Irish people's obsession with having a tan

Sergeant · 27-05-2013 10:05AM

I hit the sunbeds every day. I aim to be the colour of Ronseal Rich Teak by the August bank holiday.

hedgehog2 · 27-05-2013 10:05AM

While fake tan looks crap and has a repungant odour it is far safer than using sunbeds.
My mates girlfriend was Polish and all of her friends were obsessed with sun beds.
She was 21 when I first met her,I recently bumped into her and honestly her skin is fecked from the sunbeds.
She looks well into her early 30`s and is only 24/25,this is not just one girl I have seen it with a few other eastern European girls but her`s is the most dramatic as she was fixated with them.
We can slag off Irish girls for the fake tan but they are aware of melanoma and spray tans are a less dangerous way of achieving a colour.
I do think a tan helps a cailin look a lot healthier even if it is fake but has to be subtle.

Obliq · 27-05-2013 10:13AM

I use those body lotion one's that just have a tint in them - and only to take the purple effect off my legs so they blend a bit better with the farmer's tan I always get. Never warm enough here to have the legs out usually, so I don't want to frighten the horses on the 1 or 2 days a year I wear shorts

Even those lotions can go badly wrong behind the knees and on the ankles, but at least they don't turn you orange and they wear off pretty evenly.

r3nu4l · 27-05-2013 10:16AM

true-or-false wrote: »

A tan makes you look healthier, thinner, and reduces the appearances of things like cellulite, scars, etc.

When people say they don't like fake tan they're not thinking of the lightly bronzed girl they were checking out last week, they think of bright orange, dirty looking people who have over-done it. It's the same with when people say they prefer the look of people not wearing make-up, but what they really mean is that they like subtle make-up. You'd be surprised how many people wear fake tan, it's not just the "oompa-loompas".

Myself now, as much as I'd defend fake tan, have never used the stuff, but it's more so to do with me being too lazy to do it.

False. I detest fake tan of any sort and I really don't like makeup either, ,even lightly, well done make up. I also don't get the obsession with tans as I don't think it makes anyone look 'healthy'. Each to their own though, I won't judge someone who uses fake tan or make up but for their own sake, I wish those who overdo it had friends honest enough to say something, rather than lying and saying 'ah ye look only gorgeous!'

cletus van damme · 27-05-2013 10:18AM

gonna say , I quite like fake tan on an irish girl.

must be applied properly and not as liberally to make her look like a member of the wonka workforce.

Crooked Jack · 27-05-2013 10:18AM

r3nu4l wrote: »

False. I detest fake tan of any sort and I really don't like makeup either, ,even lightly, well done make up. I also don't get the obsession with tans as I do
Nt thinkit makes anyone look 'healthy'. Each to their own though, I won't judge someone who uses fake tan or make up it for their own sake, I wish those who overdo it had friends honest enough to say something, rather tha. Lying and saying 'ah ye look only gorgeous!'

Exactly. Personally I never find a girl better looking than when she wakes up first thing in the morning.

That's why I sneak into their houses at night.

luketitz · 27-05-2013 10:21AM

fonda wrote: »

I work in the middle east and all the poorer nationalities working here are the exact opposite. Its crazy to see guys cover every inch of skin including their face when its 40 plus degrees out, seen a guy yesterday in a thick wolly balaclava and gloves!

In their countries the darker you are means the poorer you are and your social standing is less, i believe this is because if you are really tanned it means you labour outside or even possibly don't have a home and can't get shelter from the sun!

True dat. Everyone wants what they can't have.

I Heart Internet · 27-05-2013 10:22AM

I hear there was a "mystery woman" sun bathing on top of a garage (filling station...not her house I think) in Dublin over the weekend. She was photographed and put in the independent.

I can't find it online though.

Natural tan (as Dublin woman was perfecting) is fine. I've rarely seen a fake tan that wasn't awful and jarring on a girl who was previously quite pale.

Magenta · 27-05-2013 10:24AM

Rosy Posy wrote: »

My little cousin who is half caste

Lunni wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that's a really un-PC term now! :eek:

Agreed. Not a nice term to use.

