Believable Tan from a Sunless Spray-Tan Salon or Spa?
by Susie Ellis

So we are heading into New Year’s again and hoping to eradicate memories of last year’s disastrous New Year’s Eve festivities. We went to a country club party here in Palm Desert after which Peter went into severe depression. He thought the whole event seemed like an old-folk’s-home gathering and coupled with the fact that we are both getting older well, he decided that he just isn’t ready for ringing in the New Year at that pace.

True, there are a lot of elderly folks in Palm Desert however there seems to be the “young elderly” and then the “old elderly”. The “old elderly” are the ones who shuffle along the dance floor and celebrate what is called “Chicago New Year’s” which is where you toast at 10:00 p.m. when Chicago celebrates New Year so you still get to bed early. Oh dear.

So this year Peter decided to make other plans and in typical Peter-form swung to the other extreme. We are flying to Las Vegas with several young couples who just love to drink, dance, and party – having dinner, nightclubbing and then flying back in the wee hours of the morning. I hope I survive it.

So now the big question is what to wear. It was easier to find something for last year’s soiree but for Vegas…well, I had to dig into some of the clothes from my past life (as in younger body and no longer age appropriate to wear). I decided on a bright red top with a huge bow in the back and black pants with sequenced accents at the bottom. (It looks better than it sounds.) The only problem…bare shoulders, bare back, bare arms. And that means white shoulders, white back, white arms.

Even though I would like to say that I have completely gotten on board the new Melanoma Awareness initiative which says “Go With Your Own Glow”…I decided to tag along with one of the young sexy girls who is going with us to Las Vegas since she was planning a visit to the tanning salon for a sunless spray-tan this afternoon.

So off we go to SunSational Tanning Salon in LaQuinta where we spent all of 15 minutes and $45 each in a room getting spray painted with something the attendant called “All Organic.” After the woman sprayed every part of my body she directed me to “dry” in front of this fan for about 5 minutes. While I was drying, and she was out of the room, I decided to look at the label on the back of the bottles of tanning liquid. Aloe Vera was the first ingredient but there were probably another 15 with all kinds of unfamiliar chemical sounding names. Hmmm.

It remains to be seen how all this will work out – the tan, the nightclubbing, the staying up past 11:00 p.m. (which is my very latest bedtime after getting on the healthy sleep bandwagon last year) for tomorrow evening’s adventure. But for now I have to admit that getting a very believable tan in 15 minutes for a special event is pretty cool. It sure beats all the time I spent during my youth in the backyard with baby oil and a reflector screen soaking up the rays.

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