COLUMNS
HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

Family Money

Snap Shot

Modern Medicine

Heart to Heart with Hillary

A Slice of Thai History

Social Commentary by Khai Khem

Women’s World

Family Money: Taking a technical look at income & growth stocks

By Leslie Wright,
Managing director of Westminster Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd.

If you’re a sophisticated direct investor who does his own stock-picking, or a clever young fund manager whose focus is the same objective, do you go for growth stocks or income stocks?

In theory one or the other shouldn’t exist. Shares should not offer both a high dividend yield and high capital growth.

If a company is expected to deliver sustainable profits growth, its shares ‘ought’ to trade on a relatively high multiple of earnings, so the dividend it pays out of those earnings will consequently be a low percentage (yield) of its share price. But after a three-year bear market, that theory has lost favour since some companies out there with good prospects for low price-earnings multiples are paying rather nice big dividends.

Squaring the circle

Financial theory also states that shares offering high growth should not exist because if a company is growing that quickly, it ought to be pouring its profits back into finding more growth, not handing out cash to shareholders.

That one too has been turned on its head by the recent downturn. Many companies offer the prospect of profit growth not because they’ve been investing in exciting new products and services, but because they’ve been doing the opposite: cutting costs and getting back to what they know works. Now, touch wood, they stand to benefit from a stabilisation or modest recovery in sales, on top of a new slimline cost base.

Admittedly, profit growth created by cost-cutting is hardly the same thing as creating value in an expanding market (if you can find a high-yielding share where the company in question is also profitably riding a high-growth market, it’s time to re-mortgage the house and fill your boots, as they say), but it’s growth nonetheless.

Nobody wants to invest in a company that’s only means of growth is cost-cutting. There’s got to be the prospect of some topline growth too. But, when you put the two together, you can find high-yielding shares that also offer the recovery story needed to underpin capital growth.

It’s all about finding shares that have been oversold on the back of bad news during the current global economic slump. You’re looking for companies where overly sceptical investors have failed to price-in recovery properly; leaving the shares trading on depressed multiples of depressed earnings. That’s the way of squaring the high income high-growth circle.

At this stage, you might be thinking this all sounds rather unlikely. After all, you’re attempting to spot something everyone else has missed. It’s the equivalent of saying: “I’m right, and the thousands of clever, experienced investors who constitute the market are wrong.”

If it is possible to find high-growth, high-yield shares, the market must currently be guilty of systemic undervaluation. There’s a fairly compelling story – investors could be suffering from excessive pessimism as a response to the excessive optimism of the internet bubble. But compelling-sounding rationalisations are 10-a-penny (remember the internet productivity miracle?).

Matters of fact

So rather than rely on comforting stories, look at hard fact: the market has an appalling track record of predicting earnings’ growth. As mentioned above, if a company’s shares trade on high P/E multiples, it ‘ought’ subsequently to experience high earnings’ growth, and vice versa. In fact, history shows no correlation between P/E multiples and subsequent earnings growth. There are plenty of examples of failed growth stocks (12 of the 25 top-rated companies saw earnings fall) but it’s the other end that interests us. Five years ago, Peterhouse Group, to cite one example, was trading on a P/E of 6.3 and it went on to grow earnings by 104%. Bloomsbury Publishing was on a P/E of 7.7 and grew earnings 147%. T. Clarke traded on 8.4 and grew earnings a mere 3,511% (which sails nicely off the top of my graph!)

In fact, 11 of the 25 companies with the lowest P/E ratios five years ago went on to grow earnings by more than 50% over the intervening years. The market clearly has a habit of applying low P/E ratios – low enough to allow hefty dividend yields – to companies that are destined to grow profits and deliver share price gains.

Other measures back this up. Income portfolios, of one form or another, generally do better than other forms of investing – with the exception of anomalous periods like the internet boom. There has been an extraordinary divergence over the last century between the cumulative return from high-yield investing and investing in a straight market index.

A ฃ1 investment in 1900 in a high-yield index would have turned into ฃ61,235 by 2000, compared with ฃ16,160 from the market index. That’s the magic of cumulative interest. Those figures are for total return (including dividend income) but the same holds true for pure capital returns.

The average performance is marginally better. It’s notable that high-yielders (or ‘old economy’ stocks) underperformed during the TMT bubble, then dramatically outperformed when it burst. It’s also notable that high-yielders underperformed during the recession of the early 1990s.

