Fears of a Fake Tan Shortage this Festive Season as manufacturers say they are struggling to find key ingredients!
Will we have to cancel Christmas again? I can hear you guys and gals shouting “hold your Instagram stories, stop recording that Facebook video, there is no way you are getting that family Christmas picture with these white legs on show!”
After all, we all know we’re never fully dressed without a fake tan!
Like toilet roll, fuel, and numerous other supplies we are struggling to get hold of, blame it on Covid or Brexit, there also appears to be a shortage of a key tanning ingredient called ‘Ethoxydiglycol’ or as it’s known in the manufacturing world, EDG.
What exactly is EDG?
EDG is used in tanning products, ointments, creams, nail polish removers and even hair care products to name but a few, and acts as a dermal penetration agent, an active ingredient assisting products to work their magic. EDG is a clear, colourless liquid with a mild yet characteristic odour.
If you look at it from a fake tan point of view, EDG assists with the penetration and colour fixation of self-tanning products that contain Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) and Erythrulose, which are the KEY ingredients for any fake tanning product. EDG helps these products to penetrate the skin cells and effectively turn the skin cells brown, giving our skin a fake tanned appearance.
Without EDG in our cosmetic products, they simply wouldn’t work as we want them to. EDG is present in 0.41% of cosmetics.
Recently the ingredient EDG has rocketed in price from around £12.00 per kilo to £103.00 per kilo, according to various pharmacies. Why such an increase? I hear you ask. The increase in the price and the short supply seems to be down to the fact that the raw ingredients come from Asia where the market has seen a huge increase in the use of fake tanning products, having finally jumped on the band wagon, and it appears they love fake tan just as much as we do.
In 2006, the EU ruled that the use of EDG in tanning products should be reduced from 10% to 0.5%, but even though we have reduced the use in our products, we are still at risk of experiencing a shortage and supply issues.
BUT have no fear because at Sunless Solutions we have been assured there will be enough supply of ‘EDG’ to see us through the Christmas and into the new year, so there really is no need to worry!
Sunless Solutions would like to reassure their customers that there is enough Fake Tan to go around, and there will be NO WHITE Christmas this year BUT a GOLDEN Christmas to remember!
