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How to get pale, luminous skin?

Kitty_Sheridan

Practically Family
Messages
817
Location
UK, The Frozen north
I love the 'I took a mental health day off work!' brilliant!!:eusa_clap

I'm naturally very pale with a few freckles that have faded over the (omg 34) years.
I occasionally use a green base to even my skin out. Also any uk gals might like to try Tescos skin wisdom beauty flash balm, it's lovely for giving you a dewy pale glow. And only a £5!!
K
(by the way, your English is great!)
 

roselily

One of the Regulars
Messages
161
Location
On the Mississippi
I'm very very pale and tend to get red easily, so I'm always on the lookout for red neutralizers!

Metamorphosis by Aromaleigh is fantastic. It's a shimmery silvery green (you don't really see it on your skin) that gives a really ethereal look. And it's mineral based so it's nice on your skin!
 

nyx

One of the Regulars
Messages
268
Location
Cincinnati, OH
I know that skin lightening creams are all the rage in Japan, because everyone wants that porcelin doll look. A lot of the ones in use there are making their way to the states, but I'm not sure of any specific names. At least you'd have the luxury of knowing they'd been tested on a thousand Japanese women first. lol
 

Miss 1929

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,397
Location
Oakland, California
Bleach creams

I have been looking into the whole bleach cream thing, as I am a pale with freckles type.

There are bleach creams that are dangerous - they have mercury! Yipes. They don't sell those in the US, but I know they are elsewhere. I fell in love with one called Tibetan Snow from India, it was great, but turned out to be on the low end of the mercury scale - any mercury is too much!

Safe ones - Concha de Nacar (from Mexico), Black & White Bleach Cream (from the US, and a swell art deco metal lavender tube), and if you can still find it anywhere, Ponds Vanishing cream. I haven't seen it in the US for years, but it may be available elsewhere.

I use the B&W, I love it. You can order it online! I only put it on at night, as it is NOT a sunscreen, and it also tends to react with my eyebrow pen so that my eyebrows turn orange, not a pretty look.

I don't like baby powder with talcum in it, it makes me break out (it has mineral oil and I am oily anyway), but the cornstarch baby powder is OK.

When I went to China and went to the pearl dealers, they gifted me with bags and bags of the fine powder left from drilling the holes - they have always used it for face powder! And I am loving it! I mix it with a little pale mineral powder so it won't be dead white. And I am told that if you make a mask with it, it's good for rosacea (that icky redness).

Also, you can make your own, according to a recipe in a story by Colette - you crush to a powder all your old mother of pearl buttons, add enough lemon juice to cover, add a little honey, and put away for a few weeks in a jar. It becomes a cream! The vitamin C in the lemon juice keeps it from going bad, and the honey is antibacterial too.

Pallidly yours, Sara
 

artful dodgette

One of the Regulars
Messages
212
Location
powderbox, london
I fell in love with one called Tibetan Snow from India, it was great, but turned out to be on the low end of the mercury scale - any mercury is too much!
[/QUOTE]

oh my god!!! i use tebetan snow! i didn't know it was a bleacing creme!
how did you findout that it was bleaching?
i fell in love with it after buying it at my local indian food shop for 60p!
however my skin is pale enoug to not notice it bleacing it!

but on a lighter note....put some pale silver/white mettalic powder in your body lotion, as this gives your skin a pale ethereal glow! its what all the ladies used to do back in the day!
 

Miss 1929

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,397
Location
Oakland, California
Tibetan Snow

I found it to be bleaching, because it was working beautifully in one jar's worth! None of the many Indian markets here in Berkeley carried it anymore (probably due to the content) so I went online and found the mercury bad news... it is kind of retro, like eating arsenic for pallor... but ew!
 

Dani California

Familiar Face
Messages
89
Location
California
In the book In the Company of a Courtesan, the writer mentions the courtesan using tartar cream to lighten her skin. Has anybody else heard about doing this? Didn't find much in a google search.
 

LolitaHaze

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,244
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Miss 1929 said:
Also, you can make your own, according to a recipe in a story by Colette - you crush to a powder all your old mother of pearl buttons, add enough lemon juice to cover, add a little honey, and put away for a few weeks in a jar. It becomes a cream! The vitamin C in the lemon juice keeps it from going bad, and the honey is antibacterial too.

Pallidly yours, Sara

So is this for bleaching purposes or just as a nice potion of sorts? Also, will the crushed pearl powder aid in bleaching or does it just create a white powder for a lighter effect (no actual change)?
 

RetroBabydoll

A-List Customer
Messages
392
Location
LA
Miss Brill said:
Use plain yogurt as a mask--the acids will bleach skin a little, as will adding milk to your bath water. Lemons lighten elbows, but it is probably too drying for the face. You could also try natural or store-bought alpha hydroxy acids. I've never had any luck with fade creams, and they are said to cause cancer anyway.

Sunscreen is probably the most important thing you could use to keep skin looking light, plus it makes your skin look whiter in photos.

I think if you use lemon with water to dilute it a bit....then it would be fine for your face, but any organic thing you use on your face...be sure to wash it off after 10 min. at the most. After that it will start decomposing and is not good for the skin at that point.
 

Miss 1929

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,397
Location
Oakland, California
The crushed powder and lemon

LolitaHaze said:
So is this for bleaching purposes or just as a nice potion of sorts? Also, will the crushed pearl powder aid in bleaching or does it just create a white powder for a lighter effect (no actual change)?