The strong share price performance of dividend-paying companies is potentially explained by the discipline of having to pay a dividend. It encourages management to concentrate on profitability and cash-generation, hence avoiding overly risky growth strategies.

What’s more, the valuations of unglamorous high- yielders don’t have unrealistic growth expectations built in, so share prices aren’t overcooked and vulnerable to earnings disappointment.


Snap Shot: How Deep is Depth of Field?

by Harry Flashman

The Depth of Field in any picture can often make or break the entire photograph. Knowing how to manipulate the depth of field improves your photography instantly!

The term Depth of Field is really an optical one and depends solely on the lens being used and the aperture selected. Altering the shutter speed does not change the Depth of Field.

Depth of Field really refers to the zone of “sharpness” (or being in acceptable focus) from foreground items to background items in any photograph.

The first concept to remember is “One Third forwards and Two Thirds back.” Again this is a law of optical physics, but means that the Depth of Field, from foreground to background in your photograph can be measured, and from your focus point extends towards you by one third and extends away from the focus point by two thirds.

For those of you with SLR’s, especially the older manual focus SLR’s, you will even find a series of marks on the focussing ring of the lens to indicate the Depth of Field that is possible with that lens (and you probably wondered why there were all those extra marks on it!).

Take a look at this week’s photograph, which is really two shots, taken seconds apart, of the Chinese lion statue. More importantly, look at the background. In one you can clearly see the leaves on the bush and the fountain spray, while on the other it is a soft blur. How did I change this Depth of Field sharpness? Answer, with a flick of the wrist!

You see, for each lens, the Depth of Field possible is altered by the Aperture. The rule here is simple - the higher the Aperture number, the greater the Depth of Field possible and the lower the Aperture number, the shorter the Depth of Field. In simple terms, for any given lens, you get greater front to back sharpness with f22 and you get very short front to back sharpness at f4.

For example, using a 24 mm focal length lens focussed on an object 2 metres away - if you select f22, the Depth of Field runs from just over 0.5 metre to 5 metres (4.5 metres total), but if you select f11 it only runs from 1 m to 4 m and if you choose f5.6 the Depth of Field is only from 1.5 m to 3 m (1.5 metres total).

On the other hand, using a 135 mm focal length lens focussed at the same point 2 metres away, you get the following Depths of Field - at f22 it runs from 1.9 m to 2.2 m (0.3 metres) and at f5.6 it is 1.95 m to 2.1 m (a total of 0.15 metres).

Analysis of all these initially confusing numbers gives you now complete mastery of the Depth of Field in any of your photographs. Simply put another way - the higher the Aperture number, the greater the depth of field; the smaller the Aperture number the smaller the Depth of Field; plus the longer the lens, the shorter the Depth of Field, the shorter the lens, the longer the Depth of Field.

Now to apply this formula - when shooting a landscape for example, where you want great detail from the foreground, right the way through to the mountains five kilometres away, then use a short lens (24 mm is ideal) set at f22 and focussed on a point about 2 km away.

On the other hand, when shooting a portrait where you only want to have the eyes and mouth in sharp focus you would use a longer lens (and here the 135 is ideal) and a smaller Aperture number of around f5.6 to f4 and focus directly on the eyes to give that ultra short Depth of Field required.

As said before, while initially confusing, it can soon become second nature. Try it out this weekend, but when you are doing it, keep a note of what you have done to compare with the prints later.


Modern Medicine:Tripping down the stairway to heaven

Or a night in the ICU

by Dr Iain Corness, Consultant

There are those who are born naturally gifted. There are those who are born naturally left hand dominant. Then there are those who are born just naturally clumsy. I include myself in the latter group.

My dear old Mum will attest to my clumsiness. I well remember my mother, full of good intent, trying to interest me in ballet dancing, citing how manly it was, how athletic and what an achievement it really was. We were on our way to pick up some ballet shoes for my young sister at the time, and I tripped going in the doorway of the shop. At that point, any ideas of her son becoming a ballet dancer were dashed.

Whether it be lack of attention to detail or not, I often “miss” the doorway while walking out of the bedroom in the mornings, and sort of bounce my stunned way into the dining room. More than once have I stubbed my toe on the same bed end. And more than once I have broken it. Within the confines of the household, I am known as “Mr. Clumsy.”

