There are a lot of tanning solutions out there right now claiming to be "100% Natural" or have "100% Natural Active Ingredients." Often, these just so happen to be the same companies offering 20% DHA content solutions, and reassuring customers that their decision to contravene the new EU cosmetic regulations and the recommendations of the Scientific Safety Committee is completely legitimate and safe. So, can they be trusted? Let's take a closer look...
 
Untruth No. 1: "Our solution or active ingredients are 100% natural."
 
Really? Even without knowing the ingredients of these products, we can immediately see that this is untrue. The main active ingredient in any tanning solution is dihydroxyacetone - DHA. Whilst this is naturally-derived (as are most chemicals), it is, by definition, a chemical. It's human-made. It's not natural, and until someone discovers a plant that can be rubbed on the skin to produce a tan, the active tanning ingredient in solutions never, ever will be natural. 
 
So not only are these "100% Natural" companies using a chemical in their solution which contradicts their claim, but they're actually using it at far higher concentrations than they need to. To put it bluntly, even if every other ingredient in that solution was natural (here's betting it's nothing of the sort), a 20% DHA tanning solution that is 100% natural is an impossibility. Only a 0% DHA tanning solution could ever be 100% natural, and... well, this wouldn't be much of a tanning product, would it?
 
 
Untruth No. 2: "The higher the DHA %, the darker the tan" (which, they imply, it is therefore worth going against scientific safety recommendations to achieve).
 
 
Not so. Every scientific paper on DHA has shown that it is ineffective on human skin beyond 12-14% concentration. Think of a sponge in a bucket of water. You put that dry sponge in, and it will soak up as much water as it possibly can. But you can pour another litre, two litres, a thousand litres of water in - that sponge is not going to hold any more water. It's already at its capacity.
 
We did our own home-grown experiment, just to demonstrate this point. Using pure DHA and purified water, we created a highly simplified version of a tanning solution. One was 50% DHA, one 25% DHA, and one 12.5%. Each strength was applied in a strip up the arm and left overnight. 
 
 
The Result:
 
As you can see, the 50% solution has not made the skin any darker than the 25% solution. It's not even any darker than the 12.5%. While this was by no means a controlled, perfectly scientific test, it illustrates the same point that experienced scientists and chemists have been showing for years.
 
Is it true that some of these "extra dark" solutions come out a lot darker than others? Yes! But it's not becase of their DHA content (they rely instead upon dyes, pigments, and possibly erythrulose), and as this is the only ingredient the SCCS recommends you don't overdose people's skin on, why do it? Yes, it's true to say that no one knows yet for sure whether any harm is done by applying DHA in high concentrations, but why risk it? For the same reason, I suppose, that they would call their solutions 100% natural: false marketing, designed to make money in the short term, without too much thought to the longer-term implications.

Below: A short clip from our video on how we mixed our 50% water-DHA solution, DIY-style! We then took two grams of this solution, and added another two grams of water to make a 25% solution, repeating the process again to then make a 12.5% solution.