Here in Australia, it’s safe to say that rocking a healthy, sunkissed glow will never go out of style. But as much as we all want to rock that summer goddess look all year round, we can’t always be bothered to go to the lengths required to get it if we don’t have it naturally. It requires either basking in the sun (which we all know is a HUGE no-no) or fake-tanning—which is a long process involving a whole lotta of preparation and exfoliation. As a result, “I wish I could just eat my way to tanned skin,” is a phrase that has come of many a pale girl’s mouth. And finally our prayer’s have been answered (well, sort of) because Scottish company Utan & Tone have created the world’s first edible tanning gummies.
How do edible tanning gummies work?
The chewy gummies claim to ‘help to accelerate and enhance the perfect bronze tone to pale skins, with and without the sun.’ And how the heck do they do that? According to the website, the ingredients in the gummies allow “potent actives to be held in the buccal cavity for a considerable time, resulting in ‘direct absorption’ through the membranes in the cheek walls.”
The ingredients include “a blend of essential plant nutrients: beta-carotene; lycopene; lutein; zeaxanthin & astaxanthin including a range of EFSA approved ingredients: Vitamin E & Selenium help protect the skin from oxidative stress; Vit C to help with the formation of collagen in skin; Zinc & Riboflavin for the maintenance of normal skin.”
Are edible tanning gummies safe and healthy?
The fact that the website states that the edible gummies work ‘with sun’ is cause for concern. The instructions read that users should eat the gummies for two weeks prior to sun exposure for optimum tan accelerating results. It doesn’t matter which way you slice it—sunbaking is dangerous and is terrible news for your skin.
Okay, so how does it make you tanned without sun? The product includes vitamin, which has the potential to change the skin’s colour due to containing high amounts of beta-carotene. “Ingesting high levels of beta-carotene may discolor the skin, as we see in people who eat a lot of carrots,” NY-based dermatologist Joshua Zeichner told marie claire US. But even so, it’s unlikely to give you the results you’re after. “Unfortunately, the color your skin turns is actually a yellow shade, not a tan shade,” Joshua continues
Then, there’s the fact that the first two ingredients of the product are sucrose and glucose aka. sugar. Yeah, we think we’ll just stick to fake tans that are actually good for our skin to get our faux glow on.