Makes hydroquinone, the active ingredient in all bleach creams!

They also make it (from oyster shells - mother of pearl and pearl is chemically the same) and sell it on the beach in Acapulco - they put it in used baby food jars! And it's about 20 cents! Picture these incredibly dark tanned women in native costume, with big flat trays of little jars on their heads...
I actually like their cream a lot, but it's been years since I got to go there.
 

Last_Chael

One of the Regulars
Messages
112
Location
Adelaide, South Australia
You have to be very careful with bleaching creams. Just last week on the news here, they did a report about how dangerous they are. Apparently Hyrdoquinone (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it was) is actually very dangerous. There was a lady on the telly who had used the creams (which are actually illegal in the US, but somehow have been imported into AUS) and it ended up causing these horrible leasions on her face. She's now permanently scarred from it. I felt so bad for her because it looked awful!! Seems it's all the rage for Asian and Indian people to be white.

I was bleached at birth, and I adore my pale skin. But due to being a typical reckless child I've been sunburnt SO many times during my life, which has caused somewhat of a tan. It's still VERY pale compared to most people, but my arms and decolletage especially are very tanned compared to my white stomach and thighs. I've been tempted to try some kind of whitening product as I would love to have my skin back to it's natural pale state (and I adore Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman) but I've always been really scared to try. I suffer from psoriasis, so my skin is very sensitive. The other issue is that I'm having treatment for it at the moment (which is working!! almost in remission!!) and once it's gone, I'm going to be left with these awful white spots all over my skin. I already have some from the last time I did the treatment. So ideally, lightening my skin (or detanning) would help elliminate that problem somewhat.

I'm thinking I'll try using a very strong sunscreen allover every day, but I wasn't so sure as to whether that would help take away some of the pigment. I did used to have quite a prominent watch tan, so I figured if I kept my skin out of the sun, it might help it to go back to pale.

Does anyone have any recommendations for strong, but non-greasy sunscreeens? I'd like to be able to wear it under powder (I hate using foundation, as I can never find one pale enough) but still keep the nice matt look of vintage makeup. Also, can anyone recommend a good pale foundation/powder. My powder at the moment is really wrong for me, and I've not been able to find anything pale enough. I usually tend to go without both powder and foundation, but I have a problem with being shiny :( eeeep!
 

Fleur De Guerre

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,056
Location
Walton on Thames, UK
This may be of interest to the pale ladies out there. I just turned on the box and caght a programme about the pale red-haired girl from Girls Aloud (UK girls group) who is launching her own range of cosmetics for the colour-challenged of us. I'm certainly going to go and test the foundations when it's all available.

Linky.
 

Miss 1929

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,397
Location
Oakland, California
At last!

I have been mixing white makeup into foundations for years... about time!

I also did a little research on the hydroquinone thing, apparently all the over the counter ones in the US have safe levels, but many from other countries do not. Probably that gal with the lesions :eek: was using one that was too strong.

I have been using it for years and years and never a problem. No lesions!

But sadly, my favorite one ever, "Tibetan Snow" seems to be one of the too-strong ones, so I gave it up.
 

ginny

Familiar Face
Messages
53
Location
Indiana
A cheap, easy and effective way to add some luminosity to your skin is Coty Airspun Luminous Translucent powder. I mix a small amount with my regular Coty powder, or whatever powder I'm currently using. I think using it full strength is too strong for daytime, but for nights out, in softer or dimmer lighting, it's probably good. This is a great powder that is not glittery at all, really does give a more luminous, almost dewy look. Good for using with those matte makeups that oily gals need.
Oh, and about the talc: I believe that using it in makeup is safe, it's the levels that people who work with it could breathe in, if not using protective gear, that are dangerous. Remember, "the dose makes the poison." Even water can kill you if you drink too much!
 

Lola Valentine

One of the Regulars
Messages
261
Location
Edinburgh, Scotland
Fleur De Guerre said:
This may be of interest to the pale ladies out there. I just turned on the box and caght a programme about the pale red-haired girl from Girls Aloud (UK girls group) who is launching her own range of cosmetics for the colour-challenged of us. I'm certainly going to go and test the foundations when it's all available.

Linky.

I heard about this too. Good for her. People in the press are so harsh about that poor girl, often for her skin tone, so I'm glad she's embracing her paleness and showing young girls you don't have to fake tan yourself silly! Hopefully her products will be good too. (I also mix white "goth" foundation with the lightest foundation i can find to try to get a pale enough colour.)
 

miserabelle

One of the Regulars
Messages
227
Location
england
I wear sun screen every day, it's a boots one spf 25 - I figure protecting myself from the sun will keep me pale and stop me from aging so quickly ^-^

I can't ever find pale enough foundation either, I'm currently using Maybelline's dream matte mousse foundation but it comes out pretty dark - I mix it with a moisturiser and that usually gives me the effect that I want. I might try Too Faced's foundation but it's a little expensive... xx
 

katiemakeup

Practically Family
Messages
822
Location
NYC/L.A.
Dita's skin looks that way because she uses makeup- on her face and all over her body. Especially when she is performing she uses MAC Face in Body in WHITE- (pure white pigment) and of course, a body shimmer on top of that. She is naturally pale with freckles- but like she says, what you don't have you can create! :D

I am not familiar with lightening products, but you can get moisturizers brightening agents to them. I LOVE MAC's Strobe Cream, it has a pearl to it so your skin just glows and looks radient.
 

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