Mishel Chernyavskiy has spent a decade chasing the perfect tan.
She built her career as a spray tan artist, working with thousands of clients and cultivating a celebrity roster that includes Paris Hilton, Jennifer Lawrence, Zara Larsson and Emma Stone. Every appointment became a lesson in what the self-tanning category was getting wrong. “I kept thinking it would be cool if somebody made something that wasn’t orange, didn’t stink, actually faded well and was good for the skin,” she says. “After 10 years, I realized nobody was making it.”
So, she took it upon herself to make it. The result is MSK Labs, a sunless tanning brand designed to bring together skincare and self-tanning while introducing a prestige aesthetic to a category long associated with brightly colored bottles and beach imagery. It launched in May and, less than two months later, landed at Violet Grey, where it’s the only dedicated self-tanning brand.
Violet Grey has served as a launchpad for brands such as Augustinus Bader, Dr. Barbara Sturm, Crown Affair and Sofie Pavitt Face. Products in the retailer’s assortment must pass its “Violet Code,” a rigorous testing and vetting process conducted by a committee of beauty professionals.
MSK Labs offers two sunless tanning products: The Quickie, a $45 express self-tanning gel that develops in as little as an hour, and The Night Affair, a $40 overnight tanning mask. They feature ingredients like niacinamide, hyaluronic acid and squalane. A $10 mitt is also in the lineup to help with application. The Night Affair has emerged as a hero product.
Chernyavskiy explains, “It performs particularly well because it bridges both audiences: People who are completely new to self-tanning and looking for something approachable, as well as experienced users who want a more elevated, skincare-first experience within their routine.”
MSK Labs primarily targets millennials, a demographic Chernyavskiy describes as skin-conscious and aware of the harms of ultraviolet exposure. In contrast, younger consumers, particularly gen Z, are reviving old-school tanning culture, including Chernyavskiy’s sister who regularly sunbathes with oil. At 27, she’s actually gen Z, but she has adopted a millennial mindset, saying millennials are “trying to combat everything that we did when we were younger.”
Gen Z consumers, on the other hand, are lacking knowledge on sun protection facts, per a 2025 survey of 1,000 American adults by the American Academy of Dermatology. Half of gen Z respondents reported getting a sunburn in 2024, while one in four said getting a tan is important regardless of future health consequences. Searches for “tanning” are also up more than 30% year-over-year across Google, TikTok and Instagram, according to search intelligence platform Spate.
Chernyavskiy’s expertise stems from vast experience. She entered the spray tanning business as a high school senior after hearing about the flexibility the profession provided. At the time, education around spray tanning was limited, and she taught herself through YouTube videos, Google searches and countless practice sessions with friends and family. Spray tanning often meant inexpensive appointments that produced uneven, orange results. “Back then it was like $25 a spray tan where you walk out looking like Ross from ‘Friends,’” remembers Chernyavskiy.
She became focused on refining every step of the service, from preventing overspray to ensuring clients left without stained hands or the sticky feeling that often accompanied spray tans. She opened MSK Studio, a tanning destination in New York, in February 2017, and within about a year, it began gaining momentum through word of mouth and a growing social media presence. She cold DM’ed makeup artists, hairstylists and spray tan artists in Los Angeles asking them to keep her in mind when their clients were on the East Coast. One of her earliest high-profile clients was celebrity makeup artist Scott Barnes, best known for his work with Jennifer Lopez.
Chernyavskiy got on Violet Grey’s radar after founder Cassandra Grey booked an appointment. Although she didn’t yet have products, Chernyavskiy pitched the brand to Grey during the session. Today, MSK Labs is sold at Violet Grey, on its direct-to-consumer website and on TikTok Shop, with Amazon expected to launch soon.
“We’re excited to have Violet Grey as our first retail partner because of how curated they are,” says Chernyavskiy. “They do a ton of testing, and it feels kind of like proof of concept to us. It’s like they’re saying, ‘Yes, this is an amazing product, and it should be out there.'”
MSK Labs has hit the market as consumers are gravitating toward expert-founded brands. Chernyavskiy serves as the face of much of the brand’s social media content, sharing spray tanning expertise developed over her time in the field. Her role as an industry practitioner gives the content credibility.
MSK Labs has raised an undisclosed round of family-and-friends funding. The company is led by Chernyavskiy alongside co-founder and COO Boris Ermis and supported by a VP of operations and social media and marketing manager.
