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Embracing our Irish skin colour

  • 29-04-2012 7:46pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,551 ✭✭✭panda100


    Question to the Ladies of the Lounge, Do you embrace your natural skin colour?


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    I am apart of the 26% of the Irish population with Type 1 skin. This means that I have no melanin in my skin so my skin doesn't tan. Over my lifetime I have really struggled with my skintone, opting more often than not to slather it in fake tan to hide my natural paleness.

    The few times I have ventured out on nights out or day trips sans St Tropez the amount of comments I get about my skin colour is unreal. People have commented that I look sick,ghostly and in need of a good holiday, this is despite the fact that quarter of the population have the same skin tone as me. On a recent night out, while wearing a short skirt one guy commented how my legs were in serious need of a tan! Has any other pale ladies noticed how people can be quite rude when it comes to commenting on your skin colour?

    I really admire Nicola Roberts for ditching the fake tan.Its nice to see one truly pale skinned gal in the public eye
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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 4,128 ✭✭✭cynder


    Well I never taned until after I had my first child at 19, the older I get the browner my skin goes. I'm blond and was so pale as a child, my hair was white till I was 12. I would never use fake tan. I have English and Italian blood line.


    Its good to see people milky white instead of orange or have horrible fake tan lines around their knees hands and ankles.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,032 ✭✭✭SmokeyEyes


    I was obsessed with fake tan as a teenager but ditched it and am happily spending my 20's as a pale lily:) My boyfriend who has been with me for 9 years and seen me every shade loves me as my natural colour and thinks fake tan isn't necessary at all and was always trying to convince me to celebrate my lovely paleness!

    I now love trying to look as porcelain as possible and always wear an SPF 50!

    My dad often thinks I'm sickly cause I'm pale but I don't care I love it!:D

    Honestly think pale skin is gorgeous on girls!


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,413 ✭✭✭TeletextPear


    Natural skin all the way here - I'm very pale. I think fake tan looks terrible the vast majority of the time, I've seen so many girls with streaks or overly tanned hands that look dirty, or worse again the ones who forget to do their hands or feet. I can't say I've gotten too many rude comments though, mostly because if I'm ever wearing a dress that shows off my legs I'll wear tights.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,194 ✭✭✭saa


    I do not tan, I would love to be pale like above but no I am pink and I freckle, I werk it though.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,213 ✭✭✭daenerysstormborn3


    I'm so pale i'm almost see through lol!

    I have never worn fake tan. I have experimented once or twice on my legs but then ended up wearing tights because i looked so ridiculous, not orange or anything, i just look ridiculous tanned.

    I have had lots of people comment on my pale skin being horrible etc etc but i'd rather be pale and healthy than orange or over expose my skin to harmful rays.

    There are very few people who can do fake tan in a way that looks natural and attractive. Even if someone manages to get the tone right they usually make the mistake of liberally applying tan to parts of their bodies that wouldn't tan naturally leaving it looking unnatural.

    The smell, the stain it leaves on clothes and bed clothes and the way it looks when it is wearing off make it even more unappealing.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,091 ✭✭✭dearg lady


    Maybe people are commenting cos they're so used to seeing you with fake tan so it seems such a change? They'd get used to it I'm sure. Bit cheeky to say, but some people are tactless.

    I personally go for natural skin colour all the time, but it's extremely rare that I would wear a mini or shorts with bare legs, I usually wear tights, or with knee length skirts I go bare legged. Everyone's used to my pale colouring and no one comments.


  • Posts: 50,630 ✭✭✭✭ Lorenzo Green Bassoon


    I never go out (as in on a night out) without tan. Can't imagine I ever will either. I have a friend who has that gorgeous pale skin like Nicola Roberts and she's just stunning, but I don't look like that, I'm blue and pink and everything in between. I'm fairly good at doing my tan though, I have gotten it wrong of course, but it's a rare enough occurence thank god.


  • Registered Users Posts: 326 ✭✭evilmonkee


    I'm pale and DAMN PROUD! :D

    I've never had any bad or rude comments about it, however, I think it can be a lot about how you take the comments. (although being told I need a tan wouldn't go down well!)

    I've had an albino woman ask me where I buy my foundation.
    I've also been told that you'd know I was Irish, or that I look like porcelain.

    I don't feel that these are bad comments, I've had lots of problems in finding pale foundation myself. I am Irish and I think porcelain skin is beautiful.


  • Posts: 50,630 ✭✭✭✭ Lorenzo Green Bassoon


    evilmonkee wrote: »
    I am Irish and I think porcelain skin is beautiful.