However, I managed to take this clumsiness almost to ‘art form’ levels the other week, catching my toe near the top of the stairs at the office and stumbling. Feeling that I was falling, I grabbed for the handrail, but missed and ended up going down ten steps rather inelegantly, landing, by all reports, in a heap at the bottom, curled up like a prawn! This description I have to assume to be correct, as by this stage I had already hit my head and my brain was, for all intentions, a ‘passenger’ in my own body. I should also hastily add that this was mid-day on a Friday and alcohol played no part in this drama.

Fortunately, the rapid descent was heard in the office, and my old mate Bryant Berry organized the local motorcycle taxis to load my semi-conscious form in his car, and with Khun Am playing Florence Nightingale rushed me to the Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital.

In the ER, my brain decided it would commence work again and I was conscious of doctors and nurses and much activity going on, but most of it was confusing. CT scans and X-Rays all seemed to happen in another blur, as X-Ray technicians did their best to get me to lie this way and that, and, “Please stop moving.”

More trundling around on trolleys and we were back in ER, where Bryant and Am were waiting, now joined by my friends Alan and Noi who had brought Som, my ‘significant other’. The value of the presence of friends and family cannot be over-estimated in these situations. You go from feeling alone and helpless to being reassured by the faces of loved ones and friends. Everything is going to be alright!

By now my ‘medical’ brain was back to functioning well enough for me to accept Dr. Alongkorn’s decision that I had to stay in hospital for observation for the next 24 hours. I was also functioning well enough that I began to feel the various parts of my anatomy which were now letting me know that they had worked as shock absorbers during my tumble down the stairway from heaven.

The trundling began again, and so it was into the Intensive Care Unit for Dr. Iain, and I shall continue this part of the saga next week ...!


Heart to Heart with Hillary

Dear Hillary,
I feel I am joining the band of women who are complaining about their maids. At any functions I go to, the discussions are all the same, what the maid has done this week! I will admit that I do not speak very much Thai and my maid speaks even less English, but surely if she wants to be a maid for English speaking people, should I not get someone who can communicate? I did not choose the maid as she was supplied by my husband’s company and this is my first experience with domestic staff.
I could go on for hours about the way she refuses to use hot water for the dishes, will wash everything in the same sink, will use the dish cloth to wipe the floor. I am sure you have heard it all before. She also does weird things like leaving clothes out in the lounge room for a day, rather than putting them away. Why? Is this some special Thai ‘sign’ to tell me something? Routine cleaning and dusting seems to be beyond her and I have to tell her to do these simple tasks every time. She also tries to leave before 6 p.m. and always comes in late in the mornings, after 8 a.m. What can I do, Hillary?
Distracted

Dear Distracted,
You know the problem, right from the start when you say that you do not speak Thai and your maid does not speak English. No communication! Could your husband get what he wants done if his secretary only speaks Urdu and he speaks Pigeon English? Speak to your husband, if his company has supplied the poor woman. She probably goes home and talks to her friends, all of whom are complaining about their mistresses. However, how much does your maid get paid, my Petal? If you are only paying a low salary, you cannot expect a household whiz who is also multilingual. If she were that good she would be working as your husband’s secretary, not as your 10 hours a day slave. If it all becomes too much, you can always do the work yourself, as you did back home. Finally, as I have to remind many foreigners, this is Thai-land and the inhabitants speak Thai. How many maids in the English speaking world are multi-lingual?
Dear Hillary,
Why can nobody here spell? I have read your column for some months and notice that you get angry, like I do, when people spell words incorrectly. This goes particularly for place names and street signs, which are official signs, placed by the municipality. There is no excuse for this as there are plenty of Thai-English dictionaries in the shops. Should I send one to someone in authority to make sure?
Spelling Bee

