Spray Tans Promises To Make Europeans Darker

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Spray Tans Promises To Make Europeans Darker

A new spray tan that promises to make pale customers “dark chocolate” and “caramel” has come under fire for promoting racism. In addition to the tan, many European tanning salons are catching hell for the dark skin makeovers according to Yahoo reports:

“Dark Chocolate,” “Dark Ash Onyx,” and “Caramel” are just a few of the shades that spray-tan customers are opting for at a Swedish salon — whose owner is now facing backlash from women of color calling her “black face” and “racist,” she says, for offering hues that appear to make Caucasian customers look black.

Emmaatan salon owner Emma Patissier Alm, for her part, sees nothing wrong with offering customers the option of transforming their skin. “[People look] at my pic I’ve posted and without a blink assuming we desire to look black, I understand why it might seem that way,” Alm wrote on Instagram. She added, “My color isn’t going for black it’s going for a natural golden tan.” Insisting that “20-30% washes [off] and the color will get much much lighter and won’t look as ‘black’ as it seems on my pic,” Alm continues on to declare, “I love all skin types and that’s why I think ppl should be able to choose for what they feel good in.” Alm added that she will “never understand how ‘black ppl’ is facing the world” and remarked that “it’s sad to know ppl don’t get respect just because of their looks.”

The cultural implications of serious skin darkening in Sweden is not exactly parallel to that in the U.S., where white people longing for dark tans is particularly complex and ironic considering the history of racism here.