Pale or Tan?

[Miss sofia]

I recommend FakeBake for a self tanner, it reacts with your skin tone to give a natural result. As much as i don't tan myself anymore, nor have time to sunbathe more to the point, i do like a little colour on my body, especially my legs and this has been great for me.

 

[amaranth]

I've been, erm, blessed with the joys of red hair and fair skin, so I don't really tan anyway. I'm not averse to a bit of fake tan though, seeing as my arms are the only bit of me that ever tan, so I like to even it all out. I don't do orange tan though, or really dark tan, I'd clash horribly with my hair! Just a bit to take the edge of the glowing legs, which also sometimes look a bit purple and mottled - a tad disturbing if not fake tanned! Though keeping it up is effort so I don't do it at all in the winter, I embrace the pale!

 

[chanteuseCarey]

I've always been fair with golden freckles, I distinctly remember when I was in H.S. I could wear off white pantyhose, have a big long run in them and hardly see it! Tanning never worked for me, so I gave up.

For the last few years, I've had a tan on my legs whether I wanted it or not without having to work at it (not that I ever did anyway-can't stay still that long!), and my arms too due to being a twice or thrice a week swimmer for exercise at my local YMCA. I almost always cover up from mid-neck to wrist to hip wearing a rash guard shirt over my suit in the pool. Sunscreen on my face and upper neck. I have pale feet from wearing water shoes!

 

[Stray Cat]

I tend to get sun freckles.
I'm going on a holiday at seaside (LOOOOOOooong holiday)
Is there a way to save myself from becoming all-freckled-monster?!
(SPF 1000, I know that.. but something else?) :ban:

 

[C-dot]

(SPF 1000, I know that.. but something else?)

As a fellow porcelain dolly who also gets sun freckles, I recommend SPF 253 957 applied at least 14 times a day (only slightly joking), and Noxema. Wash your face with it, and rub it into freckled body parts. It makes skin gleaming and lovely, and I swear fades sun damage. Plus it smells nice!

Speaking of being porcelain - I cannot tan naturally, but I don't think I'd want to. I've tried fake tanning, and it felt too alien to look at myself in the mirror. Being so white makes me show up better in b&w photos, and stand out in a crowd.

 

[Miss Moonlight]

Well, at least we get some compensation for having boring, dark brown eyes. Light eyes are so much more interesting, but apparently come at a cost.

Ha, speak for yourself. I love my dark brown eyes, which if the sunlight hits them (a rare occasion), glint with red flecks; the rest of the time, they're the shade of a chocolate hard candy with caramel inside. My daughter is a redhead with dark brown eyes a shade lighter than mine, and they're beautiful. I also love my friend's glacier blue eyes. And the eyes of my sister's ex, one blue, one green. I knew a guy with yellow eyes. SO HELP ME YELLOW EYES - really. But back on topic...

I'm not a fan of the tan. I guess I prefer the natural tone anyone might have. Naturally dark, or moonlight pale like my daughter. Skin color (and eye color) is usually only attractive when healthy. Personally, I think tans look less than healthy most of the time, whether on dark or pale skin. I'm sure I probably can't tell on someone who hasn't overdone it, but when that line is crossed, it's not my thing at all.

Never been a fan of basking in the sun. This is probably why I don't look my age (41) compared to old friends who were beach goers. Tans age your skin, increase your risk of skin cancer, so... no.

 

[ThePowderKeg]

I like skin to look healthy. There are some people who look great tan and others who just look odd. I prefer my own skin pale, though I tend to get some color in the summer...still only about one or two shades darker than in the winter. That's with C-dot's recommended 253 957 SPF applied about 8-12 times a day if I'm outdoors for more than 10 minutes.

I didn't know that Noxema reduces the appearance of freckles, but it makes sense - I was far more freckled in high school/college than I am now, but don't know how much is due to my increased use of sunscreen, sunglasses, and anti-aging potions. Over the weekend, I saw a cousin who has been living overseas for several years...we hadn't seen each other in about 3 years. I'm 6 months older than she is, but her skin is starting to show moresigns of aging than mine. She grew up in Florida and almost never wore sunscreen. Where I have the trace of a smile line, she has a permanent wrinkle. She has more fine lines around her eyes than I do, and her skin has faint discolorations that I never really noticed before. I made a comment about make-up (not directed at her) and she made a borderline snarky comment about cutting down as she gets older, and all I could think was that a little tinted moisturizer with sunscreen goes a long way.

 

[rotebander]

I personally prefer being pale. Instead of tanning, I just get an impressive heat rash. When I was a kid, teachers used to get concerned because they thought I kept getting in fights! At this point, people have gotten used to my sunblock-parasol combination.

 

[Miss sofia]

I have gotten a little colour lately (although i do wear factor 50). People keep telling me i look well, so it can't be bad. Personally as i have said before, i do like pale skin, but a light tan works for me as i am more stilton than alabaster sadly. Especially my legs! Having said that i have noticed a lot of women sporting the orange fake tan or tanned to the colour of an old crocodile handbag and it looks awful.

