BRONZED Age

It's been 20 years since Jergens brought SELF-TANNING to the masses. Ahead, a SUNLESS-TANNING state of the union, from key NEW PRODUCTS to the PSYCHOLOGY behind our TAWNY OBSESSION.

- TEXT BY KATIE INTNER

I'm not sure what I was expecting from comedian Nikki Glaser's opening monologue at a recent show at New York's Beacon Theatre, but it wasn't a paean to fake tanning. In lieu of raunchy jokes, Glaser talked about the spray tan she had gotten the day before and how it made her feel invincible. It was like “job security,” she said, making her feel like she had her life together.

I stared at my arms, slathered with self-tanner, and nodded in agreement. But just a few days later, I came across a viral TikTok video posted by Kylei Halbakken, who has been documenting her withdrawal from fake-tanning to the tune of half a million views. “After I quit, I felt relieved,” Halbakken tells me. “I didn’t dread my Thursday-night self-tan routine anymore.”

Halbakken’s videos reached Emma Brausen, who decided to put down the self-tanner after more than a decade of devotion to Jergens Natural Glow. (Brausen’s video has reached four million views.) “I am an expecting mother, and with all the changes that motherhood brings, I figured that my constant self-tan regimen wouldn't work,” she says. “I wanted to feel more natural and embrace my pale skin.”

“WOMEN have reported FEELING healthier, more attractive, MORE FIT, and SEXIER after using SELF-TANNERS or sunbathing,” says Carolyn J. Heckman.

I remained unswayed by Halbakken (like Glaser, I also get a confidence boost from a fake golden glow), but the viral and heated engagement around her journey weaning off self-tanning speaks to the emotional attachment we ascribe to tanning.