Obviously, over exposure to the sun is bad for your skin, but did you know that self-tanners, while giving you the desired bronzed glow, have a free radical causing ingredient?

Dihydroxyacetone or DHA is the main ingredient in most self tanners. And, in a study, it was discovered that in DHA-treated skin had more than 180% additional radicals generated during sun exposure than skin without DHA. (source)

So what’s a girl grown woman to do if she wants a tan but doesn’t want to get too much sun exposure?

• Only use self-tanners when you aren’t going to be in the sun for at least 48 hours afterwards as that is the time frame when the worst DHA free-radical induced damage occurs.
• Use an organic natural product that is heavy on other antioxidant ingredients.
• Use a self-tanner with ERYTHRULOSE in it instead of DHA, but again I would follow the first two precautions…