Once Coco Chanel accidentally caught the sun before a 1923 fashion show, tanning culture quickly popularized within the beauty industry, according to Organic Treatment Company; however, seniors Arianna Waller and Fiorella Leistner both said they feel that fake tanning is cultural appropriation.

Though Leistner, who is Uruguayan, said she enjoys the process of tanning — spending time out in the sun, getting vitamin D and developing a glowy, “sun-kissed” skin color. However, Leistner said she feels that natural features of women of color, like tan skin, have been commercialized by the beauty industry without giving recognition to who those trends came from.

“People underestimate how much influence Latinos have. With fake tanning culture, a lot of that comes from how black women and Latino women are.

Senior Kara Alexander, who spray tans at least once a month, was introduced to fake tanning at the age of 11 for a dance competition; now Alexander is an ambassador for local spray tanning business, Sunny Daze Sunless, and said she thoroughly researched her skin undertones to avoid an unnatural hue before tanning.

“There is a wrong and a right way to self-tan. If you are going and picking out the darkest color that you can, you’re gonna look orange. Obviously, you might be able to tell that you’re self-tanning, but when people go as far as orange, that’s just a lot,” Alexander said.

Waller, who is also a dancer, said she finds it odd when people purposefully try to darken their skin color without acknowledging the historical setbacks people of color have faced for their darker skin. From a young age, Waller said she questioned why she felt discriminated for the color of her Afro-Latina skin, while her pale-skinned classmates would purposely spray themselves in products to tan their skin. She said she feels the natural tanning process is enjoyable, but the desire to deliberately self-tan to an unnatural tone is inappropriate.

“I’ve had people come up to me saying, ‘I’m as dark as you hahaha.’ No, you’re not, you’re orange, you’re not black,” Waller said. “If you’re trying to get to the color of me or trying to compare your skin tone to me, I find that disrespectful.”

Leistner said she doesn’t necessarily mind modern beauty standards, such as lip fillers or fake tanning, being based on women of colors’ features; however, she said she thinks it’s important