Dear Bee,
I’m sorry, my Petal, but I am not on your side. Sure I get annoyed at the poor spellings, but that is for incorrect English spellings written by native English speakers. They should know better and it is they that should have a dictionary. Now getting back to street names, I am sure you must realize by now that the English language has 26 letters, but Thai has 44. In other words, you cannot take letters from one alphabet and put them exactly into the other. When a Thai place name is written in English, it is a guesstimate of how it will sound, when spoken by a native English speaker. This is why you will see Chomthian, Jomthien or Jomtien. All of them are “correct” spellings. However, please note that pleese, pleeze and pleaze written by an English speaker are incorrect.
Dear Hillary,
There are still some things I do not understand with my Thai wife of two years. She is a wonderful person and our times together are very special, but when her family comes down from up-country she becomes quiet and grumpy. They do not stay with us, but with another daughter. Do you think that it is because she left the family village to come and live with me (I am from the UK) rather than marrying a Thai that she has problems when her mother comes down? I try and tell her that everything will be OK, but that makes her even more distant. Have you any suggestions as to what I can do to make it easier for her?
James

Dear James,
You have to understand that Thai families can be very strong and traditional, and it sounds as if your wife comes from one of those. By leaving the family village she has broken one tradition, and by not marrying a Thai she has broken another. The family may not say anything about this, but your wife will “know” what was expected and how she turned her back on these. When the family comes down there will be much mental pressure, from her point of view, so she will naturally be withdrawn. Sometimes the most difficult thing to do is to do nothing - and that is what you have to do, Petal. Just ‘be there’ for her, when she indicates that she needs you. In the meantime, don’t tell her that “everything will be OK” as in her mind, it is not.


A Slice of Thai History:The beginnings of the Thai Postal Service

Part One

by Duncan steam

The world’s first post office was established in Britain in 1619 and in 1840, regular mail received a boost when the first commercial postage stamp was issued. In Thailand, prior to the establishment of an organised postal service, internal messages were divided into two classes: ordinary and urgent. An ordinary message was delivered by a regular, but slow, service from province to province. A special courier conveyed urgent messages as fast as possible.

Changes were implemented in the message and letter delivery system. Initially, major cities and towns were staffed with regular couriers, meaning, for example, that a Bangkok courier need only go as far as Saraburi where he handed his mail on. The message would then continue to each major city or town by regular courier until it reached its destination, a very slow and laborious process.

Ordinary correspondence destined for overseas was entrusted to traders who were going in the direction of the letters or messages in question. Hardly a regular or even efficient method of maintaining contact with the outside world. If no traders could be found, special messengers had to be employed for the task. Important correspondence was necessarily handled by specially employed couriers.

All foreign mail destined for Thailand arrived under an arrangement with the British-controlled Straits Settlements in Singapore and Hong Kong. The British Consulate in Bangkok acted as the intermediary.

In 1875, the government decided to begin the distribution of its newspaper Court to citizens in Bangkok, rather than require them to come to an office in the Grand Palace and pick it up. Stamps were attached to the wrapper of the newspaper and couriers were hired to deliver Court to subscribers. This marked the beginning of a postal service.

By 1876, stamps were being used for letters to subscribers and delivered by mail carriers. The cost of a stamp was one Att, approximately three satang. For deliveries within Bangkok, the price was one Att, anywhere outside the city it doubled to two Att.

Court failed soon after and with its demise, stamps and postmen also became redundant.

However, four years later the issue of a postal service was again raised and in 1881 King Chulalongkorn noted that ‘...the introduction of modern postal and telegraphic systems for using (sic) in the country would greatly help to develop trade and commerce as well as to ensure and accelerate the dispatch of official and individual correspondence...’

The monarch appointed one prince and one high-ranking official to oversee ‘...the organisation of a Local Letter Post for the City of Bangkok as an experiment with a view to expanding same throughout the country.’

The first major hurdle to overcome was house numbering. Previously unknown in Bangkok, residences had to be numbered or identified in some unique way to simplify the delivery of mail.

There was also a problem of public resistance to house numbering, as many people were afraid that they would be compelled to contribute funds to the fledgling postal service. Others were worried that they would be taxed more.

The public acquiesced after the government issued a statement clarifying the aims of the new postal system, outlining the reasons for its inception, and assuring the public that they would not be subject to new or increased taxes.

With the public onside, the Department of Postal and Telegraphs was established in 1883 with Prince Bhanarungsi as director-general. A number of Europeans were employed as officials in the initial stages to oversee the service. Thais gradually replaced them.

The main post office was located on the Chao Phrya River, near the mouth of the Ong Ang Canal, with a series of postage stamp shops dotted about the city and countryside serving as postal branches. In the early years there were no postal boxes and people wanting to post a letter had to go to their nearest postage stamp shop. Shopkeepers were paid four baht per month to take care of the postal box in their shop.

