Maintaining a sun-kissed tan takes time.
But with seven kids between them, best friends Bethany Ferguson and Whit Frink are too busy to sunbathe or hit the tanning bed like they used to.
Still, Frink, from Atlanta, insists she looks healthier with some color. “As I get older, my skin’s getting more translucent and my veins are showing … I just like to have a healthy glow,” she told The Post.
Enter the solution: Carotenoids.
Some call it Carrotmaxxing — and shrimpmaxing, and tomatomaxing. But it’s not always with food. For Ferguson and Frink, it’s with a little pill that contains compounds which, when ingested frequently enough, have the power to change skin color.
Carotenoids are a type of natural yellow, orange or red pigment.
Take beta-carotene, an orange pigment found in carrots, sweet potatoes and cantaloupe. Or astaxanthin, a red-orange one that gives shrimp and salmon their signature pink hue. And lycopene, which makes tomatoes red.
Frink and Ferguson get the three pigments in supplements form from a brand called Zephyrian, which says combining the colors offers a balance.
“Astaxanthin brings red undertones, lycopene brings surface warmth, and a supporting dose of beta-carotene adds golden balance. The result is a believable tone, not a costume,” says the Finnish nutricosmetics company.
The moms love that it’s a once-a-day pill. “It’s extremely easy,” Frink said. “You just have to take it with some sort of fat-soluble food. So in the mornings I’ll have avocado toast or an egg and then I’ll take the pill.”
Plus, Ferguson says there’ve been no side effects and both have loved the results.
Bronze Bites, Bondi Gummies and Vecos are a few of many other brands that make so-called “tanning pills.”
Some people are taking it even further, getting the pigments straight from the source.
“I eat one, two, maybe three carrots per day,” wellness creator Lee Tilghman Pollis said on social media. “I think that they’re best raw.”
She insists her carrotmaxing routine gives her “the best skin of my life and I will die on this hill.”
Influencer Isabelle (@isabelle.lux) went viral for her own “carrot tan” on TikTok, telling followers: “I’ve been doing this for years. I don’t fake tan anymore, I don’t go out in the day during the sunlight.”
Men are in on it too. Casey (@caseynooz) has encouraged others to carrotmax, showing off his “arsenal” of a bag of carrots, as well as beta-carotene, astaxanthin, and lycopene supplements.
So… does it really work?
Yes, eating too many carrots really does turn the skin orange — it’s called carotenemia.
“Carotenoids are pigments [that get] absorbed through the digestive tract, circulate in the bloodstream, and can accumulate in the skin, particularly its outermost layer,” Viktoryia Kazlouskaya, dermatologist and owner of Dermatology Circle, told The Post.
It would take around 20-50 mg of beta-carotene a day for a few weeks to get the effect, said Sophia Deahl, registered dietitian and director of The Nourished Method. That’s about three to eight large carrots a day, or one to two glasses of carrot juice.
An important distinction: Carotenemia isn’t a “real tan” in which melanocytes in the skin produce pigment in response to the sun. Carotenemia is simply “pigment accumulation,” Kazlouskaya explained.
Similarly, eating an excessive amount of lycopene-rich tomatoes turns your skin orange-red, a condition called lycopenemia.
Though astaxanthin is also a carotenoid, like lycopene and beta-carotene, there is no known phenomenon that turns you pink from eating too much shrimp, which is rich in astaxanthin.
Risky business?
Carotenemia is generally harmless, and goes away as soon as the carrotmaxxer eases up on consumption.
Perhaps the biggest issue with overdoing the carrots is “digestive symptoms … including gas, bloating, stomach discomfort or loose stools,” said The Post. “That’s mainly from getting more fiber than your gut is used to, especially if you increase it quickly.”
Lycopenemia from tomatoes is also generally harmless and reversible.
Supplements, though, are a different story.
“A nutrient coming from a plant doesn’t automatically mean any dose is safe,” Deahl said.
Though our bodies do need beta-carotene to make vitamin A, it’s a small amount that doesn’t require going out of your way to eat carotenoid-rich foods. Overloading the body with beta-carotene supplements could cause toxicity
“At high enough amounts, beta-carotene can even flip from acting as an antioxidant to acting as a pro-oxidant, which can cause inflammation,” Deahl said. “Those risks showed up with supplements, not with food. That’s why no major health organization recommends beta-carotene supplements for the general public.”
Deahl warns that with any vitamin, more isn’t always better. People should only take supplements to fill a gap, and she recommends checking if any ingredients overlap if you’re taking more than one.
Plus, supplements don’t have to be approved by the FDA for safety or efficacy, nor are their labels checked for accuracy before they hit the market.
A given ingredient list might look clean, “but it doesn’t tell you whether the dose is right or whether the product was tested,” Deahl said.
“My take: look for third-party testing from USP, NSF, or ConsumerLab. Otherwise, you’re just taking the brand’s word for it.”
But… is it better than sunbathing?
Despite decades of warnings about the risk of skin cancer — and premature aging — plenty of people still like to lay out and get a tan.
So are carrotmaxxing (and shrimpmaxxing, and tomatomaxxing) safer alternatives?
“I support avoiding UV tanning, but I would not recommend taking high-dose supplements or deliberately overeating carotenoid-rich foods to change your skin color,” said Kazlouskaya.
“The effect can be uneven, difficult to control, and color may not be appealing with more of an orange hue.”
Both Kazlouskaya and Deahl say: Opt for the self-tanner instead. And if you’re really interested in upping your beta-carotene intake, eat the fruit or vegetable instead of popping a pill.
As for Ferguson and Frink, they’ve continued their supplement through the summer and fall, though they admit they haven’t been as consistent as they’d like.
“The true test will be once our summer color fades, will we still see a glow in the winter?”
