The full product guide
Sun Sauce.
Every ingredient, and why.
We built this brand on being straight about what is in the tube. Every ingredient has to earn its place at the level we include it, or it does not go in. No token actives at trace amounts to justify a word on the front. No fillers. And nothing on this page that is not printed on the label. It is why we are one of the only tanning brands willing to walk through the entire list and explain what every ingredient is there to do. This is that walk for Sun Sauce, the jelly, which is a different animal from our creams and deserves to be explained on its own terms.
28ingredients, every one explained below
2headline actives, both in the top five
0oil. Water-based, glossy, salon friendly
5pper area. Less than you think
Sun Sauce is not a Next-Gen cream in a different texture. It is its own formula, built to be light, oil-free and fast, with two actives placed high.
Acetyl tyrosine and niacinamide are the fourth and fifth ingredients. On most sunbed products the accelerator is after the fragrance. Here it is nearly at the top.
A 5p-sized amount per area. Over-apply a jelly and it goes sticky. Get it right and it disappears.
No DHA, no bronzer. The jelly is golden in the tube; your skin does not change colour when it goes on.
Part one
What a tanning jelly is, and why we made one
A cream carries its actives in an emulsion of water and oils. A jelly carries them in water and humectants, thickened into a gel, with no oil phase at all. That changes everything about how it behaves. It absorbs faster, leaves nothing on the sunbed acrylic, sits under sunscreen without a greasy layer, and gives the glossy lounger look people used to get from oil, without the oil. It also lets us put the actives higher in the list, because there is less emollient taking up room. Sun Sauce exists for people who find creams heavy, for real heat, and for anyone who wants the tanning-oil feel with something actually happening underneath.
If you have read the comments under our Sun Sauce adverts, you already know. Once people get the amount right, this is the one they will not go back from.
Part two
The base: three humectants
Instead of butters and oils, Sun Sauce is built on three ingredients that pull water into skin and hold it there. This is why it hydrates without weight.
Ingredient 1Aqua (water)First
The base of the gel, and most of the tube. A jelly is mostly water by design; what matters is what is dissolved in it.
Ingredient 2GlycerinSecond
The main humectant, second on the list. It draws water into the top layer of skin and keeps it there. It is also the reason a jelly goes tacky if you use too much: glycerin left sitting on the surface, with nothing to absorb into, is sticky. Use the right amount and it vanishes.
Ingredient 3Dipropylene glycolThird
A light humectant and solvent that helps the actives dissolve evenly through the gel and improves how they reach the skin. It also gives the jelly its slip without any oil.
Part three
The actives: two, placed where they count
Sun Sauce runs a simpler stack than the Next-Gen creams, and we would rather tell you that than dress it up. It has two headline actives. What makes it serious is where they sit: fourth and fifth on the list, ahead of everything except water and the two humectants. That is a higher position than the accelerator holds in almost any tanning product in the UK.
Active 1Acetyl tyrosineFifth
The building block your skin converts into melanin, in the stable form that dissolves properly in a water-based gel and absorbs well. Fifth ingredient. On most sunbed lotions tyrosine appears after the fragrance and preservative. Here it is near the top, which is the point of the whole formula.
Active 2NiacinamideFourth
Vitamin B3, fourth on the list, one place above the tyrosine. It supports the skin barrier and is involved in moving melanin from the cells that make it into the cells you see. In a jelly with no oil phase, niacinamide is also doing a lot of the calming work a cream would leave to butters.
SupportingTripeptide-1Low on the list
A signalling peptide. It is in the formula, it is on the label, and it sits low on the list, so we are not going to pretend it is a headline. It is a supporting player. The headline is the two above it.
A typical tanning oil or gel
After
Tyrosine below the fragranceOil on the surfaceBanned in most salons
Where the accelerator sits: after the fragrance, if it is there at all.
VS
Sun Sauce
4th, 5th
NiacinamideAcetyl tyrosineNo oilSalon friendly
Where the actives sit: fourth and fifth. Above everything but water and humectants.
Part four
Skin support: what replaces the butters
No shea, no coconut, no squalane. A jelly cannot carry them. So the comfort has to come from water-soluble ingredients instead, and these are the ones doing it.
Panthenol (pro-vitamin B5): sixth on the list. Calms and conditions, and takes the tightness out of skin after a session.
Betaine: a sugar-beet-derived humectant that hydrates and soothes. Common in Korean skincare, rare in tanning products.
Aloe vera extract: cooling and calming. In a gel it does not need to be high on the list to be felt.
Adenosine: a skin-conditioning ingredient borrowed from anti-ageing serums, for smoothness and comfort.
