Beauty Journal
How to Make Your Tan Last Longer: The Complete Guide
After vacation, a tan fades in a couple of weeks, but you can make it last longer. Three rules: hydrate deeply, wash without stripping your skin, and keep using SPF.
You come back from vacation with a tan you love. A week later it's already fading. Two weeks later it's as if it was never there. That's not inevitable: with the right habits, melanin sticks around longer. Here's how it works and what to do.
Why your tan fades
A tan is melanin, produced by melanocytes in response to UV exposure. Melanin settles in the outer layer of the skin (the epidermis). But skin renews itself: roughly every 28 days, surface cells are replaced by new ones. The tanned cells leave with that turnover.
Flaking speeds this up: dry skin sheds faster, so melanin goes sooner. Hot showers, harsh cleansers and skipping moisturizer are the three main things that make a tan fade faster.
3 rules to make it last
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