Posts with tag suntan

We avoid sun tanning at all costs, and this "sun tattoo" robe from designer Yu-Chiao Wan has only reaffirmed our aversion.

The robe features mesh cut-outs that allow you to sun damage your skin into what looks like an over-sized wallpaper print from the 1970s. Kind of like those ridiculous little palm tree and Playboy bunny stickers they hand out at tanning salons taken to the extreme.

Can someone please pass the sunblock?

For some of us, summertime is a hot, sweaty nightmare of frizzy hair and shiny makeup collapsing like an ice cream cake in the sun. Between bug bites and sun burns our skin is a wreck, and we suffer from both the heat and the humidity. There is a whole post over on Stylelist about products that can help us survive the terrors of the season. And we need the help.

Meanwhile, there there are the charmed few, summer folk who thrive when the temperature climbs above 80 degrees. Just drop them at a pool, or anywhere there is sand, palm trees and surf. Their toes are always tan and bare, their hair tossled, and their faces sunkissed.

They look healthy, not hot. Casual, not sloppy. As if they just finished a particularly soothing yoga workout, and are about to sit on a warm, breezy deck watching the sun set, sipping something icy, tropical and fruity. In the gallery, their celebrity representatives, looking sexy, relaxed, easy going and enviable.

We must confess: Deep in the pit of our black goth heart, we totally dig preppy stuff. Not just that punky plaid stuff. We're talking clothes that pair pink with green. Orange with turquoise. Bright yellow with more yellow.

It goes with the dream of a summer place on the Vineyard, preferably next door to Carly Simon. In the closet would be a vivid Lilly Pulitzer dress- and capri-filled wardrobe. We would also be pleasantly buzzed on G&Ts all day long, and tan without freckles or skin cancer.

At the risk of sounding a little bit nutso, we definitely think there is an art to packing the ultimate beach bag. If you can pack it up with essentials and still keep it light, then you've got the knack.

I'll admit it. I have done lots of things to get that golden glow without actually subjecting my skin to the damaging rays of the sun. Oh, alright, I've done bad things, too, like cook myself in those horrible light coffins, but that was a long time ago. I've used self-tanners at home, had tanners applied by "professionals," and even stood in the Mystic spray-on shower stall. Though I certainly had a "glow," I looked more like a glowing orange creamsicle than a natural beach beauty.

However, there might be a technology on the horizon that actually produces the same type of natural color that comes from the sun. Researchers at the University of Kentucky are working on a product that stimulates the body's own tan-generating cells, melanocytes. The stimulation is produced by forskolin, a naturally occurring plant compound.

In laboratory experiments, not only does forskolin create a tan color, it also had the same effect as a sunscreen. A natural, non-orange-hued tan from a cream? It's looking good, but it's still a long way before it'll be available.