For convenience and ease of use, people may be tempted to turn to the sunless tanning pill for an effortless tan. Tanning pills are controversial and thought to be unsafe. The FDA, in fact, has not approved most tanning pills, and they can be difficult to get in the U.S. Besides some severe side effects, the sunless tanning pill may not even work at all, depending on the brand used.

The ingredients of a sunless tanning pill will vary, and in many instances, there is no clear ingredient breakdown on the label. A sunless tanning pill will generally contain either caretenoid pigments or tyrosine, or they will prove to be nothing more than hyped up multivitamins. Other ingredients vary from pill to pill, and often they are nothing more than nutritional supplements. The pills work by altering the skin's pigmentation, though not always in the way one would expect or desire for a tan. Some simply turn the skin orange rather than tan. Others end up with the pigment placed unexpectedly in the body, producing less-than-perfect results.

The caretenoid tanning pill works by depositing pigment in fat layers just under the skin, which colors it. Unfortunately, the amount of these substances that are required to be taken is high enough as to have been deemed unsafe by the FDA.

Tyrosine, another base for sunless tanning pills, is a non-essential amino acid that helps skin cells produce melanin. There's no need to supplement for it, which means that pills containing tyrosine are not up to their manufacturers' claims.

While having a great tan without effort and risk of skin damage can be a wonderful feeling, and while the convenience of a sunless tan can be immense, there are some methods that are just not worth the risks to tanners' health. The sunless tanning pill would be one of these methods. Tanners looking for a convenient, safe, sunless tan would do well to look elsewhere for that golden glow.