27-05-2013 10:25AM

It really annoys me when people automatically judge your holiday a failure, simply because you came back without a tan. I'm Irish - when I go to sunny countries, I'm burn like a mofo. So I'm going to wear suncream because, lets face it, sunburn is horrible, can make you feel terrible, but can potentially spoil a good time.

rossie1977 · 27-05-2013 10:34AM

true-or-false wrote: »

A tan makes you look healthier, thinner, and reduces the appearances of things like cellulite, scars, etc.

so you are saying this girl with a tan would look healthier and thinner

eamonnq · 27-05-2013 10:35AM

gjc wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/mystery-of-naked-sun-lover-on-roof-of-dublin-house-29298875.html. :D:D. The lengths people will go to o get their full complement of vitamin D. That link is now broken indo must have taken it down

https://mobile.twitter.com/davieomara/status/338026208350584832

I Heart Internet wrote: »

I hear there was a "mystery woman" sun bathing on top of a garage (filling station...not her house I think) in Dublin over the weekend. She was photographed and put in the independent.

I can't find it online though.

Natural tan (as Dublin woman was perfecting) is fine. I've rarely seen a fake tan that wasn't awful and jarring on a girl who was previously quite pale.

There ya go!

Mr. CooL ICE · 27-05-2013 10:36AM

Its probably to do with looking more exotic (for want of a better term). In an island where we get no sun, we see darker-skinned foreigners as being more exotic while people from areas where they are darker-skinned see pale people as also being slightly more exotic.

Had a work colleague (female, chinese) come back from a week in Spain. She got really embarassed when people were admiring her tan.

Tar.Aldarion · 27-05-2013 10:43AM

Hate the stuff, used in small amounts. Pale ftw.

I Heart Internet · 27-05-2013 10:48AM

eamonnq wrote: »

There ya go!

Thank you sir. My curiosity has been satisfied.

rox5 · 27-05-2013 11:22AM

Festy wrote: »

Tell me whats so great about it ?

Give me a pale cailin deas any day of the week over some wrinkled up oompa loompa

Anyone else agree ?

I don't get it either. I was fine when I was younger about the whole pale thing until all my friends staring getting into it, and then relatives who are fake-tan mad starting making comments about how unhealthy paleness looks.
I wear it sometimes, if I did not want any foundation lines showing, but it is such a pain in the *** trying to keep it even and trying to get pale spot possibly.

eamonnq · 27-05-2013 11:27AM

I Heart Internet wrote: »

Thank you sir. My curiosity has been satisfied.

Can't understand why people carry around phones with a crappy camera, when something with a 50x optical zoom would do a far better job!!

lertsnim · 27-05-2013 11:35AM

Festy wrote: »

Tell me whats so great about it ?

Give me a pale cailin deas any day of the week over some wrinkled up oompa loompa

Anyone else agree ?

How is it an Irish thing? All those Germans taking sun loungers at 6 in the morning are doing it for what exactly?

loveisdivine · 27-05-2013 11:41AM

true-or-false wrote: »

A tan makes you look healthier, thinner, and reduces the appearances of things like cellulite, scars, etc.

When people say they don't like fake tan they're not thinking of the lightly bronzed girl they were checking out last week, they think of bright orange, dirty looking people who have over-done it. It's the same with when people say they prefer the look of people not wearing make-up, but what they really mean is that they like subtle make-up. You'd be surprised how many people wear fake tan, it's not just the "oompa-loompas".

Myself now, as much as I'd defend fake tan, have never used the stuff, but it's more so to do with me being too lazy to do it.

Or there are people who mean what they say. Like me. I don't think tan skin looks healthier. When I see natural tan I think of how much wrinklier their skin will be when the person is older and also I think of skin cancer.
Same as I don't like wearing make up and I don't like how make up looks on others, even if its only subtle make up. I think a clean face is infinitely healthier and prettier.

Basically I prefer people to actually be healthy, instead of people using various products/exposing themselves to UV just to look healthier.

Lunni · 27-05-2013 11:44AM

loveisdivine wrote: »

Or there are people who mean what they say. Like me. I don't think tan skin looks healthier. When I see natural tan I think of how much wrinklier their skin will be when the person is older and also I think of skin cancer.
Same as I don't like wearing make up and I don't like how make up looks on others, even if its only subtle make up. I think a clean face is infinitely healthier and prettier.

Basically I prefer people to actually be healthy, instead of people using various products/exposing themselves to UV just to look healthier.

But going out in the sun will give you a tan. There's nothing wrong with that. I tan like mad just from walking around in a sunny country, even if I use sun cream. Your body needs vitamin D and there's nothing wrong with exposing your face/body to the sun to a reasonable extent.

