In a Lovelyish field experiment gone awry, we were trying to match our concealers to our skin tones. Now, none of us are much of the make-up type, or at least, much of the concealer type, so we clearly needed a little help. The make-up representative listened to the description of my skin tone (this was over the phone), and finally asked, "Are you off-the-charts white?" I didn't know what to say. Does my Edward Cullen-like palor count as off-the-charts white?
"It's okay. You don't have to be embarrassed."
I didn't understand a reason why I should be embarrassed. My friends are as fair as I am, but somehow feel that's very unattractive. One friend is afraid of the tanning bed, so she gets spray tans.
I love her. She's gorgeous, but when you're blending in with a safety orange construction zone cone, we have to talk. I don't understand why people are so obsessed with changing their skin tone. In the post-Elizabethan era, pallor was considered a sign of aristocracy. Women would literally poison themselves with arsenic to look paler. Now, we're at the opposite side of things. The average worker slaves away in an office, and the well-to-do have the leisure to take time off and vacation. A tan is therefore a sign of prosperity.
I remember my roommate leaving skin lightener in the common room. Why would anyone use a skin lightener? I then recalled my fake tanning friend literally blending in with an orange jacket. There must be a happy medium, and I believe it's called leaving your skin alone.
What do you guys think of the obsession to look lighter/darker? Do you find it important to tan, knowing all the damage you're causing your skin?
Comments (115)
Don't know why chicks tan
Pale thighs = awesome all guys agree
I use self-tanner for certain events, like pageants, but I don't go orange.
~~Mary~~
I am all for ditching the self loathing and leaving your skin alone.
I want to be lighter
Most Oriental people are fairly white - like Japanese / Koreans
So if you're dark* people would mistaken you for a darker* ethnicity
I love my pale skin!
I don't care about my actual skin tone as long as it has a natural healthy glow.
i think if anyone wants to get a tan, they should do it the natural way - in the freaking sun. dark skin and light skin are equally beautiful, but ORANGE? at least find a color in the skin-color spectrum! please, its so obvious you spraytan/ use a tanning bed if you're orange. and for the people who cannot tan in the sun - sorry loves, accept your beautiful natural skin.
I used to abuse my very fair, northern-European skin via tanning beds. I thought I looked "healthy" that way. Yikes.
Now, I completely appreciate my very fair, freckled skin, and put effort into keeping it fair and (hopefully) wrinkle-free as long as possible. Natural sun = OK, fake tan via UV bulbs = not so much.
I've learned to be content with my skin tone. It's funny, because I have dark hair and eyes, but pale-ish skin. My mom has blue eyes and reddish hair, but tans soo easily. She can be out in the sun for (literally) five minutes and tan.
When I was teenager, I felt more insecure about it...but these days, I just put porcelain-colored powder to cover up the shine of my nose. lol
From a guy's perspective: Some girls do actually look better with darker skin, but only when it's slight (not orange). However, natural skin tone is very cool because it does show a good self-esteem. I personally don't care either way, if you look good, you look good.
I think accepting your own skin tone is important..
There's no color that looks the best...
pale is so the new tan.
i love my olive-toned skin. it's very versatile...and i get super dark in the summer, even with sunscreen. :)
i dont tan anymore. i used to be a year-round swimmer and i HATED tan lines and looking like i wore a white bathing suit when i was naked. or maybe i hated being tan because my mom always hated when i was super tan back in the day and made me feel bad about it
i'm naturally light-skinned and i LOVE it. my other friends wanna be tan but im not up for it anymore, especially since i spent 6-7 years damaging my skin everyday when i was swimming. plus finding concealer is much easier when you're not changing skin colors every few months
I certainly agree about leaving your skin alone. Doing those harmful things to make you skin look darker ((or)) lighter is just ridiculous. Though having said that....in my opinion, I do find pale to be more sexy. Tan skin can be nice too, but of the two, I certainly prefer pale.
I want to be paler as well. Like a poster above said, most asians want to be paler. This can be somewhat explained by our history, when aristocratic people stayed inside their huge palaces and never tanned, while poor farmers had to labor in the sun and look tan and "dirty".
However, most oriental people were born with fair skin, as fair as some Europeans so naturally, we want to revert to what we had before. Well, I do. I love my pale stomach/feet.
there are like sun spots on my face that i wanna get rid of but other than that i love my skin
I know this girl is tanned, she looks Polynesian, but she's Korean. It's scary.
I'm all for an active, healthy tan. I swim constantly, and can't avoid being tan, even with sunscreen. I think that looks hot on a girl.
I'm the color of milk chocolate, and I wouldn't change it for the world. People who decide to do the unnatural to themselves are foolish.
My skin is like those foxes or bunnies in the Artic that shed twice a year to fit the season... White in the winter, brown in the summer. I use sunscreen and everything, but I still change. :)
in high school i was all for tanning beds, bronzer, and self-tanner. then i realized how REDICULOUS it looks cuz i see the pictures and see how freakin orange i was.
i dont do anything now-and embrace my EXTREME vampirical white skin :] no skin lighteners, just nature. [and my boyfriend LOVES it]
I like my white skin.
But I also like my dark skin in the summer (I get tan naturally from going to the local lake).
That's my happy medium. Going with wherever the seasons take me.
I wish I knew what my natural skin color looked like. I tan so incredibly easy, it's not even funny [to me. Sadly, I'm the butt of the joke most of the time, hahaha].
I think natural skin tone is best. If it's unnatural, people are able to tell right away. Aren't we supposed to strive to be ourselves? That's what we're taught, even though media tells us something different. Hah.
i'm fair and freckly, but i'm cool with it.
I am deliciously pale and proud of it. I think my pale skin is beautiful. I actually wish I was paler!
I prefer pale skin on women, and tan skin on men.