by Scott Eric Barrett

Life moves fast. Business trips, job interviews or spontaneous blind dates can pop up faster than a nuclear Pop-Tart. You want to look your very best, but there's just not enough time. What you need is an instant fix.

While traditional tanning beds can't perform 24-hour miracles, sunless tanning machines found at your local tanning salon can transform your pale skin into a tan canvas quickly. Many salons have added these units to increase your choices.

We're not talking about your older sister's sunless tanning lotions that turned skin blotchy orange or even those cosmetic counter lotions that force consumers to break out a credit card just to buy a week's supply. Modern technology is transforming sunless tanning into what it was meant to be.

Same Old Stuff?

Consisting of dihydroxyacetone (DHA), the active ingredient in most sunless tanning products; bronzer, which is basically food coloring; and a healthy moisturizer--the ingredients in today's sunless tanners are no different than the orange-inducing terror products of the past.

The DHA still reacts with the proteins of the top layers of the skin to create brown color--that process continues to be reliable. The problem always has been on the application side because if you apply too much DHA to an area of the skin you can get the orange look. Or if you are taking the lotion form and rubbing it up and down your legs and arms, you never are going to get even coverage because the product will be absorbed in some areas faster than others.

Sunless tanning machines provide a new way of applying sunless tanning solution to your body. They combine the latest advances in sunless tanning products with state-of-the-art misting technology. A very fine mist of sunless tanning solution--DHA, bronzer and moisturizer-- covers your body in seconds. The difference is the even coating.

The Mystic Tan™ booth took the concept even further, utilizing MagneTan™ technology--a revolutionary process that allows the booth to apply a uniform amount of tanning solution to all parts of the body.

It sounds like something from Star Trek but when the special Mystic Tan™ solution passes through the booth's nozzles, the particles of solution are polarized, taking on the characteristics of "tiny magnets." MagneTan™ technology uses the body's own magnetic properties to attract the solution particles to all surfaces of the skin. Mystic Tan isn't the only player in the space-age sunless tanning game. Mist-On, Air Brush Tanning and the Sunless Express™ Spray Spa from ETS are just a few of the companies that have versions of this growing technology.

Everyone Is Invited

Sunless tanning machines--besides fulfilling instant fix demands--are perfect for fair-skinned individuals who would love the chance to get the color their skin can't seem to reach from UV tanning.

In fact, many indoor tanners are discovering that the technology is the perfect complement to a UV tan. Nothing in the tanning solution prevents you from tanning in tanning beds or the sun, and a number of users even have found that tanning with UV rays and a sunless tanning booth actually gives them a better overall tan.

The ultimate pre-tan conditioner for sunless tanning systems is a UV tan because it does a great job of prepping the body by dehydrating a tanner's skin and making it more susceptible to a fluid being absorbed.

Although advances in technology have made sunless tanning a positive experience, the only problem is that the great color from a session only lasts five to seven days--at most--so you are looking at about five visits a month at roughly $20 to $30 a single visit.

While many salons offer a discounted rate for multiple-visit packages--or additional savings when purchasing a combined UV- and sunless tanning plan--the systems still are new and expensive enough that salons must charge a fairly high price. However, as the popularity grows, the price will come down to embrace 21st century technology.

A quick sunless tanning fix--despite the cost--can do for wonders for your confidence when you need it in a hurry.