Fair / Pale Skin

[kissablekae]

^ youre lucky! i live in norcal, about two hours away from beach and a lot of people here seems to be a lil obssessed with getting a tan especially in the summer.

i know like two people who arent. one of my best friends is naturally very pale and never gets a tan no matter how long she stays out. the other tans easily but wears sunblock when she will be out for long periods of time. she doesnt like to tan like she used to, she relies(sp?) on sunless tanning lotion or just stays au naturel when she wants. i think i really got the message across to her that its not worth it to tan so much because she has spots she wants to get rid of and staying out in the sun makes it worse for her. when she was younger she would sit out in her backyard in a bikini just to get a tan but now she doesnt care if she is a little bit pale.

so thats two people i know other than myself. but my siblings, friends, co-workers are more concerned with getting a tan now that it is summer. they go swimming or whatever with no spf and put on tanning oil to speed up the process. i just dont want to say i told you so when they get all wrinkly and sunspotty(or scary things like the M word) when they get a little bit older.

i do think that the whole beach culture spawned by MTV LAGUNA BEACH in 2004 or something had a role to play in it. right after that show started airing i saw a lot of orange oopmaloopa looking people. my sisters ex best friend used tanning beds once a week for a while and she is already pretty tan as it was.

 

[xmodel citizen]

Well, I live around zero beaches One of my friends at school was obsessed with being tan and everyone mocked her for it. I mean, the girl was ORANGE. She's actually the only person who has ever told me I needed a tan Maybe it was all the pasty Mormons, but at my school, no one cared! I don't care either, I love all different skin colors and shades. I just wish I had Jessica Alba's skin tone naturally (along with everything else on her body)

 

[marylauda]

Maybe it was all the pasty Mormons

 

[Candice89102]

^ I do think it's a beach thing. I live on the beach, as do most of the people who go to my school. Maybe it's a teenage thing, too.

 

[xmodel citizen]

It's true. My school's two biggest populations were Mormons (most of whom were white and pale, susceptible to burns like myself) and Asians (my best friends would always complain when they were "too tan" and needed to get paler lol) so I guess desert>beach in terms of accepting paleness

 

[paperheart]

Does anyone know anything about whitening skin? I'm pretty sure bleaching creams would be very drying. I've heard about bathing in milk though.

 

[jjbunny79]

^ nowadays almost every big brand makes it. garnier just launch a series of whitening product using lemon essence in hong kong.

 

[kissmesweet]

^^ In Hong Kong, it's so funny... there are people who are OBSESSED with getting a tan and then they turn around and whip on some whitening cream.

 

[kissablekae]

im sure whitening creams are safe now but a few years back i read about some creams got recalled because they had too high level of mercury in it(it makes people crazy!/mad hatter).

if it has lemon in it, it will probably be pretty drying. of course im assuming you will stay out of the sun because you dont want to get tan..lemon + sun will probably speed up the process but i cant imagine it to be good for your skin!

 

[here.i.am]

Everyone should just embrace their natural skin color whether it's dark, light or inbetween. I think every skin color is nice and no one should tan or bleach their skin.

 

[jjbunny79]

^^ In Hong Kong, it's so funny... there are people who are OBSESSED with getting a tan and then they turn around and whip on some whitening cream.

lol u mean in hong kong?!?!?! i dunno if that really happen but if so that would be hilarious!!!! (man what a torture)
my face usually gain a bit of colour during summer (like now) but in the winter i just turn really pale.... but i already got freckle in my eye area, which is weird.

 

[kissablekae]

any recs for a lightweight face moisturizer or body lotion that has spf? at least like 15. i havent had much luck with finding good products that i can use daily. everything is so heavy! its marketed as moisturizer or lotion with spf but it feels like straight heavy duty sunblock that you wear to the beach. bleh..im sorry but im not gonna walk around looking and feeling like a greasy ball..and smelling like sunblock everyday!

anyways im going to the state fair this weekend, hopefully i dont burn too badly (no worries im going to be wearing the heavy duty sunblock) im definitely going to cover up, wear at least 3/4 slv shirt, jeans, and sneakers. i dont want to get crispy..even though its hot as hell! *bah humbug*

 

[jjbunny79]

I grew up in subtropic where i can just turned red from the sun..... i cant tan but instead i got mole and sunspot....

btw is there any pale people whose skin got minimal burn from sauna (im not talking from touching the thing)?

 

[ChloeFrancoise]

I love my pale skin. I use to wish I had been born with bronzy gold skin but I love being pale now. In fact I feel annoyed looking at pictures of people like Karen Elson because I always wonder if I'm pale enough everywhere, especially since I feel like my arms are always a little darker even though I never tan.
And I'm really glad I live in New York. If I lived in a place where people are impolite enough to tell me get a tan, I'd be pissed off. That's so rude. I did get the nickname "Pale White" in 4th grade which I don't think actually bothered me.

 

[Fontenrose]

Does anyone know anything about whitening skin? I'm pretty sure bleaching creams would be very drying.

I can understand wanting to take the redness/discolouration of age out of pale skin, but people in Hong Kong use these? Sounds risky.

 

[snowqueen]

i bruise really easily .. and i always wondered if it was just cos i was pale they show up more .. any other pale beauties have this problem ?? or just me ??

 

[ChloeFrancoise]

I get bruises too but I have no idea whether I just notice more because I'm pale and I don't even know how I get some of my bruises.

 

[laisla]

Im kind of obsessed with making my skin even whiter.

I used SPF50 religiously for a while last year but got a bit lazy in the end. Ive just started to apply it again every morning but since I live in the permanently overcast England and Im usually well covered up I dont think using a high SPF is going to have the desired effect.

