Melanogenesis is The Process of Melanin Production

Added: 12/01/2005

These days there are many different products for so-called "sunless tanning". There are even special pills for self-tanning. And many people think that all these products affect the process of forming melanin in our body - melanogenesis. But it is not true - melanocytes - cells that produce melanin cannot be affected by these products at all and that is only a common misconception. So go ahead and work on that fake tan, and don't worry about it causing your nose to fall off.

Melanogenesis is a process of production of special pigment in our body called melanin. Human epidermis contains special cells - melanocytes - which are responsible for melanogenesis. And the amount of melanin in human epidermis defines the skin color. The mechanism of melanogenesis is not that difficult. Ultra-violet rays penetrate through the human skin and affect DNA. After that, special hormones are released and those hormones can connect to melanocytes in human epidermis. And that causes melanocytes to produce more melanin.

And as long as there are many cells filled with melanin on the surface of the skin it becomes darker. That is the basic principle. With that mechanism of tanning - when Ultra Violet rays from the Sun affect our skin it triggers melanogenesis process and our skin becomes darker.

On the modern market you can meet a great variety of products for sunless tanning and these are special make up products called bronzers, tanning lotions and sprays and even special sunless tanning pills.

It is pretty obvious that artificial bronzers have nothing to do with melanogenesis. These are products that cover the skin and thus allowing it to look darker. And of course all such products can be easily removed simply with soap and sponge.

Different pills for sunless tanning can make your skin darker but they are also far from the melanogenesis process. In most cases these pills contain a huge amount of food pigment. And this pigment changes the color of the human skin. And of course such a process is not that safe and not only skin but also inner organs are affected by this pigment. Even the human brain can sometimes contain small quantities of this pigment and that can be really dangerous for your health. Because of potential side effects all such self-tanning pills are not approved by most of the national health organizations in different countries all over the globe.

Different sunless tanning products available on the modern cosmetics market contain different substances that work pretty similar to the usual sun tanning. They affect the upper layer of the human skin making skin darker in a more or less similar to melanogenesis. Of course, there are different self-tanning products on the market and they contain different substances. That is why the effect of different products lasts for different periods of time. For example, products that affect only dead cells on the surface of the skin probably give the shortest results of all the available sunless tanning products.

As long as the variety of sunless tanning sprays and lotions is huge you should check the effect of each product by yourself. On the internet you can find special sites dedicated to beauty products on the modern cosmetics market. In web forums of such sites people who have already used sunless tanning products can tell about all the effects it had. So with that information you do not need to test all the products on yourself. And this information can also help to learn about possible side effects different sunless tanning products can have as that is very important to avoid problems with skin in the future.

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