The postal service proved very popular and within a short time an average of 127 letters a day was being posted. In 1885, the postal service was gradually extended throughout Thailand with the first up-country branch established at Samut Prakan. Others were soon set up at Bang Pa-in, Nakhon Pathom, Samut Sakhon, Samut Songkhram, Ratchaburi, and Phetburi among others. A letter took two days to go from Bangkok to Nakhon Pathom and four days between Bangkok and Phetburi. Parcels and registered mail were included in the system from the very beginning, although there were restrictions on certain items. For example, dynamite and other explosives were prohibited and any person found violating the law could be fined up to 800 baht.


Social Commentary by Khai Khem

A new growth industry in Thailand - build more prisons and hand down longer sentences

Corruption and dishonesty is so ingrained in many societies that attempts to root it out and replace it with moral ethics and respect for law and order will demand more than propaganda campaigns and lip-service from community and national leaders.

Generations of ordinary citizens who are born into and grow up under the knowledge that they are powerless in the face of forces that undermine the laws that govern their nation learn to avoid getting involved, or adapt the old adage; if you can’t beat them, join them.

Thailand, like many other countries around the globe, is facing a dilemma. How do we keep the rabble of criminals and delinquents at bay since they now pose a threat to all of us - rich, poor, powerful or inconsequential?

Crime is on the rise in Thailand and it’s no secret outside our borders. But more alarming is the viciousness of the perpetrators and the alarming statistics of senseless murder and assassinations motivated by petty revenge, small amounts of money, drug deals gone sour, romantic quarrels, territorial disputes, and daylight robbery.

What has changed so drastically in the past few years that triggered this blatant disrespect for law, order and human life in a Buddhist nation that supposedly bases its primary guidelines for social and moral behavior on teachings that hold most dear the respect for all living things?

Contempt (like wisdom, knowledge, and wealth) is accumulative. Decades of corruption, lack of law enforcement, lazy and dishonest officials running the show, poverty and indifference toward modern education adds up - and eventually a huge number of citizens simply take matters into their own hands and the outcome is small-scale anarchy.

Because of neglect, a huge proportion of our population lacks the knowledge and instruction for rules that govern a civilized society. Left to their own devices the masses act on basic primal principals. That doesn’t mean that all ordinary Thais are born thieves and killers. However, it does send a signal through the years that if and when individuals feel thwarted and realize they will never have access to opportunities which would improve their lot, criminal activities which will either enrich them or empower them are very tempting options.

With this in mind, we can deduce that entrenched corruption in law enforcement and political administration is certainly more an advantage than an impediment to anti-social behavior. In other words, the criminal elements in our society are pretty sure they can get away with it because their so-called ‘role models’ have already written the handbook entitled, “How to make a killing without getting caught”.

To be fair, the central government in Bangkok has finally conceded this whole crime thing has gotten out of hand and without some tough laws and cooperation from authorities round the nation, things look set to get a lot worse. New legislation needs to be expedited since the laws on the books are outdated and address a Thai society which doesn’t exist anymore.

One of the most heartbreaking ramifications of rapid social changes taking place in Thailand during the past decade is the perpetration of brutal crimes committed by our young people. Traditional Thai values were effective in the days when the kingdom was basically an old fashioned agrarian society and kids on the farm were trained and supervised by their family and community.

These old ways don’t connect with our youngsters anymore. The chasm between the old teachings and the reality of modern life makes a mockery of these outdated methods. Our young people are too informed and savvy to be fooled into absorbing what they interpret as ‘fairytales’. What we are experiencing here in Thailand is a ‘generation gap’.

There is another highly visible factor that has to be added to the equation in our increasing social problems which crosses all income, class and educational boundaries. It is obvious that the mental health of our citizens is deteriorating. And the system is completely inadequate and unprepared to address and provide aid to fix this problem.

Mental illness and emotional disorders have always been with us. Although Thai medical services, expertise and access have improved to the level of proud achievement, the area of mental health care has been noticeably neglected.

Schools do not provide psychological councilors, most of the clergy is not equipped to help mentally disturbed people in their districts, and law enforcement agencies are already overwhelmed and undermanned.

The present crime rate involving young people signals a serious escalation of personality disorders and psychopathic misfits. Left untreated and ignored, these wayward youths grow up to be hardened criminals with long rap-sheets, and eventually become assassins, gangsters and even powerful members of our own communities.

