A spray tan is one of the few beauty appointments where most of what you are buying is a schedule. The active ingredient is the same almost everywhere: DHA, a sugar-derived compound that reacts with the outermost layer of skin and takes hours to finish developing. What changes from one Triad studio to the next is who applies it, how closely the color is matched to your skin before the gun comes out, and how long you have to wait before you can shower. Around Greensboro the answers fall into three fairly clean lanes: a trained artist working by hand in a dedicated studio, a solo operator who books through a phone app and may come to you, or an automated booth inside a tanning-bed salon. The price gap between the lanes runs roughly two to one, and the rinse-time gap is the part that decides whether you can get sprayed the morning of an event or have to do it two days ahead. Here is how the Triad’s operators sort themselves out, with the fall wedding and campus formal season already underway.
Sunless Body: hand application only, and two Triad storefronts
Owner Ava Vann started Sunless Body as a mobile service at 18, ran it for four years out of the High Point Sports Center, and opened a brick-and-mortar shop in the winter of 2022. The studio applies every tan by hand rather than through a booth, and it sells its own line of self-tanners, moisturizers and body washes alongside the service. The High Point location is at 2513 Eastchester Drive, Store 107, 27265, reachable at (336) 339-2428; a second shop sits at 205 S Stratford Road in Winston-Salem, at (336) 970-1392. The site says its solutions are vegan, cruelty-free and eco-certified, that DHA penetrates only the outermost skin layer, and that a tan holds for seven to twelve days depending on how you moisturize. Two booking instructions are worth copying into a calendar: a trial tan at least four weeks before a wedding or photo session, and the real appointment two to three days before the event, not the night before. Ask about prices when you book, and confirm which shop you are booking.
goGLOW: a franchise process with the rinse time priced into the menu
goGLOW sits at 139 S Stratford Road in Winston-Salem, 27104, at 336-934-3852, on the same stretch of South Stratford Road as the Sunless Body shop. Its service is built as a three-step sequence: a color consultation to pick the shade, a pH-balancing spray before the tan, and a moisture-locking finishing spray after it. The pricing makes the rinse-time decision explicit. A Single goGLOW is $55 and needs 12 to 24 hours before you shower; a Rapid goGLOW is $65 and rinses off in three to five hours. Memberships run $45 a month for the Essential tier and $85 for the Signature tier. Published hours run late midweek, at 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, with a noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, which matters if the only window you have is a weekday evening.
Good Vibes Spray Tanning: a Greensboro solo artist with the add-ons itemized
Good Vibes books through GlossGenius and publishes a full menu. The base service, listed as THE TAN, runs $55 and up for a 30-minute appointment, with a choice between an original solution that develops over 10 to 12 hours and a rapid version you rinse after a few hours. Group bookings for four or more are $180 and up across a 150-minute block, aimed at bridal parties, bachelorettes and prom. Add-ons are priced individually: a Glow Boost prep and post spray, a Sweat Proof treatment and a Hydra Plus at $10 and up each, and a setting spray at $5 and up. Male clients are told plainly that undergarments are required with no exceptions. The operator is reachable at 336-420-4574 and lists Greensboro as its market, and when you book, ask for the address and hours and whether you are going to a suite or having someone come to you.
Green Iris Esthetics: a licensed esthetician who moved the studio to Clemmons
Elizabeth at Green Iris is a licensed esthetician and certified spray tan artist who also does facials, waxing and brows, which makes this the entry where the tan sits inside a broader skin practice. Pricing is structured by month rather than by visit: $45 for the first tan in a calendar month and $30 for each additional tan that month under a loyalty program the studio calls Just Because. The prep and aftercare instructions are specific. Exfoliate 24 to 48 hours ahead rather than right before, by shaving or with a mitt, and skip sugar scrubs and oil-based products; afterward, moisturize daily and avoid alcohol-based lotions and oils, with the color holding about seven days and looking its best at two to three. The studio is at 3540 Clemmons Road, Suite 130, Clemmons, 27012, at (336) 777-6434. The studio moved to the Clemmons address on October 8, 2025, and some directory listings still carry the old University Parkway address in Winston-Salem, so use the Clemmons one.
