Can I Use Cooking Oil to Tan? (Stop and Read This!)
Are you looking to get that perfect sun tan color but you don’t have any sun tan lotion?
Maybe you thought about using vegetable oil as an alternative. Well, using vegetable oil isn’t an unusual idea.
In this article, I want to discuss the safety and risks you were taking when using natural vegetable oil instead of the recommended tanning lotion when tanning.
Key takeaways
- Vegetable oil is not suitable for tanning as it does not block harmful UV rays and only makes the skin greasy.
- Mixing sunblock with vegetable oil can reduce the effectiveness of the sunblock and hinder its ability to protect against UV rays.
- Tanning oils may help the skin absorb more UV rays for a darker tan, but they often lack the recommended SPF protection, risking permanent skin damage.
- Using any kind of oil for tanning promotes the production of free radicals, which can lead to DNA mutations and increase the risk of skin cancer.
- Cooking oil does not protect against the sun’s damaging rays, and using it for tanning can accelerate skin aging and cause long-term skin damage.
Can you use vegetable oil for tanning?
Vegetable oil is really not met to benefit you in any way when tanning. It will just make your skin greasy.
It also doesn’t have any capability of blocking the harmful UV rays that can potentially damage your skin. You may even end up with an awful smell depending on the type of cooking oil you use.
Can you mix sunblock with vegetable oils together?
Now you’re probably thinking, what if I mix sunblock with vegetable oil. Wouldn’t the SPF protection from the sun block combined with the enhanced tanning functions of the oil keep me safe and provide me with a better tan?
The answer is no. In fact, combining vegetable oils with your sunblock may actually diminish the beneficial effects of sunblock.
Sunscreens are made with active ingredients (like avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate, and octocrylene) that help protect you from UV rays but only if your skin is able to absorb these ingredients.
However, mixing it with cooking oil can potentially block the absorbing properties of does sunblocks active ingredients rendering it almost useless in providing the protection it needs from the sun’s rays.
There are also other types of sunscreens that actually act as a physical Blocker of the sun’s rays. These types of sink screens are mineral-based and can include ingredients such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.
These mineral-based sunscreen act like a mirror that reflects the sun’s Rays from your body. It may be acceptable to if you were to mix you’re cooking oil with this type of sunscreen.
If you are planning to go this route, then it’s recommended that when you mix the two together you create a solution that contains a far greater amount of sunblock then cooking oil
Why people use oil when tanning
Tanning oils have the ability to help the skin take in more UV rays so that the person tanning can end up having a darker tone skin.
Unfortunately, tanning oils may not have the SPF protection that is recommended to avoid permanent damage to the skin.
It has always been a fashion to have tanner skin. You’ll see this in many celebrities that promote tanning. People who tan their skin are looking for ways to make their skin glow.
The dangers of using any kind of oils to tan
The question here is, is it safe to use cooking oil to tan? The answer is no. There has been many studies finding that there is a strong link between Sunburn and skin cancer.
Studies have found that when you are using oils to tan, the oils promote the production of free radicals that cause oxidation within the skin. In fact, even without the oils, your body will tend to produce these free radicals anyway. The oils simply exacerbate the issue.
As time goes on, and repeated oil tanning scenarios happen, these free radicals will end up having a seriously bad effect on your DNA and cause possible mutations that can become cancerous.
If you make plans to tan with vegetable oil instead of any SPF protective solution, you are putting yourself at a higher risk of cancers such as basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma.
Ultimately, you will get a brighter than usual pan when using vegetable oil, but this is basically an undercover sunburn. It’s a huge risk to take and we don’t recommend it at all.
Using vegetable oil for tanning can destroy your skin
Sadly, the effects of using vegetable oil while tanning has been found to destroy a person’s skin.
Your skin will definitely look like it’s glowing orange in the beginning and all will go well a couple times after tanning.
However after long exposure to the sun’s rays on top of oil, it begins to permanently damage your skin causing what looks like a pruning effect.
Most people have described it like someone aging much faster than they look. Outside of the potential risk factor of cancer and skin disease, for this reason alone, I would highly avoid using cooking oil as a substitute for sunblock. They just don’t work the same way.
Cooking oil does not protect you from the Sun’s damaging rays
It has been studied several times over that cooking oil is not an alternative to sunblock.
In no case at all is it ever a good idea to use vegetable oil as a means of getting a better tan under the sun. Some people suspect that the use of vegetable oil is like putting a magnifying glass between you and the rays of the sun.
It will most likely increase whatever effects the sun has on your skin. UV rays will go right through cooking oil and that’s never a good thing.
The history behind the issue with vegetable oil tanning
In the 1970’s, there was a very wide population of people who actually did use vegetable oil when they were sunbathing. In order to get that perfect tan, people would ladder themselves with regular cooking oil and sit outside in the sun for hours.
It was determined soon after years of doing so, these people’s skin begin to permanently become damaged from the sun’s rays.
Unfortunately at the time, no one really knew much about the damaging effects of the Sun. The need to become tan with just really a fashion statement.
Using vegetable oil had no protective properties which ended up causing the user’s skin to become darker and more leather-like.
This was also at the time when people became more widely aware of skin cancer due to the Sun.
The unfortunate truth is that skin cancer is highly prevalent and the rates continue to rise every year. It was discovered that sunburn is a major risk factor and highly linked to skin cancer.
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