We all love the perfect tan… that wonderful luminous-caramel tone which makes us feel beautiful, look “outdoors-ey” and  athletic – and 10-pounds thinner! But few of us have the luxury of lounging at pool-side or flying away to some tropical, pearly-white beach to work on our bronze skin tones. There’s still hope though, even if you did spend the summer in front of the game-console and your vacation helping grandma clean out her garage – and it all begins with the best indoor tanning lotions!

Whether you choose to tan under sunlamps, enwrap yourself in a sun bed or use the best indoor tanning lotion to gain your luscious glow – you need to do a little homework to make sure you’re tanning “healthfully” and in the safest way you can. After all, no one wants skin cancer or wrinkles – premature or otherwise!

To help make it easier for you, we’ve edited the tons of information on tanning best tanning lotion for indoor tanning and the “best” methods to get one, and waded through the misinformation that’s around, too. We’ve even taken on some of the conflicting info and the debates, such as the ongoing one between the American Suntanning Association which supports this billion-dollar industry, and such trusted medical experts as The Natural Institutes of Health.

They both offer good arguments on whether sun beds are “safe” for tanning. (See our article: Are Tanning Beds Safe?) As with anything that’s worth learning, it’s best to start with the basics, leading to the best indoor tanning lotions.

Tanning 101

Your delicate skin is the largest organ of your body. And it is delicate even if it’s calloused and rough. It’s your body’s first line of defense against injury and invading illness – serving  a much greater purpose than we typically think about when we perfume it, powder it, wash it or lip-stick it! That’s why, we should protect our skin, especially against the harmful UV rays, and the indoor tanning lotion will help us!

In fact, we rarely think about our skin until an unsightly zit or wart appears or it’s injured and speaks to us through pain. Yet changes in our skin often give us our first indication that something is wrong on the inside. Our skin does a lot for us and we could be kinder to it – especially when tanning, which directly affects it. In case of using tanning bed for gorgeous tan, we can’t do without the best indoor tanning lotion!

All methods of tanning: in sunshine, under a sunlamp or within a sun bed, use ultra violet light to darken our complexions. UV-light affects “melanin” in our skin, a part of the pigment that determines our natural-skin coloring and which helps to determine our tan coloring. This natural  substance works to keep us healthy in numerous ways: it can absorb modest amounts of sunlight and turn it into energy, and reduce loss of folate – a Vitamin-B Complex found in green, leafy vegetables and in citrus fruits. One of the jobs of this important complex is to help protect both female eggs and male sperm.

Sunlight, in any form, is a miracle for our bodies! Moderate doses of it reduces swelling and inflammation, fights insomnia and helps us to sleep better overall, promotes skeletal health, and creates serotonin and dopamine which are natural mood elevators. It’s also our only natural source of Vitamin D, which has been proven to be of such benefit to the human body that it can even lower high blood-pressure, reported WebMD in its January 20th issue.

Sunlight is so important to our physical makeup and overall well-being that without we’d all develop serious illnesses and diseases and – of course, die!

At first look tanning seems to supply the answers to all modern-day medical problems! Yet before you go out and invest in a sunlamp or sign up for 20 sun-bed sessions this week, it’s best to get the full story! There are also huge downsides to tanning (Of course! Nothing’s that good!). And by all means don’t forget to use the best indoor tanning products for fair skin, if you have pale and delicate complexion. Your health –as well as your skin – depend upon it.

Recommended: Best Tanning Lotions for Fair Skin

Protect your skin

Unlike lotions you wear at the beach that contain a Sun Protection Factor intended to block out the sun’s most harmful rays, the indoor tanning lotions you use for sunlamps and sun beds are meant to enhance tanning – not to block it, so they usually don’t contain an SPF.

Your tanning lotion with an SPF of 15 or higher that you slather on while playing frisbee in the park or sunning at the beach is exactly what The American Cancer Society recommends. The U.S.Environmental Protection Agency takes it a step further and recommends SPFs of 30 or greater to protect your tender skin. Skin cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer in the U.S.  Almost 3.5 million new cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, and the numbers are rising. It affects all skin types: fair and adorably freckled, olive-toned and sexy, and dark and beautiful.

Yet skin cancer is also one of the most easily preventable – so keep slathering! These SPF-saturated lotions are meant to be worn when you’re exposed to the harsh ultraviolet rays of the sun, even if you’re outdoors for only a few minutes.

But these won’t work with sun lamps or sun beds.

SPFs can block tanning under artificial conditions and can damage the acrylic and resin components of a sun bed. No worries, though – as we’ve done the research, and are supplying you with our choices of the best indoor tanning lotions.

The Best Indoor Tanning Lotions for Your Skin

Like everything else, there is choice after choice of indoor-tanning lotions on store shelves and in tanning salons, So how do you know which lotion is right for you? Some contain tea oil, copper, even green tea. And what’s an “accelerant” versus a “bronzer?” It’s enough to make you decide to live with skin that’s so untouched by sunlight in any form that it glows in the dark … almost!

First and foremost – no matter which indoor tanning lotion you choose – you need to protect your precious derma! ALL tanning damages the skin to some degree and can quickly dry out your skin, and what good is gorgeously bronzed skin if it looks like worn shoe leather?

