Can I get a very light spray tan?

Whether it’s your first time and you’re feeling nervy or you’re a spray tan lover looking for some insider tips, we’ve compiled our best advice for every step of the spray tanning process. Getting your best bronze tan starts here!

Before: How to prepare for a spray tan

Just like a regular self tanning sesh, nailing the look and staying power of your spray tan is all in the preparation.

Take a nice hot shower or bath and give your skin a good exfoliate. This will help to get rid of any dry skin, leaving behind the perfect blank canvas for an even tan. This is also the perfect time to complete any hair removal!

When you get out, make sure to moisturise with your fave body lotion, paying a little extra attention to areas like your hands, feet, elbows and knees, as these are the areas that the spray tan solution might cling to.

If you want to shower before your spray tan appointment, make sure you do it a few hours in advance so your pores have time to seal. No dark spots here! Also, don’t wear deodorant to your appointment - it could react to the spray tan liquid and leave a mark.

While we love makeup, we’d suggest that you arrive at your appointment fresh-faced for an even application. If you’re fitting a spray tan into your busy schedule, try taking along some makeup wipes to cleanse your face before your session.

On the day: What to expect at your spray tan appointment

What you wear for your spray tan really depends on your comfort level. You may want to bare it all for an even coverage, or you may want to cover up a little with a thong - especially if it’s your first time. It’s all about feeling comfortable!

Your beauty therapist may give you some accessories to wear - make sure you do! They might ask you to wear a hair covering, which is super important to keep your locks out of the way of the spray tan solution.

They should also ask you what kind of result you’re after. Whether you’re craving a deep and dark spray tan to last all holiday, or just a light glow for a special event, make sure you let them know your perfect shade. Feel free to bring along any pictures of your fave celeb’s bronze tans for reference!

The Bondi Sands Professional Solution range comes in a variety of different shades, so you can customise your glow. Our tanning solutions are enriched with Aloe Vera for intense hydration and a flawless finish, as well as our signature coconut scent.

If it’s your first professional spray tan, don’t stress; it’s not as daunting as it seems! Your beauty therapist will use a spray tan machine to evenly apply the product in sections for a streak-free finish. Be prepared though - spray tan products are quite cold at first!

Aftercare: How to make your spray tan last

After your spray tan, don’t worry if you’re looking a little darker than you expected. The spray tan solution and guide colour continue to develop over the next few hours, but after your first shower, these will wash away to reveal your beautiful tan.

To really make your professional spray tan last, moisturise every day. Choose a product like our Everyday Gradual Tanning Milk, which gives your tan a little boost for a long-lasting glow.

Beautiful bridal spray tans

If you’re thinking about getting a professional spray tan for your wedding or another very important event, a test run before the big day could be a great idea. This involves trying out your spray tan a few weeks before your wedding or event, to make sure your chosen spray tan solution looks exactly how you want it to.

You could even time your trial run at the same time as your makeup test and a dress fitting, so you can get an idea of the finished look!

Get that pro glow

We hope we’ve given you all the info you need to book that spray tan appointment! Make sure you look out for the Bondi Sands Professional range in salons, for a flawless bronze tan and our iconic coconut scent.

If you’re loving your Bondi Sands spray tan, let us know! Post your sunkissed selfies to Instagram using #bondisands!

This was a post I wrote waaaay back in early 2020! It was meant to be “winter content” as it’s harder to get a tan from the actual sun when it’s cold outside. But as I’ve been talking with my team we just aren’t into the whole “sit in the sun and bake” idea anymore. Protecting our skin and health is pretty important to us but that doesn’t mean we want to totally forgo that tanned glow, right? So we thought that reposting this VERY important and practical content might just be what some of y’all want. Enjoy:)

My team has heard me reference spray tanning for years and when we were brainstorming our lifestyle content for February, they all begged me to do a post about it because they are all curious and want try, but they are scared. So today I’m answering all their questions about how I get my “natural” spray tan in the middle of winter, for under 4 minutes and around $16. I’m not saying you should do this, nor encouraging the idea that tan skin is better than pale – no weird skin shaming here. But, like covering grays or straightening hair, it is something that some people do and even more people are curious about. And while it’s innately driven in a superficial (literally skin deep) way, I think most of us can relate to the confidence boost we get when we are looking healthy and pulled together – whatever that looks like to you. I’m an expert in it (the spray tan, not the “pulled together” look), so get ready because I’m about to drop some spray tan knowledge.

Let me walk you through it all …

WHAT IS A SPRAY TAN?

A spray-tan is a liquid formula with DHA that when sprayed evenly makes you look like you’ve been in the sun and you feel all glowy. There are many levels and tones and indeed you might want to experiment before say, your red carpet walk or your wedding. The same formula can also be in a lot of tanning lotions (we’ll get to that later).

There Are Two Types Of Spray Tans: “Airbrush” And “Booth”.

Airbrush means a real live person actually sprays you *naked* either in a pop-up booth in your home ($50 – $100 depending on where you live and level of experience) or at a salon ($60 – $80). It’s highly embarrassing but you will get a much longer-lasting tan that might look more natural and it’s, ahem, thorough. If you are in LA, I recommend Brittany from Be Bronze Studio.

