James Read Is Changing People's Perception of Spray Tanning

Even though it’s the safest method for obtaining bronzed and glowing skin, spray tanning still gets a bad rap, with some people dismissing it as ''unnatural'' and ''fake looking''. And celebrities such as Donatella Versace and Simon Cowell appearing on the red carpet sporting orange glowing tans, or Ryan Reynolds with his burnt chestnut look at the Golden Globes, don’t help. In fact, it seems that every time a celebrity has a bad spray day, and it can happen to the best of us, it spreads across the media like wildfire, and the industry takes another knock, while even the best spray tans hardly draw a comment.

So we can all breathe a sigh of relief that James Read has come on the scene. Read is a British spray tan artist who has been working in the industry for the last 15 years with stars such as Ellie Goulding, Lady Gaga, and Mariah Carey.

It was mainly thanks to him that the Lindsay Lohan orange look fell out of favor in the early aughts. And since then he has been working tirelessly to promote a softer more natural look, with great results.

His tantouring technique, where he emphasizes collar bones and décolletage, creating a natural glow that won’t turn orange under camera lights, has become a favorite on the red carpet and that is good news for spray tanning salons and mobile spray tanning artists everywhere.

Thanks to his emphasize on complimenting his clients look rather than overpowering it, there is wider public recognition of spray tanning as an everyday beauty treatment that'll keep you looking and feeling good even in the darkest of winter months, and not just a form of dress-up for special occasions.

You don’t have to be an airbrush tanning whizz to master the art of tantouring either, although it does take a little bit of practice, so we recommend trying it out on friends and colleagues before attempting it on paying clients. 

Here’s how to do it:

1. Apply a light coat of tan to the whole body and let it dry.
2. Decrease the pressure of your spray gun and slowly mist more tan around the contours of the face and body that you want to bring out. The areas to shade are the ones naturally indented on the face, including under the jawline, under the cheekbone, the outer brow, and the outer nose
3. When highlighting the décolletage, spray the collarbones and around the neck where it naturally indents
4. Buff gently to blend the edges and take a step back to see the result.
5. The key is to layer up slowly and make sure you’re working in a well-lit space, particularly important for mobile spray tanning practitioners.

The good news is that tantouring doesn’t need any special solutions and can be done with any of the products we supply, just remember, the darker the solution, the more gradual the build-up should be. So start practicing today, you might get through some solution, but in the end, it will pay off.