Melanotan II
A deep tan from a few tiny shots a week, with a libido kick thrown in. Potent, so you start at 100 mcg and respect your moles.
What it is
Melanotan II is for someone who burns instead of tans and wants real color with a fraction of the sun, and who is fine with the side package: more sex drive, less appetite, some nausea at first. It is the strong, broad melanotan. Run it low and a few times a week and it is manageable; run it the way forum posts describe and it is a rough ride.
Who actually uses it: fair-skinned people heading into summer or a holiday who want to stop burning, men who want the libido and erection effect as much as the tan, and people who have tried Melanotan I and found it too slow. Who should not: anyone with a lot of moles, a family history of melanoma, uncontrolled blood pressure, or a job where a visibly darker face by Friday is a problem. If you only want the tan and none of the extras, Melanotan I is the gentler version and should be your first choice.
What you will notice, and when: the first dose, taken too high, is nausea and a hot flush within the hour, which is why you start at 100 mcg. Over the first week to ten days, with a little sun or a short bed session, skin tone deepens noticeably; by three weeks you are darker than you have ever been in summer, including places the sun does not reach. Freckles and moles darken first and most. Spontaneous erections and a higher sex drive show up in days for most men. Appetite drops. Good at a month looks like an even tan you hold with two small doses a week. It will not protect you from burning in a day of full sun with no sunscreen.
How people run it: 100 mcg subQ at bedtime for the first few doses, so the nausea happens while you sleep, then step up by 100 mcg every few doses as tolerated to a ceiling of 500 mcg, three times a week while building, once or twice a week to hold. A 10 mg vial is months of use at these doses, so there is no reason to rush. The common mistakes: a 1 mg first dose because a vendor chart said so (vomiting, a day on the couch), daily dosing (the pigment response does not need it, the nausea builds), and skipping sunscreen because the tan feels like armor.
The evidence, once: Melanotan II was built in a university lab as a sunless-tanning drug and tested in small human studies in the 1990s, where it darkened skin and, as an accident of the same receptors, produced erections; that side effect became the approved drug bremelanotide. Human data on long-term skin safety does not exist, and the darkening of existing moles is well documented in case reports. Not approved for anything.
When it is not worth it: if you tan easily anyway, a week outside does the job for free; if you want the tan without the libido, nausea and blood pressure, use Melanotan I; if you want the libido effect without the tan, PT-141 is the version made for that. And respect the mole rule in the simplest way: photograph your moles before you start, look again every two weeks, and stop for any change.
What people use it for
Sunless tanning
Some evidenceSmall human studies in the 1990s showed Melanotan II darkens skin within days by switching on melanin production, even with minimal UV. That is why it works so visibly. The same studies and later case reports documented nausea, flushing and darkening of existing moles, and there is no long-term skin-safety data.
Sex drive and erections
Some evidenceErections in male study volunteers were an unplanned finding that led to bremelanotide, now an approved drug for low desire in women. The effect is real and dose-related, and it is the main reason some men choose this over Melanotan I. It can also mean a prolonged erection, which is the one effect to treat as an emergency.
Appetite
Early daysMelanotan II acts on the same brain receptor that drugs for appetite target, and most users eat less, especially in the first weeks. It is a side effect people sometimes want, not a weight-loss tool, and it fades as you adapt.
Some protection from the sun
Early daysMore melanin means more natural UV absorption, and both melanotans were originally studied as a way to reduce sun damage in people who cannot tan. The protection is partial and nobody has measured it in real-world use, so it does not replace sunscreen.
How it works
Where Melanotan II sits among the melanocortins
Targets
Less selective than Melanotan I, so it does more than tan.
- Tans with less sun and tends to raise libido and curb appetite
- Stronger and less selective than Melanotan I
- Carries the most cautions of the tanning peptides
- Watch moles and skin changes; nausea is common early on
How people use it
Safety, in brief
Things people sometimes notice
- Nausea and a hot flush in the first hour, worst on the first few doses and at higher doses; dosing at bedtime hides most of it
- Freckles and moles darkening, and uneven darkening on the face in the first weeks
- Spontaneous erections in men, usually in the hours after a dose
- Less appetite, and tiredness or yawning after a dose for some
The full picture — stop signs and who should talk to a doctor first — is on the dosing guide.
Sources
The labels and studies behind this page. Each link opens the original on PubMed, DailyMed or ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Evaluation of melanotan-II, a superpotent cyclic melanotropic peptide in a pilot phase-I clinical study
- Synthetic melanotropic peptide initiates erections in men with psychogenic erectile dysfunction: double-blind, placebo controlled crossover study
- Effect of an alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone analog on penile erection and sexual desire in men with organic erectile dysfunction
- Eruptive naevi and darkening of pre-existing naevi 24 h after a single mono-dose injection of melanotan II