There is no one solution to this long list of social ills because of the variations and complications. Even if we could find a ‘quick fix’ we need to concede that some individuals are just not going to be rehabilitated, no matter what. What we really need to consider is taking this dangerous element of society off the streets and locking them up for a very long time. It’s called ‘zero tolerance’.

A little more than a decade ago the USA was fed up with its evil reputation for crime and its negative consequences. A growth industry was introduced which allowed states to compete to submit tenders to build more prisons to house the rising population of hardened prisoners which either would not or could not successfully re-enter society.

Thailand’s jails and prisons are overflowing and convicts are being released to prey on the innocent public simply because of the massive turnover. We really ought to think about building more prisons. Does Thailand really need another 5-star hotel or shopping center, or another low cost, ill built housing estate? Think about it. It did wonders for regional economies in the USA and definitely lowered the crime rate.


Woman's World:That golden glow Part 3

by Lesley Warner

Last week I promised you a safe tanning method - well here it is: way back in the 1920’s DHA (dihydroxyacetone), a chemical refined from sugarcane, was discovered to be a temporary skin-colouring agent. It works by reacting with the keratin protein to produce a brown colouring in the top layer of your skin. Even though this had been discovered it wasn’t really until the 1950s that the first self-tanning products came on the market, when the craze to have a tan began to become fashionable.

I remember my own experience using a self-tanning cream way back in my youth when I tried one of the early creams. It was equally fashionable at the time to have a tan and my urge to be golden brown all over was enough to make me try any new product. I purchased a tanning lotion, the instructions were quite clear and stated that the lotion was easy to apply. Well for those of you who have tried these ‘easy to apply’ tanning creams you know that instructions can lie! I had orange streaky legs that when caught in a rain shower washed off leaving white patchy streaks. I was so humiliated. Do not despair; today’s self-tanners really are, when correctly applied, difficult to tell from the real thing.

These days there are hundreds of cosmetic products to choose from, all marketed as a safe and effective alternative to direct sun exposure. It is difficult to advise which is the best product to use, as it’s really trial and error. An example of those makes available are: Lanc๔me Flash Bronzer Magic Mousse, Dior Bronze Transparent Self Tanning Body Spray, Ambre Solaire Instant Shimmer Bronzer and Clarins Self-Tanning Instant Gel. Please remember that paying more money does not necessarily mean that you are buying the best product. Read the instructions and make sure that they are right for you.

If you experience a problem with the result, it is probably down to something that you have done before or during application, or something that has happened after.

The number one rule to remember is that the result of a self-tan is only as good as the skin that you are applying it to. Some hints to bare in mind: if you have dry, uneven patches of skin or uneven pigmentation it is advisable to carefully apply the tan in greater or lesser amounts accordingly.

It is always a good idea to exfoliate before application to ensure an even, natural looking result. The skin should be clean, dry and free from oily moisturizers.

If you do have a problem I can only suggest that you exfoliate again to try and even out the streaks or white patches, and reapply the tanning cream carefully.

Dark patches can be caused by the colour or texture of skin on certain parts of the body. For example, elbows or knees. Gently and selectively exfoliate to even out colour.

The use of some medications can result in no colour at all.

Technology is still working on improving our tan and there is a new system out now called Airbrush Tanning. After reading about it I think in theory it sounds a perfect solution. You get a beautiful even tan all over that lasts for up to six days; I do not speak from experience. At the moment the only place I can find the airbrush tanning available is in London and other large cities. Although, it is possible to buy a home airbrush kit for around 300 pounds with a promise of a streak free bronze colour that looks completely natural. I still haven’t worked out how you could manage to airbrush yourself all over without getting everything in the surrounding area as well. The solution is Aloe Vera based with 8% DHA, and according to the instructions it take 15 minutes to apply and dries in 5 minutes with no orange, patchiness or streaking…

It is best not to apply a fake tan until 4 hours after showering, the tanning lotion should be applied quickly and evenly making sure all areas are covered evenly.

Remember, while fake tans are safer than suntans or solarium tans, it is important to be aware that self-tanning lotions offer little or no protection from UV radiation. So if you’re taking a trip outside in the sunshine to show off your new fake tan, you’ll still need to use some sun cream.