Tanning Salons in Darien

In the early days of running her tanning-bed business in Champaign, Illinois, Kristin Klinker became intrigued with advancements in sunless tanning. She soon began focusing her endeavors on high-end spray tanning, eventually expanding her enterprise into Naperville and going into business with her best friend and mother, Terri. At BodiBronze Sunless Spa, Kristin and her cohort of certified technicians coat clients in a sugar-based DHA solution that adheres to amino acids on the skin, creating a natural bronze that lacks the telltale orange color of old-school spray tans. Within the warm, goldenrod-hued walls of the Naperville studio, these certified tanning technicians help each client match their skin tone to a product, culminating in a bronzed, UV-free complexion that lasts up to 10 days

With its glossy black tiles and ornate furnishings, the interior of Total Image combines the relaxing atmosphere of a contemporary salon with classic baroque styling. This balance between old-fashioned and modern elegance finds a worthy counterpart in the salon’s UV-free tanning and cosmetic services, which aim to imbue skin with a timeless beauty. The staff of experienced beauticians approaches each 15-minute spray-tan application with an uncommon concern for detail, evenly covering the skin with a DHA-based solution derived from sugar and beets. Across the salon, a dedicated team of makeup artists summons pink lips, tinted lashes, and cherry-red tic-tac-toe boards on forearms.

Nine levels of UV beds populate the private tanning rooms of Unlimited Tan’s numerous Chicagoland locations and join forces with automated spray-tanning booths to forge a war against wintry pallor. Tanning equipment tiers build upon basic level lamps to include extras such as high-pressure bulbs, aromatherapy, and cooling mists designed to keep clients comfortable and make it easier to maintain their hue over time. For the UV averse, spray-tanning booths send automated jets of pigment misting over bodies in 60 seconds, with the full, streak-free results gradually developing across 24 hours, like a whirlwind romance between sloths. Each of the salons also stocks a full supply of lotions from brands such as Australian Gold, Designer Skin, and Swedish Beauty, which works to protect skin and enhance the life of any tan.

Heralded in Tanning Trends magazine, True Colors Tanning introduces skin to advanced bronzing technologies at a number of Louisville-area and southern Indiana locations. Each of the five levels of standup and lie-down ultraviolet-tanning beds is equipped with specialized cooling systems and ergonomic surfaces to maximize client comfort. Alternatively, experienced staffers can apply airbrushed tans or spray tans by Australian Gold in the time it takes to count 180 seconds using a laser-guided system.

Escape Tan and Spa is an oasis of heat and light. The shop’s most powerful UV beds harness the power of miniature suns, radiating "high pressure" UVA wavelengths that penetrate deep into the skin to create a rich, long-lasting color. Two milder levels of tanning provide a lighter glow and the option to stand up in a booth rather than lie down. The power of light also bolsters other parts of the body, with infrared Formostar body wraps relieving joint stiffness and LED light bleaching stains away from teeth. Mystic Tan booths bypass light entirely, relying instead on a bronzing formula that both colors skin a tawny hue and conceals scars, blemishes, and newly installed USB ports.

In its earliest stages, airbrush technology was used solely for magazine cover models, deceased-rapper t-shirts, and makeup for the cast of Cats. But when airpaints shot to $93 a barrel in 2000 following the dot-com bubble burst, airbrush artistry became financially unviable. A drought of airbrush artists resulted in finger-paint-based photo retouching, shirtless Tupac fans, and the renaming of Cats to Humans. At the 2008 International CO2-Based Design Conference, out-of-work airbrush artists finally discovered a profitable solution: airbrush tanning. They immediately went back to work, delighting the millions of Americans patiently waiting for sunless, streak-free tanning options. “It's called Ortanic, and it's nothing short of amazing. We've tried Mystic Tan in the past and ended up looking less-than glowing and more like macaroni and cheese. We've tried self tanners and spent many nights lathering ourselves with different lotions to come to determine which one is the top runner, followed by many days walking around with different colors stained on our skin.