Is there a way for fair skinned people to get a natural looking tan too?

Pasty white versus a golden glow. There’s just no denying that something about a tan makes us not only look better but feel better—more attractive, more confident, even thinner! But the effects of too much sun on anyone, especially someone with fair skin, goes well beyond a sunburn. So can the fairest skinned of them all use tanning pills to get a beautifully bronzed body?

When Did a Tan Become the Standard of Beauty and Health?

In the 1920s, designer and fashion icon Coco Chanel popularized the idea of tanning, and the sun started to represent pleasure, relaxation, wealth and health. And even while we know that too much sun isn’t healthy, the desired look of a tan has stuck after all these years. Some studies suggest that men and women find tanned skin tones more attractive than pale skin. A study from the American Academy of Dermatology concluded that most people think tan looking skin is better than pale.

For the Fair Skinned, Too Much Sun is Risky Business

Regardless of how great we all think a tan looks, too much time in the sun can cause skin cancer. People with fair skin are at greater risk. Their skin has less melanin. Melanin is the pigment that gives skin, hair, and eyes their color. Dark-skinned people have more melanin in their skin than light-skinned people have. Melanin also helps block out damaging UV rays. This is why people with naturally darker skin are less likely to get sunburned, while people with lighter skin are more likely to burn. Sunburns can increase their risk of skin cancer.

For some fair skinned people, too much sun can leave them looking like a lobster and put them at an even greater risk for skin cancer. Making it almost impossible for them to spend the time needed in the sun to get that healthy-looking golden glow.

Indoor tanning is another tanning option. On one hand, if done patiently and sensibly, it can lead to natural results. But unlike tanning pills, for people with fair skin, it presents many of the same risks as traditional tanning.

Self Tanning Options for Pale Skin

Fake tans from sprays or lotions are certainly another option. Over the years these self-tanners have come a long way. But if you’re fair skinned, you know that most of them seem like they're made for everyone, except those of us with a fair skin tone.

Like tanning with the sun, self-tanners work on the outside layer of the skin, the epidermis. The epidermis is also made up of layers. The deepest layer of the epidermis is affected during sun tanning. The outermost layer of the epidermis is affected by most sunless-tanning products.

There are several different kinds of self-tanning products available. You can smooth, swipe or spray them on. Many of them take about forty-five minutes to an hour to start taking effect, and once you factor in drying time, you could be looking at about three hours spent achieving that sun-free “tan”. And there lies the rub for fair-skinned tanners.

After the time, the mitts, the smell, the possible staining of your palms, clothes or bed sheets, what color did you really paint yourself? Are you tan like a tangerine, striped like a zebra or did you achieve the sun-kissed look you desired? Unfortunately, for people with fair skin, even self-tanners can be a little risky. A fake tan can look, well, fake. Worst of all you’re stuck with it until it fades, which can take days or sometimes even a week depending on the product you used.

The Best Tanning Pills for Fair Skin

There is another option for pale skinned people: tanning pills. There are 2 basic types, one that contains dye and artificially colors your skin (no thanks) and another that is a natural supplement that works with your body to enhance your own tanning ability (i.e. Melatropin™).

While a pill that can tan you without the sun sounds like a great option if you’re fair skinned, the way the "dye" pills work is not ideal. Typically these pills contain the color additive canthaxanthin, also called food orange 8, carophyll red or roxanthin red 10. It’s used to give many foods their color. For fair skin, tanning pills like this completely change the way you develop a tan—there are no ultraviolet rays or melanin involved. Instead the body dissolves canthaxanthin in the fat just beneath the epidermis, and when canthaxanthin is consumed in large quantities, it begins to accumulate in that fatty layer, tinting the color of the skin, the same way it’s used to give color to things like ketchup, fruit juices and salad dressings.

With these pills, you’re not getting any dangerous UV rays, but there are still some risks. Even though canthaxanthin is approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a food coloring, it hasn’t been approved as a sunless tanning aid.

These types of tanning pills are known to contain several times the recommended amount of canthaxanthin. You need to consume high doses of the pigment before you see results, and you need to continue using tanning pills consistently for at least two weeks before your skin shows a noticeable change in color. Consuming large amounts of canthaxanthin has side effects ranging from cosmetic, like turning the palms of your hands and soles feet orange, or worse, your entire body, to more serious side effects, like its ability to damage to the eyes (the pigment causes crystals to form in the retina, causing a condition known as canthaxanthin retinopathy), or cause more permanent damage to the liver.

A Tanning Pill for Pale Skin That Works

But before you give up completely in your quest for a tan, there is another pill option, but with a far better proposition. This is the best tanning pill for fair skin, and it's called Melatropin™. It’s an all-natural blend of vitamins, amino acids, minerals and antioxidants that, when combined, enhance your body's natural tanning ability.

Melatropin™ is known for being especially good for people with pale skin. It doesn’t dye your skin or change your skin’s color with chemicals, so there’s no worry of looking fake with streaks or getting a bright orange glow. Melatropin™ is unique in that it works with the sun or a tanning bed to promote your own production of melanin, the skin pigment that makes you tan.

Taking Melatropin™ speeds up this natural process, so you can spend less time in the sun, and still get a great-looking, natural tan. This is so important, especially when you have fair skin. Melatropin™ can also help maintain a tan longer, so you can keep that healthy glow, even throughout the winter months when everyone is at their palest.

So is it possible for the fairest of them all to get a beautifully bronzed body? It may be a bit of a challenge, but with a little patience and the right product, that golden sun-kissed glow may finally be within reach.