Tan

For people who hate having thin, pale bikini lines, a seemingly ingenious solution has been advertised all over social media this year: "Tan-through" swimwear.

Brands like Bare Swimwear, Sunnie Swim, and Solthruwear all claim that their swimsuits' mesh fabric allows UV rays to pass through, creating an even tan throughout.

The hashtag #tanthrough has over 44 million views on TikTok, with glossy branded videos and sponsored reviews dominating most of it.

But — and you probably guessed where this was going — people who actually bought the bikinis say they don't work. At all.

"PSA to all the people getting the tan through swimwear ads they're all fake," @dianazoel said, pointing out her tan lines while wearing one of the bikinis.

"Fun fact — you're still going to get tan lines," @.jennilin echoed, pulling her bikini strap aside to show her tan line.

Sometimes, things aren't just too good to be true — they're so much worse. It turns out these tan-through bikinis can actually leave weirder tan lines than normal and are wholly impractical to wear.

In a video testing a bikini from Sunnie Swim, Amanda Adams, 27, wore the product while walking her dog and noted that while the rest of the swimsuit is mesh, the trim is made of normal fabric.

Just as i predicted 😅 Why are fyp ads always so sus????

"I'm worried about the thickness of these seams," she said in the TikTok.

Sure enough, 15 minutes later, she pointed to a faint line exactly where the trim was. "What is this fat line across my chest," she said. "That's that, it doesn't work."

A question a lot of users on TikTok have is how see-through the swimsuits actually are because, you know, they're made entirely of mesh. One fan of a tan-through swimsuit had to wear nipple pads to be able to show the swimsuit on video, while Adams censored her chest in her own review.

Adams told Insider that her bikini bafflingly came with pads in the top, which she removed. "It was so ugly since it's mesh — like the whole idea is that you can see through it," she said, laughing. "And they just put these fat white boob pads in the middle."

The only benefit, Adams said, is that the bikini is "extremely comfortable," so she'll still wear it around sometimes.

Initially, Adams saw a TikTok ad for the bikini. While she suspected it could be a scam, she felt the low price of $20 was worth the risk. She ordered it in early March, with plans to wear it on a Costa Rica trip in April — but the swimsuit didn't arrive until June.

In between then, she emailed the company, Sunnie Swim, but said she didn't get clear answers as to why it was taking this long for standard shipping.

When the package did arrive, it came with a customs slip from China. Puzzlingly, the company also sent two of the same bikini to Adams, with no explanation. Adams' experience lines up with the increasing trend of fake products being sold through TikTok.

"I think it was just one of these like quick money-grab things," she said. Sunnie Swim's website currently displays a "404" on the shopping section and no clear information as to where the company is based. Sunnie Swim did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

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