Modern tanning gummies are built on two pigments you've almost certainly eaten this week: beta-carotene, from carrots, and astaxanthin, the one that makes salmon pink.
For most healthy adults taking them as directed, yes. Beta-carotene and astaxanthin are food-derived carotenoids with a long history in ordinary diets, and Asuno uses them at food-range amounts printed on the pouch. There's one group who should choose something else, and a quick suitability check further down covers it.
What's actually in the gummy
The most useful answer to a safety question is usually just the ingredient list, so here's ours, photographed as sold: vitamin C, beta-carotene from Blakeslea trispora, astaxanthin from micro-algae, organic cane sugar, tapioca syrup, water, pectin, citric acid, natural peach mango flavour, artificial pineapple flavour, turmeric colour.
Pectin does the job gelatin usually does, which makes them vegan-suitable, and they're gluten-free. The astaxanthin is algae-derived rather than shellfish-derived, worth knowing if you avoid crustacean allergens.
Beta-carotene and astaxanthin
Both are carotenoids, the family of plant and algae pigments responsible for a lot of the orange, red and pink in the food supply. You already eat them.
Beta-carotene is the one that colours carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkin. Your body converts some of it into vitamin A and stores the rest, including in the fat layer just under the skin. That storage is the whole mechanism behind a tanning gummy: a warm tint that builds gradually from the inside, with no UV and nothing to apply. Ours comes from Blakeslea trispora, a fermentation source rather than a synthetic one.
Astaxanthin is the red carotenoid that gives salmon its colour. The fish get it from eating algae, and ours comes from the same place they do, Haematococcus pluvialis micro-algae. It contributes to the tint, and it has its own developing research on skin moisture and elasticity, which we go through properly in the ingredients article.
Alongside them, 50 mg of vitamin C, which contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of skin, and helps keep the carotenoids stable in the pouch.
Why modern formulas look different
If you have a vague memory of tanning pills being a problem decades ago, that memory is accurate, and it's about a different ingredient entirely.
The tanning pills sold in the 1980s used canthaxanthin, a colour additive, at doses far beyond anything in food. The FDA's page on the subject documents a distributor selling French Bronze Tablets at 30 mg per tablet, four tablets a day, so 120 mg daily against an average dietary intake of about 5.6 mg. One company applied to have canthaxanthin approved as a tanning agent and then withdrew the application when crystals were found depositing in users' retinas. The tablets were seized in 1988 and destroyed by court order the following year.
That history is the reason the category looks the way it does now. Modern tanning gummies, ours included, don't use canthaxanthin at all. Beta-carotene and astaxanthin are different molecules, at food-range doses, with a different safety record.
Canthaxanthin tanning pills
- 120 mg/day canthaxanthin, 21× average dietary intake
- Retinal crystal deposits documented in users
- Approval application withdrawn by its own sponsor
- Seized 1988, destroyed by court order 1989
Beta-carotene & astaxanthin
- 4 mg beta-carotene + 2 mg astaxanthin per serving
- Food-range dose, comparable to a carrot-heavy diet
- Fermentation and algae sources, printed on the pouch
- No canthaxanthin, in any amount
Using them day to day
Two gummies a day. That's the whole routine, and there isn't a clever way to improve on it.
Taking more won't speed the colour up, because the tint builds at the pace carotenoids accumulate in fat, not at the pace you eat them. The one thing genuinely worth doing is adding up your total carotenoid intake if you're also on a multivitamin that contains beta-carotene, or you eat a lot of carrot juice and sweet potato. At sustained high intakes across everything combined, carotenoids can tint the palms and soles noticeably, a condition the NIH describes as harmless and reversible; it fades on its own once intake drops. It's the one cosmetic effect worth knowing about in this category, and it's driven by the total, not by any single product.
A quick suitability check
Choose something else
If you smoke, or quit recently. Two large 1990s trials of long-term, high-dose beta-carotene supplements, ATBC and CARET, found increased lung-cancer risk in smokers specifically. The finding hasn't appeared in non-smokers, and it hasn't been associated with carotenoids from food, but it applies to beta-carotene supplements as a category, ours included.
Add up your total first
Already taking a beta-carotene multivitamin? Add the two together before starting a tanning gummy on top.
Worth a quick question
Pregnant or breastfeeding? Not a known problem with beta-carotene specifically, but supplement decisions here belong with your doctor.
Worth a quick question
On regular medication? A pharmacist can check your actual list in about two minutes.
Beta-carotene and astaxanthin are food-derived carotenoids, used here at food-range amounts, in a formula with no canthaxanthin and every number printed on the pouch. If you don't smoke and you're not already stacking beta-carotene from somewhere else, two gummies a day is genuinely as complicated as this gets.
What you can check before you buy
Beta-carotene from Blakeslea trispora, astaxanthin from micro-algae. Both named on the panel, neither hidden in a blend.
4 mg beta-carotene, 2 mg astaxanthin, 50 mg vitamin C per two-gummy serving.
Pectin instead of gelatin, so vegan-suitable and gluten-free. Algae-derived astaxanthin, not shellfish.
Two peach-mango gummies with breakfast, and the amounts are on the back of the pouch if you want to check them.
Common questions
What's actually in a tanning gummy?
Are tanning gummies safe long-term?
How much beta-carotene is in a serving?
Are they safe with medication?
Is astaxanthin safe?
Can I take one before a holiday?
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Tanning Pills. Content current as of 15 March 2022.
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Vitamin A and Carotenoids — Health Professional Fact Sheet. Updated 10 March 2025. ATBC and CARET trial details, carotenodermia.
- Asuno Tanning Gummies supplement facts panel and ingredient list, as packaged and sold.
This article is general information about ingredients and published research. It isn't medical advice, and nothing here is a claim that any product treats, prevents or cures a condition. If you're pregnant, breastfeeding, taking medication or managing a health condition, check with your doctor before starting any supplement.
