Nudist/Naturist Goods and Services

Tan-thru swimsuits and other products from Lifestyles Direct -- In-Depth Review

I first dealt with Lifestyles Direct in the spring of 2000 when planning a trip to Virginia Beach (one of the more uptight seaside communities). I found some styles I liked on their catalog web site, and I also called their 800 number to verify whether my selections were in stock (the online catalog doesn't display real-time in-stock status) and ask some questions; they were very friendly and helpful. During my inital browsing of the catalog I was disappointed that as the "coverage" of the suit styles got smaller, so did the available waist sizes. My waist is officially 38" as the tape measure flies. My experience has been that some styles of suit can be worn a bit small, however, especially with good stretch fabric, so I decided to try a 1" side, modified-Brazil-back in size XL (35-37") and a thong/t-back in size L (33-34") and found the fit to be quite good in both cases. Hope this helps your ordering!

My first observations of the tan-thru suits was that they do allow light to penetrate, while appearing completely opaque when worn against the skin, as advertised. I also found that the fabric is very light, breathable and seems to dry more quickly than other swimsuit fabrics. During my trip to Virginia Beach, I probably spent 5 or 6 hours in the sun non-continuously over several days, during which time I consistently used the 1" side suit and 8 SPF sunscreen in non-suit areas. The result after the trip was a (very) subtle, hardly noticeable, light tanline area in the suit region, but (based on my previous experiences with non-tanthru gear) this light spot was much less than would have resulted with a regular suit. This seems to be consistent with the statements from Lifestyles Direct that the suits have an effective average "SPF" of 10. (The next time I travel to a "textile" beach, I will probably experiment with using 15 SPF sunscreen on non-suit body areas, and see if this results in "negative" tanlines, i.e. the suit areas slightly darker than everything else!)

My conclusions:

• These suits are well-made and probably as comfortable as any swimsuit can be (though as a nudist, my preference is still of course no suit at all).
• I recommend these suits to nudists as a way to help (at least) reduce the inevitable tan lines when visiting textile beaches.
• I think that these suits, used by non-nudists on a regular, long-term basis, would probably also reduce tan lines but not eliminate them completely, not because the suits don't work, but because of the difficulty of exactly matching the strength of SPF lotion to the effective SPF of the suit. (I would be interested in hearing reports from anyone who has used these suits over a long period of time in this way.)
• I have had good experiences so far with this company's customer service and ordering process.

In addition to the tan-thru suits, Lifestyles Direct also carries other sun and beach products including sunscreens and lotions, so do check them out.

I appreciate your comments, positive and negative, on any of the products and companies listed on my pages. --JMF

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