In less than two years, Keri Simmons Elliott has started her career as a spray tan artist; created Allen, Texas-based Bronze Me Baby (@bronzemebabyy); been the go-to artist for runway fashion shows at New York, Miami, and Los Angeles Fashion Weeks; and became the first-ever ambassador for Unfiltered Tan. Now, in her role with Unfiltered, she has created a brand new professional solution for the sunless brand. Runway XOXO Keri is available now on UnfilteredTan.com for $66 for a quart and will be a permanent solution in the brand’s range. Runway is a rapid-developing, violet-based solution which is infused with a drizzle of gold shimmer that develops into a deep tan.

The solution is a 10% DHA formula, has a violet base to cancel out green and yellow undertones, and is gluten-free, paraben-free, and packed with a luxurious blend of anti-aging ingredients that will smooth and firm any skin type. The added hint of gold helps the dark tan to glimmer under the bright lights of the runway without being too shimmery or taking away from the rich color.

According to Keri, she started using Unfiltered on her clients after being less than pleased with the longevity and fade of other professional solutions. “I found Unfiltered and it literally leveled up my business,” she says. “The ingredients are far above any other solutions, the fade is dreamy, and it was one of the smartest decisions I’ve made in my business. I ordered the samples as I was traveling to Vegas [so] I sprayed myself with it and it [felt] like pure silk. My skin felt amazing and it held up! I came home and landed on the runways of Miami Swim Week and I messaged the owner, Karla Holman Clarke, and told her how I loved her products and I was placing an order for Swim Week. Within five months I had done five fashion shows [using Unfiltered] and she asked me to be the brand ambassador. I was so honored!” And that’s all she wrote! Fast forward a few months and Keri has created her very own solution for the brand that sold out in a matter of hours in the middle of a pandemic ( a time when most sunless businesses across the U.S. were closed due to Covid restrictions.) Talk about impressive.

As mentioned, Keri’s success in the sunless industry has happened fast and she credits her start to wanting to try something new after experiencing some loneliness when she became an empty-nester. “I got started out of being lonely. My mom role, as in the amount of time [my children] needed me, was diminishing because two were in college and had their own lives. I was an avid spray tanner and I thought a spray tan business would be fun,” she shares. “So I called my cousin up who owns a salon in Oklahoma and she showed me how the spray patterns went [on the phone].'“ After that call, Keri began booking and after spraying just six people she landed a gig spray tanning for a magazine’s photoshoot, “…and then it took off from there. And took off quick!”

When it comes the best piece of advice Keri has received which has help to land her where she is today, she credits the words of a fellow spray tan artist; “once a spray artist told me to find my brand of solution and rock it. Dive into it and learn it backwards and forwards, build my company on it and become an expert on it. And that’s what I did.”

Stay tuned to The Tan Bible’s Instagram Stories this Saturday, September 25 to watch Keri takeover as she celebrates the launch of Runway XOXO Keri with the Unfiltered team in Las Vegas.