Bodyworks By Olivia: hand airbrush inside a North Elm tanning shop
Bodyworks By Olivia, at 3606 North Elm Street in Greensboro, 27455, is a tanning and wellness shop rather than a spray tan specialist, and it offers both UV beds and a hand-applied airbrush under the same roof. The airbrush is described on its own site as sprayed by hand, not through a booth, which puts it in the same technical lane as the dedicated studios at a walk-in shop. The operating terms: no contracts and no appointments, with pricing by phone at 336-288-4826. Listed hours are Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; hours shift by season, so call before driving over. The rest of the floor is beds, a stand-up booth, hydro massage, red light and infrared wraps.
Palm Beach Tan: the automated booth, in two Greensboro locations
Palm Beach Tan runs two Greensboro locations, at 1312 Bridford Parkway, Suite 103B, 27407, at 336-299-2626, and at 1615 New Garden Road, 27410, at 336-292-0087. Both open at 8 a.m. on weekdays and stay open until 9 p.m., and neither takes an appointment for a spray. The spray happens in an automated booth in a private room rather than from a technician’s hand, with bronzers, fragrances and enhancers offered as selections rather than as a blended custom formula. Single sessions are $30 for either the Choice Spray in light or medium or the Signature Spray in dark, and they expire 30 days from purchase. Memberships start at $19 a month for a single monthly session and run to $49.99 a month for unlimited single-service access, each with a $29 start-up fee. This is the automated lane, and the trade is that nobody is matching the color to your skin or correcting for a shoulder you missed while exfoliating.
Julie’s Airbrush Tan: a Pembroke Road listing
Julie’s Airbrush Tan is listed at 1816 Pembroke Road in Greensboro, 27408, with a phone number of (336) 971-8348, and it turns up across Yelp, Alignable, Nextdoor and local directory pages under the spray tanning category. Its Facebook page is linked above. Call the number to ask about hours, prices and services before making a plan around it.
Before You Book
Start with the rinse question, because it drives everything else. If the event is tomorrow morning, you want a rapid solution, which several studios above offer as a named option. If you have two clear days, an original solution developing over 10 to 24 hours generally gives a deeper result for less money. Nobody should be spraying you the hour before a wedding.
Then decide whether you want a person or a machine. A hand application means someone is choosing a shade for your skin tone, working around the parts of a body that take color unevenly, and fixing the streak before you see it in daylight. A booth applies the same formula at the same pressure to everyone. Neither is wrong; a booth on a Tuesday for your own sake is a different purchase from a bridal trial.
Ask about credentials rather than assuming them. Green Iris publishes a state esthetics license alongside a spray tan certification, and a certification from a solution manufacturer is not the same credential. Ask what solution is used and how long it has been open, ask whether the shade is blended or selected from fixed options, and ask what the correction policy is if the color comes out wrong.
Budget roughly $30 for a booth session, $45 to $65 for a hand-applied tan, and $180 and up for a group of four, and expect to ask for the rest.
One practical warning from reporting this piece. Directory results for Greensboro spray tanning pull in operators well outside the Triad: A Shore Thing Spray Tan Bar ranks highly for North Carolina spray tan searches and is in Apex, more than an hour east in Wake County. Two other Greensboro bed salons, Sun Tan City at West Friendly Center and GloTanning, also sell booth sprays if the Palm Beach Tan hours do not fit.
Finally, exfoliate 24 to 48 hours ahead rather than the morning of, skip oils and sugar scrubs before the appointment, moisturize daily afterward, and plan on roughly seven to twelve days of color. Book the trial four weeks out if a photographer is involved. Through the fall formal and wedding stretch, the Saturday slots at the studios with one artist go first.
