Tan-Luxe

Tan-Luxe is a British self-tanning brand founded in London in 2015 [7]. It built its identity around a single idea — that a tan could be customised the way makeup is — and positions its products as skincare-led rather than conventional bronzing mousses. Since May 2020 the brand has been owned by the American company Paris Presents, Inc., though it continues to operate as a distinct label [9].

The brand is best known for self-tan "drops" that users mix into their own moisturiser or serum to dial the depth of colour up or down, a format its founder describes as a break from the fixed "tanning rulebook."

Tan-Luxe was created by Marc Elrick, who co-owns a hair salon with his husband and became immersed in beauty through that work. According to a founder interview with Cult Beauty, after more than a year of conversations with salon clients he identified a gap in the tanning market: "people were looking for something more approachable and customisable – something that didn't exist at the time" [6]. The founding concept, repeated across the brand's own pages, is the question "if you can customise your makeup, why not your tan?"

Sources differ on the founder's name. The Cult Beauty founder interview names him "Marc Elrick" consistently in its title and body [6], while the Australian review site Glow records the founder as "Marc Elliott" [7]; the dedicated interview spelling is used here.

Tan-Luxe was acquired by Paris Presents, Inc. on 1 May 2020 [9]. Paris Presents describes itself as a company that creates and distributes beauty products and personal-care accessories to mass merchants, drug stores, specialty beauty stores and online retailers [9]. The UK operating entity associated with the brand has separately been listed as We Are Luxe Ltd by The Good Shopping Guide [8].

The company frames its approach as "customisable" and "skincare-led," saying its formulas are meant to put the user "in total control" of their glow. It uses the phrase "clean tanning" to describe products it calls innovative in formulation, application and result, and lists non-toxic and cruelty-free formulations, natural tanning actives and full ingredient traceability among its stated values. Its taglines include "We Tossed Out the Tanning Rulebook" and "Self-Tan with Skincare Benefits." The brand states that its range is cruelty-free and vegan-certified [4].

An independent assessment strikes a more critical note. The Good Shopping Guide gave Tan-Luxe an ethical score of 0 on its benchmark scale, marking the brand down for a lack of environmental information on its website, no organic certification and no published animal-testing policy statement [8].

Tan-Luxe's original launch product was The Face, an illuminating self-tan drop designed to be added to skincare, and the brand's range has since grown to include The Body, The Gradual, The Illuminator, a Super Glow hyaluronic self-tan serum, tanning waters and mousses, and SPF products. Ingredients the brand highlights include raspberry seed oil, hyaluronic acid, aloe vera, vitamin E, plant-based squalane and a DHA sourced from rapeseed oil grown in the south of France, the active responsible for developing colour on skin.

The company promotes a proprietary "Triple Tan Technology," which it describes as a molecule that reacts with individual skin tones for customisable results, and says its formulas work without synthetic colour guides [6].

Tan-Luxe was named best skincare-style tan in Glow's 2026 Self-Tan Index, which described it as "a serum brand that happens to be a tan" [7]. In 2025 the brand drew wider press attention through a limited-edition collaboration with Paris Hilton, "The Future" Airbrush 360 self-tanner, covered by WWD and sold through retailers including Selfridges, Sephora and Bluemercury [10].

Tan-Luxe remains an active, internationally distributed brand, operating as a distinct label under its parent Paris Presents, Inc. since 2020 [9]. Recent product launches and editorial coverage through 2025 and 2026 confirm continued activity.