--Kaiser-- · 27-05-2013 12:28PM

Personally I think a genuine tan makes a girl about 30% hotter. I usually have a tan because I brown easily and am magnetically attracted to sunshine

humbert · 27-05-2013 12:53PM

A tan probably suits some people and as a previous poster said, it helps to mask bad skin but I do find nice pale skin particularly attractive (not in a, she puts the lotion in the basket, kind of way).

I do find it amusing that many ethnicities that are naturally darker try to be whiter while we, who are naturally white, try to be darker .

qo2cj1dsne8y4k · 27-05-2013 12:59PM

I think some of the problem is, fake tan that you'd buy in a bottle to slap on yourself is a ridiculous shade. I recently posted up a swatch of a "light" shade of the GOSH instant tan, and it was about 8 times darker, whereas you'd assume "light" would be 1-2 shades darker. So, girls who want a "dark" shade, will buy the darkest one, which I can only imagine would make them look incinerated

Edited to add this link. This is the light shade of Sally Hansen. Light.
http://tinypic.com/r/2ykdq1d/5

Duggy747 · 27-05-2013 01:08PM

I don't tan, at all. I just go lobster red and then revert back to Casper, albeit a few more freckles on my arms

The worst was when I was in RDF and got burnt to a crisp, except for a white diagonal shape on my forehead from wearing the beret.

Fake tan usually gives me a chuckle from the women I know who slap it on, like the girlfriend or the sisters, because I see them most times in their everyday pasty whiteness. The sisters used to drive the aul lad insane because they left brown handprints all over the house :pac:

Lando Griffin · 27-05-2013 01:27PM

zcorpian88 wrote: »

Agreed, hate fake tan, I always associate the stuff to Tallafornia, TOWIE, Jersey Shore and those other tv shows idiots watch. People are easily influenced by the muck on tv so they go out and buy muck to lather their skin in. Be white and pasty and proud people!

Hey easy up there; my OH watches them shows.

27-05-2013 01:29PM

Someone posted up a before/after pic of their legs with fake tan before, and as much as I generally loathe the stuff, she did a fine job of it, not orange/dark

Rosy Posy · 27-05-2013 01:35PM

Lunni wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that's a really un-PC term now! :eek:

Sorry, I didn't realise. I'm coco-cappuccino myself. Funnily enough I got told off for using a non pc term to describe myself in the gollywog thread a while back too. Please fill me in so I can be sure not to offend myself.
(I know, cheap sarcasm, but seriously, I would like to know- I didn't realise that this was offensive these days)

Lunni · 27-05-2013 01:38PM

Rosy Posy wrote: »

Sorry, I didn't realise. I'm coco-cappuccino myself. Funnily enough I got told off for using a non pc term to describe myself in the gollywog thread a while back too. Please fill me in so I can be sure not to offend myself.
(I know, cheap sarcasm, but seriously, I would like to know- I didn't realise that this was offensive these days)

I don't think it matters what colour you are yourself. I wouldn't refer to my ethnic background with a racial slur or un-PC term, especially when describing another person, because I wouldn't want to offend others. Half-caste hasn't been OK for a few decades now. 'Mixed race' is politically correct, or just describing what are you, i.e. 'half white, half black'.

Rosy Posy · 27-05-2013 02:20PM

Lunni wrote: »

I don't think it matters what colour you are yourself. I wouldn't refer to my ethnic background with a racial slur or un-PC term, especially when describing another person, because I wouldn't want to offend others. Half-caste hasn't been OK for a few decades now. 'Mixed race' is politically correct, or just describing what are you, i.e. 'half white, half black'.

I genuinely didn't realise it was a racial slur. I'm not being sarcastic this time. And I agree that it doesn't matter what colour you are, which is why I'm slightly morto that I may have offended others by using this term

podgemonster · 27-05-2013 02:26PM

Friend of mine got a job in Birmingham and moved over from a small Cork town. After a week in his job the lads at work said they were heading out on the Saturday night.

That Saturday my buddy threw on the jeans and the "good" shirt, gelled up the fringe, got a bag of cans and headed to the lads house for pre-drinks.

When he went in he found them in the sitting room rubbing tan on themselves and styling their hair (some with hair straightners). He sat drinking on the couch trying to watch the Telly while the lads tried on various tshirts.

So it's not really an Irish thing either.

Irish people's obsession with having a tan

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