Allantoin: a classic soother that helps skin recover between sessions.
Grape fruit extract: antioxidant support against the free radicals UV creates.
Tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E): a stable form of vitamin E, for antioxidant support.
Part five
The colour, honestly
Sun Sauce is golden in the tube. That comes from a tiny amount of a cosmetic colourant, CI 19140, which is the last ingredient on the list. We are telling you because we would rather you read it here than spot it on the label and wonder. It colours the jelly so it looks like what it is. It does not colour you: it is not DHA, it is not a bronzer, and it rinses away with the wash. Your skin does not change tone when Sun Sauce goes on. The colour you build is your own, over sessions, under UV.
Part six
Housekeeping: the rest of the list
A gel needs more supporting ingredients than a cream to hold its texture and stay safe, and we would rather name them than hide them in a footnote. Carbomer and hydroxyethylcellulose thicken the gel. Hexylene glycol, propylene glycol, butylene glycol and 1,2-hexanediol are solvents and mild humectants that keep the actives dissolved and the gel stable. Sodium hydroxide balances the pH. Hydrogenated castor oil is a solubiliser that keeps the fragrance dispersed in a water base. Phenoxyethanol, ethylhexylglycerin, glyceryl caprylate and hydroxyacetophenone make up the preservative system. Disodium EDTA keeps trace minerals from destabilising the gel. Parfum is the scent, and it sits near the bottom. That is the whole tube.
Part seven
Versus the shelf
Versus a tanning oil. The look people want from oil, without the oil. No surface film, no salon ban, no fighting your sunscreen, and actives that sit fourth and fifth rather than not at all.
Versus a bronzer gel. Instant colour from DHA or a tint, which washes off and streaks. Sun Sauce gives nothing on day one and your own colour by session three.
Versus a Next-Gen cream. The creams run the full five-part stack with MelanoBronze and a rich butter base. Sun Sauce runs two actives, placed higher, in a base with no oil. If you want the deepest possible stack, take a cream. If you want light, fast and glossy, this is the one.
Versus most "tanning gels". Read their list. If the tyrosine is after the fragrance, you are buying a moisturising gel with a tanning name.
What Sun Sauce is not
Not the full Next-Gen stack; that is the creams, and we would rather say so than pretend. Not a sunscreen; wear one over it outdoors. Not a bronzer, despite the colour in the tube. And not forgiving of a heavy hand: use too much and it goes sticky, which is the formula telling you to use less next time.
Part eight
How to use it, and the one thing new users get wrong
Prep: exfoliate the day before, not the day of. Clean, dry skin.
Apply: a 5p-sized amount per area. Yes, that little. Spread it thin and even and keep working it in until it disappears. Because there is no oil, the jelly absorbs almost entirely; what does not absorb is the part you over-applied, and that is what turns sticky. Thin means it vanishes; thick means it sits.
The first few uses: if you are new to jellies, it can take two or three goes to find the amount. That is normal. Start with less than feels right and add only if a patch is dry. Once you have it, you will wonder why anyone uses anything heavier.
Sunbed: give it a couple of minutes, then follow the salon's times. Nothing transfers to the acrylic.
Outdoors: sunscreen over the top, reapplied every two hours and after swimming. Reapply Sun Sauce after towelling if you have been in the water a lot.
Expect: priming in the first session or two, a visible difference by session two or three, a base in two to three weeks of regular use.
A 5p amount, worked in until it is gone. Get that right and the tube lasts for weeks and the jelly does exactly what the comments say it does.
Quick answers
Frequently asked
Why does Sun Sauce feel sticky?
Too much was applied. A jelly has no oil, so anything that does not absorb sits on the surface and goes tacky. Use a 5p-sized amount per area, spread thin and worked in until it disappears.
Is Sun Sauce a bronzer? It is golden in the tube.
No. The colour is a tiny amount of cosmetic colourant that tints the jelly, not your skin. It rinses away. There is no DHA and no bronzer.
Can I use Sun Sauce on a sunbed?
Yes. It is water-based and oil-free, so nothing transfers to the acrylic. Salons that ban oils welcome it.
Does it work in the sun?
Yes, with a separate sunscreen over the top. It contains no SPF.
Sun Sauce or a Next-Gen cream?
Cream for the full five-part stack and a rich, conditioning feel. Sun Sauce for light, fast, glossy and oil-free, with two actives placed high. Plenty of people use both.
How much should I apply?
A 5p-sized amount per area, less than a cream. Start with less than feels right; you can add to a dry patch, but you cannot un-apply.
The oil look. None of the oil.
Two actives in the top five, nothing on the acrylic, a 5p amount per area. Read the comments, then try it.
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