How to Fake an Air-Brushed Tan at Home

Don’t you love when you reach that age where you decide you know better and its time to quit hitting up those tanning booths. I got serious about quitting the booths when a close family friend found skin cancer on her back. She’s only about seven years older than me and after seeing her scary scar it was motivation enough for me to quit my fake sun addiction.

Although I quit the booth it was still another four or five years before I quit laying out in my backyard too. Two summers ago I had my first sun spots pop up on my forehead and my upper lip of all places, and that quickly helped me get my butt in gear about being safe in the sun. I no longer lay out and have started wearing sunblock pretty faithfully, especially on my face, though I could still be a bit better about it.

A couple months ago as spring was finally making its way here, I had a trip planned to Houston and freaked out when I noticed how pale winter had made me, even though I use sunless tanning lotion all season long. I decided I needed to do something quick without risking harm from the sun.

I picked up this little beauty for about $150. Its an airbrushing tanning system by Luminess. Because I’ve been using Temptu’s Airbrushing system this past year on my face, I had a pretty good idea how air brushing works and thought I would feel comfortable using this.

Assembling it was a little more difficult than I thought. I found the instructions to be a bit vague. It took me a minute to figure out how exactly to connect the liquid to the gun, and even then it kept dripping everywhere. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong until I realized the cap was still on. Yeah, duh! But apparently I need to be told that in the directions and unfortunately I wasn’t. lol.

Once assembled, which really only takes about two seconds once you know what you’re doing, Istarted airbrushing away. Starting with my feet and legs and doing long strokes up and down the leg. It felt a bit awkward at first, especially trying to get the back of my legs and when it required using my left hand. Making my way up my body I started to get the hang of it. The back of my arms were a little difficult and my back was really hard to get but surprisingly it turned out just fine there.

The whole application takes about 20 to 30 minutes the first time to get a nice base. The directions say to use about half a bottle the first time. I didn’t even come close even after doing about three different layers.

Cleanup was easy and just required running warm water through the system to clean it out. Immediately I could see a tan. I did have to wipe away a little excess in some spots, but it comes right off, except for on my fingers, thanks to all the dripping I had to deal with in the beginning before finally removing the cap.

After about 5-6 hours I could really tell a difference although I was blotchy in quite a few places thanks to not really knowing what I was doing yet.

I have since used the tanning system three more times and as I get a hang of it, my tan looks better and better and more even. This time It looks near perfect and I have a nice warm tan and I’m still barely more than half way through my first bottle.

I love this system and will continue to use it. Its perfect for the girl looking for a nice tan without risking damage to her skin, and who would like a tan much quicker and more noticeable than a tanning lotion can give you.

Its a bit pricey and you do have to buy refills which are around $30 for two, but I can see my first set of bottles will last all season.

If you do purchase this brilliant system, be sure to practice a few times before going out in public. It tends to be pretty splotchy and uneven at first until you get a hang of using the system. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to take the cap off! lol.

You can check out the Luminess Airbrush Tanning System and purchase it HERE at their website. You can also pick it up Here on Amazon!

Happy Beautifying!