    Definitely, that would be a huge compliment I would think.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,154 ✭✭✭Dolbert


    I never wear it and love being pale :) The only negative comments I've gotten are when some women find out I'm not wearing tan for my wedding. Why the fcuk would I if I never, ever wear it at any other time :confused:


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  • Posts: 50,630 ✭✭✭✭ Lorenzo Green Bassoon


    Dolorous wrote: »
    I never wear it and love being pale :) The only negative comments I've gotten are when some women find out I'm not wearing tan for my wedding. Why the fcuk would I if I never, ever wear it at any other time :confused:

    My friend (different one to the one above) got married six weeks ago and her bridesmaids gave her a really hard time for not getting tanned. She had to actually go and and get a spray tan done just to prove how ridiculous she would look. I don't get that at all.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,032 ✭✭✭SmokeyEyes


    My mam's friend who's Irish but living in Australia came over recently and told me they couldn't believe how much makeup and tan some of the girls trowel on over here, said over there everyone goes for a much more natural look, now I know they have the sun over there too but I think the trend over here is for a very full on look lately, where you can see the makeup and tan a mile away!


  • Hosted Moderators Posts: 11,362 ✭✭✭✭Scarinae


    panda100 wrote: »
    I really admire Nicola Roberts for ditching the fake tan.Its nice to see one truly pale skinned gal in the public eye
    She definitely looks a lot better now that she has ditched the fake tan!
    nicola-2_143184a.jpg

    I am not quite as pale as that - I will pick up some colour, but it's not brown. The closest I've ever got to fake tan is using a bit of sunshimmer to even out tan lines, but that washes off, I wouldn't have a clue how to apply something like St Tropez and I'd be paranoid about getting it wrong! I also hate the smell of it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,691 ✭✭✭Lia_lia


    I'm seriously pale too. Blonde hair/blue eyes/white skin...everything is pale! Which is mad because both my parents are always really tanned. And have dark hair. My Dad's family actually have north African blood in there somewhere. Loads of my first cousins are ridiculously sallow. No one ever believes we are related! I mean how did these produce this/this in fairness! I look albino!

    Although I do get a *little* bit tanned in the sun. We lived in France when I was younger and in all the summer photos from there I had a tan. But nothing major. Always wear sun-cream anyway so never get burned. I guess I wouldn't be the palest, though. A few of my friends are a lot paler than me. They just wear tan all the time so you wouldn't really notice it.

    Very, very rarely wear fake tan. Maybe 2 or 3 times a year. And only a really light one.

    Irish girls wear way too much fake tan/dark make-up. Sorry, but it looks fucking stupid. But each to their own I guess. Not my time and money (and naturally lovely pale skin!) that I'm wasting.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,691 ✭✭✭Lia_lia


    Fishie wrote: »
    She definitely looks a lot better now that she has ditched the fake tan!
    nicola-2_143184a.jpg

    I think she's stunning! I've always said she's the best looking one in Girls Aloud. Everyone always looks at me in shock when I say it :o


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,213 ✭✭✭daenerysstormborn3


    The comments i have had thrown at me over my lack of tan were rude and nasty, certainly my perception did not make them this way. Having people of both sex comment on your "horrible pale legs" and being told to "put away the milk bottles" is so nasty. As i said it doesn't bother me anymore but obviously it did when i was younger.


  • Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 26,928 Mod ✭✭✭✭rainbow kirby


    I'm ridiculously pale - to the point where I've been sunburnt on long runs in March or while shopping in Dublin city centre on cloudy summer days. I've never bothered with fake tan - it would look silly on me because I'm naturally so pale. My younger sister rarely leaves the house without it, but she's naturally darker than me anyway.


  • Registered Users Posts: 34,788 ✭✭✭✭krudler


    Lia_lia wrote: »
    I think she's stunning! I've always said she's the best looking one in Girls Aloud. Everyone always looks at me in shock when I say it :o

    totally agree, redheads are hawwwt

    this:

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    wins over the oompa loompa look every time, streaky bad fake tan that makes you look like you showered in Bisto is bad, light tan or natural skin is good


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,551 ✭✭✭panda100


    I never go out (as in on a night out) without tan. Can't imagine I ever will either. I have a friend who has that gorgeous pale skin like Nicola Roberts and she's just stunning, but I don't look like that, I'm blue and pink and everything in between. I'm fairly good at doing my tan though, I have gotten it wrong of course, but it's a rare enough occurence thank god.

    Me too. My skin is a motley of blue,pink and white. I would feel a bit self conscious without me tan on a night out or at a special event. I'm guessing by the sales figures of fake tan in this country I'm not alone.

    Everytime I go into Boots there seems to be more and more self tanning products on the market, so the tanning craze seems no sign in stopping. They even have specialised tanning products for men in the Boots in Liffey Valley. The amount of men I see coming out of the sunbed shop near where I work is unreal.I guess this is one area of the beauty regime where men feel under similar pressure to women to look a certain way.

