I wanted to write a post on Organic spray tans because there seems to be an increase in businesses claiming that they provide organic spray tans/tanning, and Brands that still claim that their solution is organic without any official certification.
For a solution to be claimable of being organic and/or organic certification it needs to contain 95% or more organic ingredients. Not only do the ingredients need to be organic, but the product itself needs to be manufactured in a certified organic environment to be certified as organic.
Products that have been labelled with “made with organic ingredients” need to contain 70% or more organic ingredients. There are some solutions with more organic ingredients and more natural ingredients than others and there are huge differences in quality across Brands, but unless a solution has been certified organic you can pretty much guarantee that solution as a whole isn’t organic. Just because a solution contains an organic ingredient or two doesn’t warrant the solutions to be called organic and Brands and spray tanners need to stop using the organic term unless it’s been certified as organic by an Organic Certifier. Ingredients used in a spray tan solution that stop it from being called an organic solution are:
- DHA
- FD&C colourants
- Synthetics (even in minuscule amounts)
- Synthetic preservatives
- Fragrances
The claims of organic within the spray tan industry are everywhere and are quite misleading.
Organic DHA does not exist and any company claiming they have Organic DHA in their solutions is false. If a company states that they use EcoCert Certified Organic DHA, ask for confirmation of their organic claims. EcoCert have made a statement regarding this. To read their statement click here.
EcoCert does not certify individual ingredients like DHA. They certify only finished products like spray tan solutions and other beauty products.
EcoCert has approved DHA made by a few companies for use in a finished product that is certified by them as “Natural” or “Natural and Organic”. This means that if the formula meets the requirements of EcoCert on natural and organic content, their DHA may be used and the product will still obtain EcoCert Certification. If a Brand claims to be an organic spray tan solution but does not state who has certified the product, it is likely not organic. Always ask for their certification. Labels of organic products must state the name of the certifier on the front of their label. If a solution contains FD&C colourants or fragrance on the ingredients list, it is NOT organic.
Organic solutions do not contain FD&C colourants and any Brand stating their solution is organic that contains FD&C colourants is falsely misrepresenting the organic claim. Natural colourants are used in organic solutions instead.
These natural colourants are normally caramel, cacao, annatto or purple sweet potato. Using too much of these colourants in the formulation will lead to the solution feeling extremely sticky on the skin, so this can be a downside to organic solutions, as well as the fact that organic solutions will always produce a lighter result due to the omission of bronzers in the solution.
Here is a list of some of the ingredients found in spray tan solutions that are not allowed in spray tan formulations that make an organic claim:
- Blue 1 (CI 42090)
- Cetearyl Isononanoate
- Ceteareth-12
- Ceteareth-20
- Decyl Polyglucose
- Dihydroxyacetone (Organic) – organic DHA does not exist
- D&C Green #5 (CI 61570)
- D&C Red #33 (CI 17200)
- D&C Red #40 (CI 16035)
- Diazolidinyl Urea
- Ethoxydiglycol
- FD&C Red #33 (CI 17200)
- FD&C Red #40 (CI 16035)
- FD&C Yellow #5 (CI 19140)
- FD&C Yellow #6 (CI 15985)
- Glucame E-20
- Hexylene Glycol
- Isopropyl Myristate
- Methylparaben
- Ordenone
- Phenoxyethanol
- Polysorbate 20
- PPG-12
- Propylene Glycol
- Propylparaben
- Red 40 (CI 16035)
If you are claiming that you are using an organic solution and they contain any of the above (even just one of the above) you should not be calling the solutions organic.
Brands that have any of these ingredients in the solutions should not be marketing their solutions as organic either.
Check the ingredients lists of the solutions you are currently using. If they contain any of the ingredients listed above and market their solutions as organic then they are misleading you and falsely using the term organic purely to sell you their products.
As an industry we need to take a stance against the false claims of organic solutions to ensure that our clients are not being mislead into thinking that they are being sprayed with an organic solution when they aren’t. We need to educate our clients correctly so they are no longer being misinformed about products being organic.
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