Skye Wheatley has been criticized by her followers for promoting the use of collared tanning beds.
The former Big Brother star, 28, posted a photo of a tanning bed to her Instagram story with the caption “found a collarium” and tagged an Instagram page called Body Bronze.
Her followers were quick to point out the dangers of tanning beds and their link to skin cancer.
One person wrote, “You absolutely don’t understand how skin cancer develops. There is no level of ‘safe tanning’.
“Not only do you share what you do, there are many impressionable people you reach.”
Skye Wheatley (pictured) has been criticized by her followers for advertising the use of collared tanning beds
However, Skye responded to these comments as she claimed that tanning beds in the solarium are harmful and illegal, but collared tanning beds are not.
The influencer posted a selfie with an annoyed look on her face and wrote, “Guys please understand what I used today. WAS NO SOLARIUM HONEST, how many times do I have to say it.
“Contact whoever made it legal if it’s such a problem like why the hell would I post a solly, it’s so stupid like they’re illegal and dangerous, I get it!”
Skye claimed that solarium tanning beds are harmful and illegal, but collarium tanning beds are not
Her followers were quick to point out the dangers of tanning beds and their link to skin cancer
She continued, “It looks like a solly, but it’s not a solly. IT WAS NOT SOLLY, I DON’T PROMOTE SKIN CANCER’.
In 2015, solraium tanning beds were banned from commercial use in Australia due to the risk of melanoma among users, but they can still be purchased for private use.
Body Bronze, the company Skye promoted, appears to have no website, just an Instagram page.
The account is private, but asks followers to DM it before following.
Instagram account Influencer Updates AU posted a screenshot that appeared to be from this Instagram account’s story.
The former Big Brother star, 28, posted a photo of a tanning bed to her Instagram story with the caption ‘found a collar’ and tagged an Instagram page called Body Bronze
Body Bronze, the company Skye promoted, appears to have no website, just an Instagram page
It read, “Just a friendly reminder that Body Bronze doesn’t sell ‘sessions’, we sell lotion.”
‘The use of the collarium is free and at your own discretion’.
Companies that offer collarium tanning beds claim it’s the “safer way to tan” because it stimulates collagen and provides a tan from UVA rays without the burning effects of UVB.
However, according to The Mayo Clinic, “there is no such thing as a safe tanning bed,” and Jorden, the skin therapist at Geelong Veins Skin & Laser, said the irony of collared tanning beds is that UVA exposure actually denatures and breaks down collagen.
“The simplest way to think about the different actions of UVA and UVB is: UVA ages the skin and UVB burns the skin,” the therapist with a Bachelor of Dermal Sciences said in a blog post for the clinic’s website.
She added that there is “not a single benefit” from these tanning beds that has been proven clinically or otherwise.
While Skye encouraged her followers to get their skin checked, she asked what the difference is between using a collared tanning bed and sitting out in the sun.
While Skye encouraged her followers to get their skin checked, she asked what the difference is between using a collared tanning bed and sitting out in the sun
“Okay guys if you want to live please don’t do what I do,” she wrote on her Instagram story.
Get your skin checked too! I am someone who has had a melanoma removed, so I get my skin checked often.
“But please tell me how this differs from someone lying in the sun or being out in the sun?”
She then claimed that the sun has the “strongest UB rays and no one says s**t.”
However, according to The Skin Cancer Foundation, the claim that tanning in a tanning bed is safer than tanning outside in the natural sun is a myth.
She then claimed that the sun has the “strongest UB rays and nobody says s**t”
It says that while it was once believed that UVA light used in tanning beds usually only causes skin aging, its longer wavelength is now known to penetrate deeper into the skin and is strongly linked to melanoma.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, using a tanning bed before age 20 can increase the chance of developing melanoma by 47 percent, and this increases with each session.
Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, and more than two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime, according to the Cancer Council Australia, and approximately 2,000 Australians die from skin cancer each year.
Skye said she knows how damaging the sun is because it’s “pale AF.”