As for whitening products Ive tried Lancome Blanc Expert but didn't notice any change in my complexion at all.

Lightening products are pretty hard to come by in the UK because everyone is obsessed with tanning plus I suppose they are a little un-pc

Does the old' "rub half a lemon on your face" thing work or is it just another old wives tale? Im kind of worried about it drying my skin even more than it already is.

an article that appeared in a daily paper here the other day:

To tan or not to tan - the question that has been vexing women

By SARAH SANDS

To tan or not to tan: that's the question that's been vexing women all week.
The picture of Girls Aloud buddies Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh in the Daily Mail on Tuesday provided an unusually stark contrast.
Women are not normally as pale as Roberts nor as tanned as Walsh.

The girls had just returned from a holiday in Thailand, the spa capital of the world.
Nicola Roberts must have virtually embalmed herself to avoid any sunshine at all. She is Michael Jackson pale.
This is not sun care but sun snobbery.

Just as Cheryl Cole pitched herself a cut above footballers' wives, so Nicola Roberts is signalling that she is a better class of Girls Aloud.
She, like Victoria Beckham, is aiming for Vogue. Tans are for The Brits, Pale Skins are the Oscars.

Just as very rich people eat less than the poor, so smart women scorn the tan.
Who wants to look as if they have just come back from a holiday?

If you examine the class-ridden Holiday Swap television programme, it is always the chav family who hanker for a surfeit of fun and sunshine.

​

Nicola's look is intimidatingly anti-holiday. She would prefer people to think she had returned from a spell in a TB clinic.

She also demonstrates a state of enlightenment, shared by women such as Madonna and Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow.
What is the point of being a celebrity if you cannot conquer age?

And what is more ageing than sunshine? The poor dolt Kimberley Walsh, her bronze flesh on show in a cheerful sun dress and open-toed shoes, is shrivelling up like Michelle Pfeiffer as the witch in Stardust.

Last summer I interviewed a skin specialist who talked ominously about the second layer of skin. She seemed to have second sight of it.
She winced when she saw my nice brown hands, fresh from holiday, and said the sun spots were forming before her very eyes. I laughed.
Six months later I watch nervously as a galactic pattern emerges on the back of my hands.

Chests are another area of unseen catastrophe. High-definition television has already exposed it.
A television presenter may have a flawless bosom but the camera will pick out the swarm of hidden freckles. It can see into the future.

Nicole Kidman is Australian and Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow are American. These are the skincare super powers.
The British are still more European in their lack of neurosis about sunshine. It is particularly awesome to watch Italian woman soaking up the sun, their faces unshielded by shade or cream.
Their only breaks from sun bathing are when they sit up for a cigarette.
My friends in fashion say that Nicola Roberts is signalling something beyond New World extreme maintenance.

She is highlighting the disturbing sexiness of pallor. Think of the quivering cleavage of Scarlett Johansson or Natalie Portman in The Other Boleyn Girl.
The effect would be ruined by a Thai tan.
The innocent/sensuous blindingly white bosom was employed to ravishing effect on the West End stage by the actress Kelly Reilly as Desdemona last year.
It may have even been the inspiration for Jacqui Smith to lower her neckline.

Susie Trayling is currently playing Helen of Troy at the National Theatre with a body white enough for men to die for.

I don't know if Helen of Troy is Nicola Roberts's chief cultural reference, but she is a smart girl.
What worked for the Trojans, the Romans, and the Japanese geishas works for her.

The message of the photograph is simple.
One woman in the photograph looks aristocratic and mysterious.

The other, however cheerful and healthy, is made to look like a trollop.
Paleness is the ultimate one upwomanship.

dailymail.co.uk



I think I could be accused of "sun snobbery". Im surrounded by perma-tanned chavs and in my mind a tan = a package holiday in [SIZE=-1]IBEEFA[/SIZE]

as a Guardian reading lefty I do stupidly feel really uncomfortable with my obsession with snow white skin

 

[laisla]

i bruise really easily .. and i always wondered if it was just cos i was pale they show up more .. any other pale beauties have this problem ?? or just me ??

yep, me too. i think you are right, its because we are so pale that they are particularly noticeable.
There are a lot of cons about being pale/fair. The obvious one is that you are more vulnerable to burning and skin cancer. The one that I have always had a problem with is blemishes. I don't suffer with bad acne but like most people I get the odd pimple every now and then and because Im so light it just looks ghastly red and ten times worse than it would on someone with "normal" coloured skin. Plus as any other pale type knows, there are NO decent cosmetics for us to help cover up those little "flaws"

oh and prominent veins I always look like [SIZE=-1]Lestat has been feasting on my blood.[/SIZE]

 

[HeatherAnne]

laisla I really enjoyed that article, thanks for posting. I have naturally fair skin (blue eyed and blond haired since birth) but I tan better than most with my skin coloring - never burn and tan fast and get pretty dark. However, I think I'm going to take a proactive approach and lay off the sun some this spring/summer -- my older sister has always been a sun snob and seeing how young (and beautiful) her skin looks for her age I realize that I want that to! Obviously I can't turn back the clock and reverse some of the damage I might have done that I can't see yet, but hopefully being young still I can help the situation some.

The only thing I'm worried about is wearing skirts with fairer legs when it gets warm out, anyone else feel this way? Obviously it's not a problem in winter because I don't wear open toe shoes and can wear tights. Should I just suck it up or does it look really bad? I refuse to wear self tanner, I don't want to be orange and I honestly don't know how sucking in all those chemicals can't be almost as bad as the sun is on your body.