18 Things I Have Learned in 18 Years of Spray Tanning

Jana Corder
Jul 9
6 min read

Eighteen Years, One Studio, Thousands of Clients — Here Is What That Time Actually Teaches You

By Jana · deSoleil Spray Tanning · 1515 Capitola Road, Suite N, Santa Cruz, CA · Updated July 2026

I opened deSoleil in 2007. I am the only technician who has ever worked in this studio. Every session in the history of this business has been done by me, in this room, with the client who was scheduled that hour. Eighteen years of that produces a specific kind of knowledge — not just technical, but human. Here is what it has taught me.

She Asked Me What I Knew in 2027 That I Did Not Know in 2007. This Is the Answer.

Her name was Dr. Simone — a retired physician who had been a client since 2011. She came in for her spring appointment in March and, while I was working, asked me a question that I have been turning over ever since: 'What do you know now that you didn't know when you opened?'

I finished the application before I answered. I wanted to give it the thought it deserved. Then I sat down across from her and started talking. We were in the studio for forty minutes after the session ended. The list that follows is a condensed version of that conversation.

Dr. Simone has asked to be mentioned in this post. She is eighty-one years old, comes in every six weeks, and produces some of the most beautiful spray tan results I see at this studio. She attributes this to good genetics and consistent moisturizing. I attribute it to both of those things plus the fact that she always arrives with perfectly prepared skin and follows every aftercare instruction precisely. That is a lesson in itself.

About the Formulas and the Chemistry

1. The Maillard reaction is elegant and unforgiving in equal measure. It rewards a good surface and punishes a poor one. Skin preparation is not a suggestion.

2. DHA concentration matters, but undertone calibration matters more. I have seen high-concentration formulas produce beautiful results on deep skin and terrible results on medium skin because the undertones were wrong. The science is specific.

3. The difference between a 6% DHA consumer self-tanner and a 12% professional formula is not just twice the color. It is a different product behavior, a different development curve, and a different quality of result. Concentration is one variable in a complex system.

4. The formula I reach for changes with the client's lifestyle, not just their skin tone. A client who surfs every morning needs a different approach than a client who works in an office and goes to the gym. Same skin. Different formula logic.

5. Bodies are beautiful. In In a world focused on specific beauty ideals, it's vital to celebrate the inherent beauty in all bodies, regardless of shape, size, color, or ability. Beauty is diverse, reflecting each individual's uniqueness. Every body tells a story through its experiences and cultures.Beauty is found in the body's curves, movements, and expressions. From an athlete's strength to a child's softness, every form has charm.

"The chemistry of spray tanning is fixed. The art of spray tanning is knowing which chemistry to apply to which human, in which season, for which life."

About the Clients

6. The first appointment carries the most anxiety of any session — and it is almost never justified by what actually happens. I wish I could tell every first-timer: the experience is significantly more comfortable than you are imagining.

7. Privacy matters to almost everyone. Not equally, and not always explicitly — but I have never had a client who, once they experienced a truly private session, did not remark on it. The absence of other people in the room changes how clients hold their bodies, how they breathe, how they communicate. Better consultation. Better application positioning. Better results.

8. The clients who get the best cumulative results are the ones who understand that their role in the process is as important as mine. Preparation and aftercare are not optional. They are the other half of the appointment.

9. Brides are always more nervous than they need to be about the spray tan. The trial session is the single most effective thing I offer to address that nervousness. One completed cycle before the real thing and the anxiety disappears almost entirely.

10. The clients who have been coming for more than five years produce better results than they did in their first year. Not because I got better at applying — though technique is always refining — but because their skin got better. Consistent between-session habits compound.

About the Studio and the Work

11. The private, appointment-only model was the right choice in 2007 and becomes more obviously correct with every year that passes. The alternative — volume, shared space, multiple clients — produces a different kind of business and a different quality of result. I chose precision. I have never reconsidered.

12. Eighteen years of doing one thing very well does not mean the thing stops requiring attention. I learn something specific about a formula, a skin type, or an application technique in nearly every session. The learning does not stop when the mastery arrives.

13. Local geography is not a background detail — it is a core variable. Santa Cruz clients live near the ocean. They surf, they swim, they run on the coast, they spend their weekends outside. A spray tan technician who ignores that context gives advice that does not fit the client's actual life. I never ignore it.

14. The aftercare conversation is as important as the application. I cannot control what happens after a client leaves the studio — but I can give them the information that allows them to make good decisions. The post-session briefing gets the same attention as the pre-session consultation.

15. Beauty services that prioritize the client's comfort over the provider's convenience produce loyal clients. I have clients who have been coming for ten, twelve, fifteen years. The loyalty is not about the formula — they could buy a self-tanner. It is about the experience of feeling genuinely taken care of, consistently, over time.

About What the Work Has Taught Me About People

16. Almost everyone is more self-conscious about their body than they appear from the outside. The private studio does not just produce better results — it creates an environment where that self-consciousness is not required. That is worth more than most clients can articulate until after their first session.

17. People want to feel like themselves, only better. Not unrecognizable. Not dramatically transformed. Just the best version of the thing they already are. That is the goal of every session at deSoleil — not to apply a tan, but to make the client walk out feeling more like themselves.

18. Trust is built appointment by appointment, year by year, result by result. There is no shortcut to it and no substitute for it. Dr. Simone has been coming since 2011. She trusts me with her skin and her time and her sense of herself. That trust is the most valuable thing this studio has produced in eighteen years. I do not take it lightly. I never have.

📅 Book your appointment at deSoleil — the studio where eighteen years of single-minded expertise shows up in every result. 1515 Capitola Road, Suite N, Santa Cruz. Call 831.479.8266 or visit desoleiltan.com/book.

Studio Details

What Would You Add to This List?

If you have been a deSoleil client for any length of time — one appointment or twelve years — what have you learned? What has surprised you? What do you wish you had known before your first session? Share in the comments. Dr. Simone's question produced this post. Your answers might produce the next one.

— Jana

Founder, deSoleil Spray Tanning · Santa Cruz, CA · Since 2007

Dr. Simone approved this post before publication. She asked me to add one thing she said during our conversation that I did not include above: 'A woman who has taken care of herself for eighty-one years knows what good care feels like. deSoleil is good care.' I am grateful she said it and I am grateful she let me share it.

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deSoleil Spray Tanning · 1515 Capitola Road, Suite N · Santa Cruz, CA 95062 · 831.479.8266 · info@desoleiltan.com · desoleiltan.com/book