Top up your tan

A BEDOUIN 300 miles from the nearest oasis feels very differently about the sun to you and I.

For him sunlight is the enemy and pale women are prized more highly even than camels.

Once upon a time, we in the West also tresured porcelain skin. Rich people showed they were wealthy by staying indoors, while labourers toiled the fields and got a tan.

When machines arrived, the poor fled into factories and grew pallid, while brown became fashionable as the upper crust displayed their leisurely out-door lifestyle.

By the time trendsetter, Coco Chanel, had Charlstoned back from the Med toasted deep bronze, tans were fixed in our minds as utterly desirable.

Since then, generations have roasted on the spit of summer to dusky lovely or scalded crab - depending on sense and skin type.

Now, with the revolution in sunless tanning, those damaging days are over and we can still challenge our national beige without UV risks of ageing or melanoma cancer.

Airbrush tanning is now the safe, quick, streak-free way to release the bronze god/goddess within and more and more women - and men - are choosing to use it rather than continue as sun slaves. It lasts up to 10 days and looks as natural as a tan from a fortnight in Barbados. Top-ups are problem free and the experience itself is enjoyable.

Sun-free self-tanning is the other explosion in the beauty market this summer. Whatever you call it fake bake or tan-in-a-can the results are gorgeous and can last for up to a week. A fine mist of natural self-tanning ingredients (which work with your own melanin) immediately turns skin golden and intensifies in a few hours.

Another spray we sell delivers a "shimmer tan" which looks fantastic for a special outing.

With experts telling us melanoma is the sixth most common cancer for women and the seventh for men, sunless tannning certainly makes sense.