How to Prep for a Spray Tan: The Complete Guide for a Smooth, Even Glow
A beautiful spray tan starts long before the tanning solution touches your skin. The way you exfoliate, shave, moisturize, and even choose what to wear to your appointment can affect how evenly your tan develops and how naturally it fades. Proper spray tan prep creates a smooth, consistent canvas so your color can develop evenly without unnecessary patchiness, streaking, or overly dark areas.
At Lets Glow Tans, we see preparation as an important part of the entire tanning experience. As a luxury mobile spray tanning service in Nashville and surrounding areas, we bring professional sunless tanning directly to our clients' homes, offices, and hotel rooms. While customized solutions and professional application matter, what you do before your appointment plays an equally important role in helping us create that polished, natural-looking glow.
Whether you're preparing for a wedding, vacation, photoshoot, bachelorette weekend, special event, or simply maintaining your regular glow, knowing how to prep for a spray tan can make a noticeable difference. Here's exactly what we recommend doing before your appointment—and what you should avoid.
Why Spray Tan Preparation Matters
Spray tanning works by applying a sunless tanning solution to the outermost layers of your skin. Because the solution interacts with the surface of the skin, its final appearance can be influenced by the condition of that surface. Dry patches, leftover skincare products, deodorant, oils, and uneven exfoliation can all interfere with an otherwise beautiful application.
Think of your skin as the canvas for your tan. When the canvas is smooth and properly prepared, tanning solution can be applied more consistently. When certain areas are significantly drier than others, those areas may absorb tanning solution differently and appear darker.
Good preparation can also help your tan fade more gracefully. Your skin naturally sheds dead cells over time, which is one reason every sunless tan eventually fades. Preparing your skin properly before the appointment helps create a more even starting point for the tanning process.
Exfoliate 24 to 48 Hours Before Your Spray Tan
Exfoliation is one of the most important steps in preparing for a spray tan. Ideally, we recommend completing your main exfoliation approximately 24 to 48 hours before your appointment rather than aggressively scrubbing immediately beforehand.
Focus particularly on areas that tend to become dry or hold onto dead skin, including your elbows, knees, ankles, heels, and around the wrists. The goal is to remove excess dead skin and create a smoother surface—not to scrub your skin until it becomes irritated.
Be thoughtful about the products you use, too. Heavy oils and moisturizing exfoliators can leave a residue behind on the skin. Before a spray tan, a simple exfoliation routine that leaves the skin clean and residue-free is generally preferable.
If you regularly use chemical exfoliants, retinoids, acids, or other active skincare ingredients, remember that these products can affect how quickly skin cells turn over. Your face may therefore fade differently from the rest of your body, particularly if active skincare products remain part of your normal routine after tanning.
Shave or Wax Before Your Appointment, Not After
Hair removal should also be handled before your spray tan. Shaving after a tan can gently exfoliate the skin and may cause your color to fade more quickly, while waxing after tanning can remove color along with the outermost layer of skin.
If you're shaving, completing it roughly 24 hours before your appointment is a good general guideline. This gives the skin time to settle after shaving and reduces the chance of applying tanning solution to freshly irritated skin.
Waxing should generally be completed farther in advance. Giving your skin at least 24 to 48 hours after waxing allows irritation to calm and helps ensure that any wax residue is fully removed.
If your skin is particularly sensitive after shaving or waxing, give yourself additional time whenever possible. Calm, comfortable skin provides a much better foundation for tanning than skin that is freshly irritated.
Complete Beauty Treatments Before Your Spray Tan
A helpful rule when planning for an event is to schedule your spray tan toward the end of your beauty routine. Manicures, pedicures, massages, facials, waxing, and similar treatments are generally best completed before tanning.
Many of these services involve oils, lotions, soaking, exfoliation, cleansers, or other products that can interfere with a tan. A pedicure performed after your spray tan, for example, may involve soaking and exfoliating your feet and lower legs, potentially causing uneven fading.
Massages are another service worth scheduling carefully because massage oils can create a barrier on the skin. Facials may involve exfoliating ingredients that can affect tanning results on the face.
When you're preparing for a wedding, photoshoot, vacation, or major Nashville event, planning the order of your beauty appointments can save you from accidentally undoing your spray tan prep.
Shower at the Right Time Before Your Spray Tan
A pre-tan shower is important, but timing matters. Whenever possible, avoid taking a very hot shower immediately before your appointment. You want your skin clean, calm, dry, and free of residue by the time your spray tan is applied.
During your final shower, thoroughly rinse away shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and other products. Conditioner is particularly easy to overlook because it can travel down your back and body while rinsing your hair.
Avoid applying heavy body oils or rich moisturizers afterward unless you've specifically been instructed otherwise. Your spray tan artist may apply or recommend a small amount of barrier product to particularly dry areas immediately before tanning, but covering your entire body in lotion shortly before the appointment can affect how the tanning solution sits on your skin.
