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Celebrity spray tan artist shares tips for a flawless at-home glow
Want the naked truth behind celebrities’ red carpet prep process? They often start by stripping down for a spray tan.
Just ask Hollywood tan artist Isabel Alysa, who’s gotten A-listers like Kylie Jenner, Jennifer Lopez and Miley Cyrus glowing with her Dolce Glow product line, in which the latter star recently invested.
“I think it takes a certain person and a certain personality for someone to be like, ‘Hey, nice to meet you, now get naked,’” Alysa tells Page Six Style.
“You know you have to make them feel comfortable … I just want all my clients to just feel beautiful and empowered after their spray tan.”
And although “customizing and creating” the tan means asking about a star’s vision, that process also includes keeping “the outside world” out of sessions — just as Alysa did prior to Kim Kardashian’s now-infamous Met Gala Marilyn moment.
The artist recalls Kardashian requested a “subtle glow” to go with the archival museum piece, likely so as not to stain the precious style.
“And that’s what, you know, I delivered,” Alysa says.
It was far from her first time tanning the Skims founder; since meeting Kardashian through fellow client Kylie Jenner, Alysa’s prepped her for everything from swimwear shoots to her equally memorable 2021 Met Gala outing — where, yes, “there was a tan peeking under” her meme-generating masked look.
Wondering how to get the same red carpet-ready glow (minus the mask)? Dolce Self-Tanning Mist ($53), which features a special sprayer that allows you to turn the can upside down or sideways — meaning that, according to Alysa, “if you can use an SPF product, you can use the self-tanner.”
Dolce Self-Tanning Mist ($53)
“It dries instantly and it’s just really hydrating,” she says. “You can rinse off in as little as two to six hours depending on how dark you want the tan.”
She uses the spray during her 20- to 30-minute sessions with stars, where she brings a spray tan tent to their houses “so it doesn’t get all over the place” and sometimes contours with a makeup gun “to just have a really defined area on their stomach” or on the cheekbones and jawline.
Before appointments or at-home tans, the expert recommends making sure skin is moisturized — she loves Kiehl’s ($34) or CeraVe ($13, originally $19) moisturizers — and prepped 24 hours prior before the tan with an Exfoliating Mitt ($9).
“Ninety percent of the spray tan really depends on the client’s skincare routine,” she says.
Exfoliating Mitt ($9)
While she’s now a seasoned expert working with many of the biggest names in Hollywood, however, Alysa got her star balancing motherhood, spray tanning “until 1 or 2 a.m.” and working a full-time job at an insurance agency.
Soon after tanning Jennifer Lopez for her Super Bowl halftime show performance in 2020, she moved into tanning full time, eventually scoring Cyrus as an investor.
“You don’t find that so much,” says Alysa. “But she really just loved the product so much, loved me, loved this story.”
Fellow former Disney star Selena Gomez is also a fan of the brand, having gone bare-faced save for the Dolce Glow Mist in a recent selfie that racked up a million likes in mere minutes.
“Selena is one of the sweetest, genuine, authentic people I’ve ever met,” says Alysa. “[We] just immediately connected, and so I started tanning her a few years ago.”
But while Alysa’s racked up glowing reviews for her glows, she says she remains the “best secret keeper” when it comes to what goes on behind the scenes.
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“I’ve seen everything. I’ve experienced everything … obviously spray tanning is a very intimate moment but there’s never a dull moment,” she says, adding, “Let’s just say there’s a lot of fun and secrets that are kept in the spray tan day-to-day world. My lips are sealed.”