturally dry.

Real Life

‘There was no hint of orange!’
St Tropez is the latest brand to release a self tanning moisturiser with its EVERYDAY range. It claims to hydrate skin beautifully while delivering a gentle, subtle tan. Self tanning fan, Charlotte Maugham tried it out…

‘On first use it went on incredibly smoothly, had a lovely fragrance and left my skin deliciously soft, making it one of the better products of this type for really moisturising the body. However, after a few hours the smell became slightly overpowering and the results were streakier than those of similar products I have used.

‘I persevered because the actual colour it delivered was a lovely light gold with no hint of orange, and found that the trick to a streak free finish with this product is to use it very unsparingly.

‘When I eventually got the hang of it, I loved the finish of St Tropez Everyday and loved how supple it made my skin feel. At £12.95 for 200ml, it is a lot more expensive than other moisturising self tanners, but it’s worth it for a special treat.’ Visit www.st-tropez.co.uk

Sheree SAYS

‘I used to use sun beds a lot, but now I try to stay away from them. ‘During the winter months, I use St Tropez Aero Bronze. It looks so natural and is easy to use at home so I don’t need to go for a salon spray. ‘I keep my tan topped up in the sun in the summer – but I wear lots of protective lotion.’