There are plenty of reasons to avoid tanning salons. Cancer. Turning into a Creamsicle troll. Also, cancer. Now a Swedish tanning salon is adding a new one: changing your race
Blog Black Girl Long Hair discovered that salon Emmaatan in Sweden is offering spray tans so darkly pigmented that they are, essentially, making customers appear to be black. The salon offers a range of tans with names like Violet Onyx, Dark Ash Onyx, Caramel, and Dark Chocolate. When applied, instead of getting the usual bronzing effect (or an unnatural orange sheen), Emmaatan’s customers appear to be getting a very deep brown coloring. Photos of their tans are posted on the salon’s Instagram (though some of the original ones seem to have been deleted).
Black tumblr users were bemused by the product. “Th-that’s that’s my skin color in a bottle. Wh-why…I don’t know whether to cry or rage,” commented one. “Can we just talk about this for a second please?!? What is this?!? Why is this?!? HOW is this a product?!?” wrote another. “Who gave the OK for this be sold?!?”
Emmaatan owner Emma Alm has responded on their Instagram, claiming that “20-30%” of the color washes off in the shower, and that she “will never understand how ‘black ppl’ is facing the world and it’s sad to know ppl don’t get respect just because of their looks.”