A “booth” is literally a vertical booth that you stand in and nozzles go up and down and spray you evenly on your front and back. It is faster and more affordable – I have a $60/month membership at a non-fancy place and I go once a week (thus the $16 – it’s likely around $30 if you just buy one). It takes me between 4 – 7 minutes from start to finish (I know because I’ve timed myself SO MANY TIMES while I’ve made Brian wait in the car). There are two major brands of booths – Versa and Mystic. As I’m writing this I literally had no idea how much of an expert I am. I much prefer Versa because it’s more natural and much faster. There are typically 3 different levels of Versa that differ in intensity (and differ from booth to booth). I typically do level #2 bronze (the difference between bronze and clear is that they both give you a tan but “bronze” gives you an immediate glow that will yes, get on your clothes and sheets, and “clear” doesn’t show up for 8 hours, but since I like instant gratification I get bronze).

What do I do before a spray tan? Any prep?

1. You want to be clean, but not crazy exfoliated because it won’t stick as well. Around the ankles and wrists it will stick more because those areas are less smooth for whatever reason. Ideally, you shave the day before but I’ve shaven the day of one million times.
2. Don’t spray tan and then mani/pedi or get a blowout, or do anything that has to do with water or it will take the color off your hands/feet/calves and neck…
3. Do NOT get your first spray tan before an important event like a wedding. They can be uneven, too orange, or too dark so test it out, go on Yelp, ask for recommendations. For any special occasion, I get a custom airbrush done to guarantee that it’s a natural tone and it’s even (again, you have to make an appointment, it takes at least 20 minutes and costs about 4 times the cost of a booth in LA, otherwise I would do it all the time). They can even vary from booth to booth within the same brand so test out that particular booth first.
4. You need to wear a loose-fitting dress afterward so it doesn’t stick to your body and rub off your tan (it also feels incredibly gross to put on tight skinny jeans after this – you are sticky and damp for hours). No combat boots either. Think flip-flops or loose sneakers.

There I am the day before the shoot, consider this a “before”. Those are the four poses that you are supposed to do in the booth, and no I’m not psyched that I had to publish those on the internet. I also waited until my last spray tan was totally gone as you can see to do this post, which was QUITE the sacrifice.

What Happens Once In The Spray Tan Room?

1. Put your barrier cream on your hands and feet (see IGTV on Instagram). Apply liberally, but if you want to do it perfectly google some videos. I’m not the best at it.
2. Put on your hairnet and make sure it’s not too far onto your forehead (true story – I had like a full 1/2 inch tan near my hairline on my whole face once for an entire day). In the winter, I usually put a hairnet on my face too, so that only a bit of it gets on my face. This can make it pretty uneven between my face and my chest, but I don’t love a super tan face in winter (or ever on me). I really just want a tan body, not an orange face.
3. Take off jewelry, at least your necklaces and bracelets (I leave my rings because I always have those on so those tan lines don’t matter).
4. Step on a towel or buy the little foam things to stand on or else the bottom of your feet will be orange for weeks.
5. Get into the booth – NAKED or with whatever clothes you want (but you’ll have SEVERE “tan” lines).
6. Press the button and wait for the robot lady to tell you to move into the above four poses as the sprayer goes up and down 4 times. It then dries you on both sides.

What Are The DOs And DONT’s After Getting A Spray Tan?

1. You can’t take a shower for 8 hours – that’s the minimum amount of time for it to “activate”.
2. If you see it looking REALLY DARK then wash your face and chest. I think it sticks faster there and it can look dark and really unnatural. I usually don’t shower the next day because I like it to keep activating and get even darker, but you kinda stink and it’s pretty gross.
3. Most people shower the next morning but don’t scrub and don’t use a rag. Just let the water run and you’ll see the brown water of the bronzer go down the drain.
4. You should be careful about having sex for 8 hours, too. I’ve NEVER been in this situation before but I’ve heard from an airbrush person that if “certain liquids” get on it it will indeed take it off if under the 8 hours within that region. That “tan line” is harder to explain in a bathing suit the next day at the pool…
5. You should expect that it will get on your sheets, jammies, pillowcases, and towels. Mine always comes out, but I can’t vouch for your spray tan (it’s the same with most tanning lotions). I will say that if you like your sheets crisp white then you should likely need to bleach them, but again it’s not a huge problem for me.
6. You can go swimming, get a massage, sit in a hot tub, steam room, or sauna but all those things will reduce how long it lasts. I tell you this because usually people spray tan before vacation, so just know the consequences of your fun 🙂 I feel like one day in a chlorine pool takes mine totally off (If I’m on vacation I use St. Tropez at night on my legs and I’m happy – use the mitt).

THE NEXT DAY (or 8 hours later):

Yep. There she is. You might say that my legs are tanner than my face and you are right. I could use bronzer on my face if I wanted to even it out, but I wanted to show you what it looked like. That color will last for 2 -3 days with minimal showering.

As a reminder – here you go:

I consider it makeup for your body. It’s not that big of a deal but it does make me feel more comfortable at least wearing shorts. Head to the video to watch the video of the process which is both entertaining and yes, embarrassing but super informative.

If the booth spray sounds like too much to you (or you just want a good at-home product) here are our favorites:

1. St. Tropez Set of 2 8 oz. Classic Self Tan Mousse with Mitts | 2. Kate Somerville Glow Duo Tanning Towels & Exfolikate | 3. Neutrogena Build A Tan Lotion | 4. Banana Boat Summer Color Self-Tanning Lotion

I’ve used the St. Tropez for years and love it (I opt for the booth because it can get back, butt, and is just more even but if I ever just want legs done I use this). Kate Somerville wipes are great if you have some color already but just want a glow, and Julie and Sara both love the Neutrogena and Banan Boat options.

We would love your suggestions in the comments – especially if there are any new organic brands (or booths) we should try.

What is the lightest shade of spray tan?

Are there different levels of spray tan?

How long does a light spray tan last?

Can you get a natural looking spray tan?