Fake bake: Save your skin with a sunless tan

Tanning, whether you do it indoors or out, isn’t good for your skin.

If it doesn’t give you cancer, it will make you look old and wrinkled faster.

Who needs that?

If you love to look brown, however, there is a better way to bronze: Go sunless.

Sunless tanning lotions, also known as self-tanners, temporarily stain your skin golden brown without damaging or aging your skin.

Dr. Gail de Imus, a cosmetic dermatologist, skin cancer surgeon and director at The Everett Clinic’s Mohs, Laser &Skin Surgery Center, said sunless tanners are a good alternative to sun exposure.

“There is no such thing as a safe tanning bed with safe UV rays,” she said. “Sunless tanning is definitely the safer way to go.”

Regularly exposing your skin to ultraviolet light in tanning beds or in the sun can actually become addictive, said Dr. Robin Hornung, a dermatologist at the Everett Clinic and a lead researcher on a study at the University of Washington that surveyed 385 students about their tanning habits.

“There’s likely a release of endorphins,” said Hornung, whose study on the addictive nature of ultraviolet exposure was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Though the first sunless tanning lotions in the 1960s turned people’s skin orange, cosmetics companies have improved formulas dramatically for more natural coloring.

Some daily moisturizers include small amounts of sunless tanning lotion to gradually darken skin.

Whatever type of sunless product you use, it’s important to continue to use sunscreen if you go out in the sun.

Although some sunless tanning products include sunscreen, like any sunsceen, they need to be applied every few hours to remain effective. In fact, you’re as white as you ever were, despite your fake tan.

“It is dangerous to think that you become protected, since people gain a false sense of security and expose themselves more,” de Imus said.

Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.