I did read in a magazine recently that the seventies dark tan is back which i thought was a terrible thing to encourage as lots of people don't wear sun protection and are unaware or ill-educated still as to the dangers of over exposure to the sun and its long term effects. Fine if you're going to spray it on of course but not me.

 

[Miss Peach]

I'm 100% for the pale look. I'm a natural redhead with basically translucent skin, so I find it pointless to tan and much more flattering to go against the grain. I tried to explain this to someone who basically lives by the pool (definitely NOT one of 'us' in vintage appreciation, so it was hard to connect in the first place) and she looked at me blankly and said, "But, I know a great spray tanning place for you!"

Darling, pale can be pretty, too.

I do think that people whose skin works well with the sun can be absolutely beautiful. My form of beautiful just happens to be the opposite.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

I generally avoid tanning, certainly doing it on purpose! Even as young teenager I preferred being "Victorian" in appearance, much to my mom's distress. But during the past two stressful weeks I was in Florida, I spent as much time at Honeymoon Island as I could manage- up to my shoulders in the Gulf of Mexico. So now I'm tanned thoroughly on face, chest, and arms. I have freckles on my arms! How did that happen?

On the down side, the sun made some "spots" on my hands darker- Yuck! But the way I see it, I've been pretty protective of my skin, and it looks pretty nice now at 47, so a bit now isn't going to send me into leather skin/wrinkled territory. So I'll enjoy this for now- but I've no intention of purposely going with this. I don't mind a tan as a by product of being outside having fun or doing work, but to just lay on a chair and bake? Not for me.

 

[C-dot]

I tried to explain this to someone who basically lives by the pool (definitely NOT one of 'us' in vintage appreciation, so it was hard to connect in the first place) and she looked at me blankly and said, "But, I know a great spray tanning place for you!"

If I had a penny for every time I've heard this throughout my life...

Looking at me, I am obviously a ginger. People still can't seem to understand that even if I wanted a tan, I couldn't do it! I burn really badly, and once the burn heals, it literally goes back to white. When the pro-sun tanners get really insistent, I tell them my father has black hair and olive skin, and had a malignant melanoma removed in his 40's from a couple suntans he got in his 20's (true story). That seems to quiet them.

I'm not against tans - Just against them for me. The boyfriend used to always hammer at me to get a tan, until I missed a spot with my sunscreen at the beach, and he saw how red and welted my skin was. It's this mentality people have today where its quite sacrilegious to be pale.

 

[Louise Anne]

I just think it looks so un natural when you see people looking golden especially in winter in the UK.iIt used to be a status symbol years ago with ladies showing off there tan.

There nothing wrong with your complextion C-Dot and I bet your better for it.

 

[Miss Peach]

If I had a penny for every time I've heard this throughout my life...

It's this mentality people have today where its quite sacrilegious to be pale.

AMEN, Sister. Ginger high five (don't we need some sort of secret handshake?)

 

[C-dot]

AMEN, Sister. Ginger high five (don't we need some sort of secret handshake?)

The Ginger Shake is in the works - The "Slippery Salmon" will have to do for now lol

 

[Smumo]

I'm also a ginger and pale as I can be. People compliment me on my skin and then immediately turn around and ask me why I'm not tan. I explain to them that my skin is the way it is BECAUSE I'm not tan. I have nothing against tans, but it's not going to look good on me even if I did figure out how to do it. I come from pale stock. We're white, get used to it. LOL

 

[Land-O-LakesGal]

I have always been pale and don't tan easily but the last couple summers even with sunscreen my face has been picking up more color than I wish (out in the garden trips to the lake cabin and I am the only one that enjoys swimming with the kids so it always falls to me) do I need to start wearing more hats?

 

[C-dot]

I have always been pale and don't tan easily but the last couple summers even with sunscreen my face has been picking up more color than I wish (out in the garden trips to the lake cabin and I am the only one that enjoys swimming with the kids so it always falls to me) do I need to start wearing more hats?

Hats could work, but I suspect the SPF in your sunscreen isn't high enough. Anything under 30 and you will still soak in some rays - 50 and over and the sun won't touch you.

 

[Stray Cat]

AS for being pale goes.. I'm no longer it.
I tanned.
(it was not up to me.. somehow I ended up working on the beach.. and there is NO way to stay pale while the high noon sun is above me).

So, now, I'm changing my profile pic for you gals to see.
(First day I was like a vampire, I hissed at our enemy - the SUN)
..but one month later..

 

[Katinka von K.]

My parents made some fun of me when I came to visit them this year. My father tans within 5 minutes in the first days of spring, so that was no surprise. But even my mom, who looked like a piece of chalk all the years had way more tan then me this time. Which is mostly because she´s oaring 2 times a week and works in the garden. I for my part was happy to come back home as pale as I left .