Arrive With Clean, Product-Free Skin
On the day of your appointment, less is more. Ideally, your skin should be free from lotion, body oil, perfume, deodorant, and other topical products unless your spray tan professional has given you different instructions.
These products can create a barrier between your skin and the tanning solution. Even seemingly lightweight products may contain oils or ingredients that influence how evenly the solution develops.
Deodorant can be especially noticeable during spray tanning. Depending on its ingredients and the tanning solution being used, it may temporarily interact with the product or prevent even application around the underarms.
Makeup should also generally be removed from areas being sprayed. If you're tanning your face, starting with clean skin gives your spray tan artist the best possible canvas for an even application.
Pay Extra Attention to Dry Areas
Some areas naturally absorb tanning solution more readily because they tend to be drier. Hands, feet, elbows, knees, knuckles, and ankles are the most common examples.
Proper exfoliation in the days leading up to your appointment can make a significant difference. However, more exfoliation isn't always better. Over-exfoliating can irritate the skin and create its own set of problems.
Professional application also matters here. At Lets Glow Tans, customization isn't only about choosing the right depth of color. We consider skin tone, desired result, skin condition, and how different areas of the body may respond so the finished tan looks balanced rather than one-dimensional.
Your goal during prep is simply to arrive with these areas smooth and comfortable rather than extremely dry, freshly scrubbed, or covered in heavy moisturizer.
What to Wear to a Spray Tan Appointment
What you wear immediately after tanning is almost as important as how you prepare your skin. Choose loose, comfortable clothing that won't rub tightly against freshly applied tanning solution.
Dark clothing is usually the most practical choice. Loose pants, oversized shirts, relaxed dresses, and similar pieces can help minimize unnecessary friction while your tan develops.
Avoid tight leggings, restrictive waistbands, bras with very snug straps, and other clothing that presses firmly against the skin immediately after tanning when possible. Tight footwear can also create friction around the feet and ankles.
Because Lets Glow Tans provides mobile spray tanning, many of our clients have the advantage of already being at home or in their hotel when the appointment ends. That means you can change into comfortable clothing and allow your tan to develop without needing to drive across Nashville or navigate another stop immediately afterward.
How to Prep for a Spray Tan Before a Wedding or Special Event
For an important event, preparation should begin several days before the spray tan rather than the morning of your appointment. Give yourself enough time to complete exfoliation, hair removal, and other beauty services without stacking everything together at the last minute.
Approximately two days before your appointment, complete waxing and other treatments that could exfoliate or irritate the skin. Around 24 hours beforehand, finish your primary exfoliation and shaving routine. On appointment day, focus on keeping your skin clean, dry, calm, and free from unnecessary products.
If you've never had a professional spray tan before and you're preparing for a particularly important event—especially your wedding—it can also be helpful to plan ahead rather than experimenting at the last minute. Knowing what depth and tone you prefer can make the final event tan feel much more predictable.
Most importantly, don't try to dramatically change your normal skincare routine the night before an important tan. Introducing an aggressive exfoliant or unfamiliar product immediately before your appointment can cause irritation at exactly the wrong time.
Common Spray Tan Prep Mistakes to Avoid
One of the most common mistakes is exfoliating immediately before an appointment and assuming that more scrubbing will produce better results. Your skin needs to be smooth, but it should also be calm. Aggressive last-minute exfoliation can leave skin sensitive or irritated.
Another common mistake is arriving covered in lotion because you want your skin to look moisturized. Hydration is extremely important for maintaining a spray tan, but the hours immediately before application are different. Heavy products can interfere with the way tanning solution contacts the skin.
Clients also sometimes forget about less obvious products, including perfume, deodorant, body oils, makeup, and leftover conditioner. Preparing clean, residue-free skin helps eliminate unnecessary variables and gives your spray tan artist more control over the finished result.
Finally, avoid scheduling activities involving water, heavy sweating, or significant friction immediately after your appointment. Your tan needs appropriate development time before your first rinse, based on the solution and instructions provided by your tanning professional.
The Best Spray Tan Results Start With Healthy Skin
Great spray tan prep comes down to timing and healthy skin. Exfoliate and complete hair removal in advance, schedule other beauty treatments beforehand, and arrive with clean, product-free skin.
Between appointments, regular moisturizing and gentle skincare help keep your skin smooth and ready for your next tan. At Lets Glow Tans, we customize each spray tan based on your skin tone, goals, and occasion for a natural-looking result.
Whether you're preparing for a wedding, vacation, photoshoot, or simply want a fresh glow, thoughtful prep can make all the difference. When you're ready, our mobile spray tanning service brings a customized glow directly to you in Nashville and surrounding areas.