In more than 20 years of spray tanning women across Melbourne, I have heard one phrase more times than I could count. My fake tan is booked for Friday. I need my fake tan before the wedding. My fake tan is fading already. It is such a normal part of how we talk about tanning that most people say it without thinking twice. I understand why. But every time, something in me quietly pauses. Fake. It is a word I have never been able to sit comfortably with. Even The Sun Gives You A "Fake" Tan I...

I had a client sit down in my studio a few weeks ago. She has been coming to me for three years. She sat down, looked at me, and said it before I even had the spray gun in my hand. "Greta, I've been thinking about just doing it at home." She said it the way women say things they have been rehearsing in the car on the way over. Carefully. Like she was bracing for a reaction. I smiled at her. Because I hear this more than she probably realised. And because the fact that she said it to my face...

Winter in Melbourne is beautiful in its own way. But it does something to your skin. Months of long sleeves, thick tights, boots, and coats. No bare skin. No sun on your arms. Just grey skies and heaters and that particular kind of pale that creeps in so gradually you almost do not notice it until you catch yourself in a mirror one morning. That is the moment most of my Doncaster clients pick up the phone. Not because they have a wedding or a Bali trip coming up. Just because they looked...