Sunburn DISASTER, help!!!

dvet

Oh my God. I'm PANICKING. First, a little background: I'm naturally a very pale skinned person.
I don't tan, no matter how much I ever tried to when I was younger, all I do is burn or get freckly, and I long ago decided to stop trying - there is literally no point - and to protect my skin instead.
I normally wear factor thirty EVERY DAY on my face and arms, even in winter. When going on holidays or whenever I need to look my best I usually use a light layer of fake tan in order to not look ridiculously blue.

long story short.... My wedding is in TWO weeks. And yesterday, , I ended up being in a massive rush to get out the door to go somewhere, did not expect to really be outside at all, and didn't have any Sun factor on at all. As (rotten) luck would have it, I got caught talking to somebody in a flippin car park in the middle of the sun for about twenty minutes.

Lo and behold - I now have a very definite pink line at the tops of my arms (complete farmers tan). TWO WEEKS BEFORE MY WEDDING! And yes, it will be VERY obvious in my dress. I can't BELIEVE my luck. Sorry for all the capital letters, I'm fit to strangle myself!

Is there ANY way of fading the pink areas?!!! Please help, boardsies!!!

dvet

(Deleted double post)

pwurple

First of all, get some aloe Vera gel and slather your arms in it. That's always been the fastest acting after-sun for me. It will start fading quickly enough with that.

Two weeks it might be almost gone. But, if it isn't, give your makeup artist the heads up. I know people who got visible tattoos covered with make-up for their wedding. If those can be covered, a bit of tan can be blended out no problem.

Adding link to boots aloe Vera
http://www.boots.com/en/Banana-Boat-Aloe-Vera-Gel-453g_2625/

looksee

my first thought as I read the OP was aloe vera! Don't panic, if you don't tan the red will be faded in two weeks, it will be fine. Have a lovely wedding

OnTheCouch

I wouldn't worry, in two weeks time it'll have faded for sure. If it were tomorrow you might have a problem but not two weeks.

Sam Kade

The next sunny day strip off go outside and fill in the blanks

ted1

2 weeks is a long long time for sun burn to be visible.
Relax you'll be grand

dvet

Thanks everybody for your calming words of wisdom, I was so panicky about it that I was seriously contemplating trying to intentionally burn/'pink up' my upper arms all morning! Or scrub my poor pink bits to death (even though i know that's ridiculous in reality!!) Feeling a bit calmer now though..ye have talked me down!

I will go straight to boots this morning and sort myself with some aloe Vera....Sorry for being a 'panicky bride' - I was seriously super relaxed about the entire wedding planning process until this happened! I swear! :-P

Dolbert

Hydrogel is amazing for sunburn, get that! Definitely don't go irritating your burnt skin by scrubbing, it'll make it worse. If you're getting tan done for the wedding it'll even your skin out and your makeup artist will work wonders with bronzer. Be grand!

Beagslife

If you are actually burnt, I'd suggest dabbing the area with pure Lavender oil. It's the most effective remedy for serious sunburn. If it's just some colour you have, Aloe Vera should be fine.

MC

retro:electro

It will be gone by then OP. I'm also very fair and never usually stay out in the sun but got fairly burnt a few weeks back when I got a flat tyre and had to wait for assistance at the side of the road for over an hour. My whole chest and upper arms were scalded and now two weeks later there's not even a mark there. It actually faded pretty fast, maybe in like 3 or 4 days.

chocfan

I agree with all of the above and I'm sure it will be gone by then-aloe vera is amazing and think about keeping it in the fridge-it really cools down the skin if it's sore

Just on the extent of it-if you think your burn is really severe (and it doesn't really sound like a desperately bad one, just enough to mark the area), you could visit your GP and get a special burn cream prescribed e.g. Flamazine which has silver in it and is excellent for burns-just see what they recommend but hopefully you don't even need it

Good luck with the wedding! am sure it will settle

sam34

Sudocream is great for sunburn.