    Nice to read all the positive comments in support of pale skin :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 36 _coinin_


    I use to put that daily self tan on which smelt rotten, just because my boyfriend at the time didnt like my very pale skin. But I got rid the of the tan plus that guy. Im happy with my skin. I was really impress with Nicola from Girls Aloud. She looks so good now. Fake tan is full of chemicals, I cant stand the smell and look of it.
    It actually makes some women look worse. If Im wearig a dress or short skirt, I just put on some shimmer lotion that brightens my skin up. I honestly never had any real abuse from people about my skin. My sister does have people telling her to get a tan. I love the look.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 36 AskJives


    Sheamus.png

    Tan you say? :pac:

    (couldnt help posting it :( )


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,551 ✭✭✭panda100


    My friend (different one to the one above) got married six weeks ago and her bridesmaids gave her a really hard time for not getting tanned. She had to actually go and and get a spray tan done just to prove how ridiculous she would look. I don't get that at all.

    I have been a bridesmaid twice, and both times even if I had wanted my skin to be au naturel, it wouldn't have been an option. Spray tans it seems are mandatory now If you are to be a bridesmaid.

    I'm ridiculously pale - to the point where I've been sunburnt on long runs in March or while shopping in Dublin city centre on cloudy summer days.

    I'm hearing ya. I have my factor 50 all set for the great limerick run next weekend. Even if its lashing rain, I probably will still get burnt!


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,175 ✭✭✭angeldelight


    I have the same shade of skin - practically blue and see through. In general when I go out I put a bit of instant tan on my arms, and wear tights. I'm not sure what to do for my wedding though - I feel that in white I'm just going to look ridiculous, and all the blotchiness and wobbly bits will look worse if left au natural. At the same time my soon to be hubby is also very pale so I don't want to look like a different species next to him... :/


  • Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators Posts: 26,928 Mod ✭✭✭✭rainbow kirby


    panda100 wrote: »
    I have my factor 50 all set for the great limerick run next weekend. Even if its lashing rain, I probably will still get burnt!
    I'm doing the half - my factor 50 needs to be packed too :cool:


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,691 ✭✭✭Lia_lia


    I feel that in white I'm just going to look ridiculous

    What's this pale skin + wearing white = looking ridiculous thing all about? I think white looks great on pale skin! Looks angelic or something. I always wear white on nights out. Loads of pale skinned girls I know refuse to wear white without a tan...I just don't get it!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,551 ✭✭✭panda100


    I have the same shade of skin - practically blue and see through. In general when I go out I put a bit of instant tan on my arms, and wear tights. I'm not sure what to do for my wedding though - I feel that in white I'm just going to look ridiculous, and all the blotchiness and wobbly bits will look worse if left au natural. At the same time my soon to be hubby is also very pale so I don't want to look like a different species next to him... :/

    Personally, on my wedding day I want to be me and don't want to be wearing false tan. I know that I will not get married in a white wedding dress because white clothes do not suit me, and I want to look the best on my wedding day. Blue is the colour that looks best on me, so its probably the colour I will go for my wedding dress.

    I started this thread because I am tired of suppressing my real skin colour. We have to stop thinking that we will look 'ridiculous', with our 'blotchiness' and 'wobbly bits'. What is ridiculous is dyeing our skin brown and masking our natural skin colour. Angeldelight, I hope you decide to go au naturel for your wedding day!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,083 ✭✭✭sambuka41


    panda100 wrote: »
    I have been a bridesmaid twice, and both times even if I had wanted my skin to be au naturel, it wouldn't have been an option. Spray tans it seems are mandatory now If you are to be a bridesmaid.!

    in that case I wouldn't be a bridesmaid. A friend of mine was in that position last year, and I love her but she looked ridiculous with the tan.

    I really like being pale, its almost a rarity now, so I feel a bit special!!!:p


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,850 ✭✭✭FouxDaFaFa


    When I worked in San Diego people would yell at me from cars to get a tan. I even had a woman on the tram come up to me and give me directions to the nearest tanning salon!

    My mum forced me into getting a tan for my Debs and I looked RIDICULOUS. It just doesn't suit me at all.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,032 ✭✭✭Bubblefett


    When I was in school (an all girls school I should mention) you weren't cooool unless you were glowing orange. It was almost like people enjoyed messing up with their home tan kits they were so bad.
    I can still remember going into the common room a few days before our pre-debs and seeing a group of the girls "tanning up."
    It really put me off fake tan for life. If I tan it'll be because I was lucky enough to get somewhere warm for a few days.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,032 ✭✭✭SmokeyEyes


    Beautiful pale gals!

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