Remember, a suntan and a sunburn are only degrees or minutes apart from each other! One minute too long under any UV light can cause a bad burn. And scientists warn that individuals who get sunburned, especially if it’s a bad burn or acquired while young, are more susceptible to skin cancers. Any one, at any age, and of any complexion CAN get skin cancer –  so “protect,” “protect,” “protect” cannot be over-emphasized!

Don’t forget that the tanning process for fair skin is quite different from those who have darker colored skin. In order to achieve your desired tan color, you should use the best indoor tanning products for fair skin. Usually, they include the high-quality tanning lotions with hydrates that smooth and soften your skin while darkening it.

And using the right tanning lotion under each condition is a crucial step for darkening without drying, without burning, and without watching your tan simply peel away in 10 days time.

You begin and end with…

The Best Indoor Tanning Lotion

The whole purpose of tanning is to improve how you look, so always choose products which contain good moisturizers! Here are some we’ve selected – in fact, the best indoor tanning lotions!  (ALL have received rave reviews.)

 2010 Swedish  Love Me Tanning Lotion

A great lotion for beginners, 2010 Swedish Beauty Shea “You Love Me” Tanning Lotion is the product for getting your base on – your base tan, that is! Sensually creamy and moisture-intensive, this lotion is hypoallergenic and works well in protecting pale or sensitive skin. Those prone to burns and new tanners especially appreciate this product! It also doesn’t stain clothing or make you smell like a coconut grove! Like all products in Swedish Beauty’s Botnica Collection, “You Love Me”  infuses grape-seed oil to tighten and tone skin as you brown, black tea extract, and a booster and enhancer – all to help you get “color” faster. This one of the best indoor tanning products for fair skin also almost entirely “paraben (preservative)- free.” Amazon consumer reviews rate this near-perfect product at just under  5 stars – its highest rating! Comments range from “amazing,” “fabulous,” to “a wonderful mix of quality product and price!” (Really – look it up!) The 8.5-ounce-size offers good value for a this sensible and self-pampering product!

Available Here

Designer Skin’s Obsidian 30x Bronzing Matrix Tanning Lotion

This indoor tanning lotion unleashes the power of Mother Earth to provide one of the darkest, deepest possible tans – without drying skin or leaving it looking aged! Volcanic minerals combine with thermal geo-energy to give you warmth – without the burn – and turns even “plateau-ed” tans into color that the gods of Olympus would envy! One of the best indoor tanning products for fair skin refreshes it to give you a youthful-appearance through Designer Skin’s exclusive SunStay moisturizers. The deep-penetrating system bathes skin in long-lasting hydrators, which reverse and repair the aged-look that tanning can sometimes create. It warms the skin (proof it’sworking), without over-powering sensations, as its ingredients go to work to produce a creamy color that only this combination can produce. Leaves skin feeling moist, smooth and restored! Amazon rates this product at almost 5-stars, as it does allthe products that The Tanning Both recommends. The 13.5-ounce size is perfect for your tanning regimen.

Available Here

Designer Skin’s Bombshell Lotion 100xx Dark Tanning Bronzer

This indoor tanning lotion  is “the bomb!” Users credit the product’s intensive “tingle” action for exploding their color to new depths of richer, darker hues! Bombshell employs multi-layer, deep moisturizers and some serious darkening tools for a tan you can’t achieve with UV light alone. A strong “tingler” puts skin to work in melanin production with action you know is working! A rich accelerator boosts the process – even after you’ve left the sun bed. You spend more time actually darkening, not frying and drying your skin under sun-damaging UV light. Its bronzer is immediate and gives natural-looking color that enhances what you get from a sun bed or lamp. Best indoor tanning lotion for pale skin! No fake yellow or orange tones! Formulated with such natural ingredients as white tea and soy, with CoQ10 – a proven tanner -Bombshell is a great product for you first experience with a “tingler! ” But beware – you should have a good base-coat before you advance to this  experienced-tanners product! Smells like bubblegum!

Available Here

Australian Gold Professional Dark Tanning Lotion Accelerator

This one is perfect for those tanners who are ready for some base-coat color! This A-One product boasts an accelerator, which increases blood flow and oxygen to the outer layers of the skin to boost melanin production – that miraculous natural substance that produces “color.” When exposed to UV rays, this same substance that determines that our “au natural” coloring also helps us turn that luscious brown!  The more melanin we create – the better the party for our tans! The accelerant in Australian Gold provides this quicker base tan, to give you that first hint of color that separates you from the rest of the snow-white crowd! Amazon reviewers love this indoor tanning lotion, its price – and its gentleness on sensitive skin while it promotes great color! Even first-time tanners and those prone to fry loved this product – and gave it  practically 5 stars!

Available Here

Designer Skin Hero Worship

This indoor tanning lotion contains innovative ingredients that serves two purposes: an accelerator for quicker, darker tanning, with an activator to prolong the tanning process after you’ve completed your indoor-tanning session. Beware, though – this advanced-tanner product may be too strong for sensitive skin or new tanners who are more prone to burns. We recommend the 13.5. ounce.

Available Here