Pale

November 28th, 2010 @ 6:40 pm by Mrs. Prairie Dog
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Pale : wedding beauty cincinnati makeup Edit edit

My first trip to the tanning bed was at age 14. I quit three years ago because I was already noticing damage—at age 21.

I’ve had to face the truth: it is NOT in my skin’s nature to be tan. My dad is from England, which is why I am very pale and also freckled. J comes from pale stock as well, and he literally works in the basement of a hospital. Together we are all but fluorescent.

Some girls’ skin does fine with tanning. Mine does not, and that’s okay. Now it’s all SPF, all the time…and sometimes even hats.

Except….okay.

I’ve had a few relapses. A few trips to the beach wherein I felt I should be awesomely tanned. It’s like any other tendency that you try to quit…it sounds great at the time, and I feel guilty afterward.

When I have moments of doubt, I remind myself that some of my favorite celebrities are also the palest:

Pale : wedding beauty cincinnati makeup Paleys paleys

See? Gorgeous!

And yet.

I will admit that Mr. PD and I both have concerns about being chalky, ghostly, and even reflective at our wedding. We don’t want to look sickly in our pictures.

I am telling you this because you MUST NOT LET ME CAVE. I can overuse bronzer, I can use spray tan, but hold me accountable! I want my skin to be soft and healthy into old age, and I don’t want to get back on the tan track.

Does anyone else fight the tanning temptation?

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51 Responses to “Pale”

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Guest

Sharon

ooo but you can do bright lipstick and it will look soooo awesome!

11/28/10 @ 6:52 pm (reply)

Member

tall_jenny (message) 452 posts, Helper bee

I love zooey she’s so pretty!

I think so long as you wear a nice blush you won’t look sick or anything. I think pale skin is jusr beautiful. Flaunt it!

11/28/10 @ 7:05 pm (reply)

Member

IlsaLund (message) 446 posts, Helper bee

Urg. I never went as far as the tanner, but I did spend summer after summer laying out. with tanning oil. Then I got some moles removed at 18 and was scared to death. Didn’t end up being anything, but the *rapid* rate at which they changed scared me enough that I live in SPF.

Remember, it will totally pay off later!

11/28/10 @ 7:11 pm (reply)

Bee

Mrs. Glasses (message) 2,741 posts, Sugar bee

I’m brown, I get down, so I cannot say that I know what you’re going through - BUT I just love delicate, pale skin in white and ivory wedding dresses! The photos just look lovely! Do NOT tan!

11/28/10 @ 7:15 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Jaguar (message) 4,656 posts, Honey bee

You look a LOT like Zoey Deschanel! Gorgeous. As a fellow palie, I salute you - we’ll be healthier in the long run!!

11/28/10 @ 7:21 pm (reply)

Member

crayfish (message) 4,844 posts, Honey bee

I have never, ever, ever looked at a bride and thought “Ugh, but she’s so PALE”. I think pale skin is beautiful. Much, much more beautiful than tanned skin actually (fake tanned, it’s always so obvious when someone is tan and shouldn’t be. I think our naturally darker skinned ladies are also really beautiful). All I see when I see tanned women is skin damage and a waste of time.

11/28/10 @ 7:34 pm (reply)

Member

feministbride (message) 283 posts, Helper bee

Don’t cave! Don’t cave! If ANYTHING - go do mystic a day or two beforehand (only if you’ve done it before and know how to avoid orange hands, unlike my first time!) on level one just to get a liiiittle bit of color. I’m nearly fluorescent myself and I did mystic lvl 2 twice before I went to Vegas in May - and I didn’t look tan, but I looked like I had a healthy glow. Just be prepared for the gross peelage afterwards.

Or - rock the pale! Play it up with bright lips!

11/28/10 @ 7:43 pm (reply)

Member

moderndaisy (message) 6,607 posts, Bee Keeper

I literally grabbed the fake tan lotion out of my sisters hands a week before her wedding. We are both the palest of pale and especially since she’s never used the stuff before, I’m sure I avoided having a radioactive sister as a bride!

11/28/10 @ 7:47 pm (reply)

Guest

Rona

Do not cave! pale does not equal sick. Be proud of your heritage, being different is beautiful. You wouln’t expect a dark skinned bride to lighten her skin for the wedding so why should it have to work the other way around? The skin colour that people look best with is their natural colour. Rock what god gave you!

11/28/10 @ 7:54 pm (reply)

10.

Member

froggy518 (message) 268 posts, Helper bee

I’m with you all the way! Hang in there, Miss Prairie Dog. Plus, I’m seeing more and more super fair brides featured throughout the blogosphere, and they all look gorgeous!

11/28/10 @ 7:54 pm (reply)

11.

Bee

Miss Rainbow (message) 1,535 posts, Bumble bee

Wow, I just realized that you totally look a little like Zooey Deschanel! You have the perfect skin to do that “just bitten” sheer pinkish-red lip and a rosy cheek. Gorgeous!

11/28/10 @ 7:56 pm (reply)

12.

Member

Merry02 (message) 428 posts, Helper bee

I was really worried about the same thing. I thought I’d look ghostly. I had a lot of people telling me I should tan a few times, just so I didn’t look so pale. In the end, I’m glad I didn’t. My pictures turned out great, and I LOVE the way my skin looks! Definitely stay strong and don’t give in. You’ll be happy about it!

11/28/10 @ 8:02 pm (reply)

13.

Member

fromcharleston (message) 651 posts, Busy bee

I’m in your boat Miss PD! Being pale is no fun, but I tell myself that our coloring (I’m the same…pale with blue eyes and very dark hair) overall is great and remind myself of the celebs, just like you.

11/28/10 @ 8:04 pm (reply)

14.

Member

manda21 (message) 267 posts, Helper bee

I’m pale. I felt tempted to get tanned. I’m a bit envious of tan skin from time to time. For one thing , I think it’s pretty, and for another thing, it hides blemishes. Then I saw what happened after my pale cousin went to the tanning salon. The poor girl was orange and sunburned at her autumn wedding!

11/28/10 @ 8:32 pm (reply)

15.

Member

Magdalena (message) 635 posts, Busy bee

Embrace the paste!!! I try to remind myself that back in the day paleness used to be a sign of aristocracy… ahem… or something.

Really it’s a very elegant look. My mom has a naturally more swarthy/tanned look, and she has always been envious of her daughters’ porcelain look!

11/28/10 @ 8:38 pm (reply)

16.

Guest

Julia

Be strong! I’m Hispanic and tan very easily, but my skin is typically very pale because I wear sunblock on my face everyday (and I’m always inside working.) I suffered from some really bad sunburns when I was young, but I’m a doctor now and realize I need to protect my skin.

11/28/10 @ 8:38 pm (reply)

17.

Guest

Lara

I was a (fake) bake aholic for years until just recently. I don’t go brown in the sun either (just freckle), so I can’t really justify laying out there destroying my skin. I fake tanned every weekend for years!
I have an ivory dress which compliments my naturally pale skin perfectly - I think a tan with a white or ivory dress would look horribly tacky.
Also, my fiance HATES the stuff, and he’s quite pale as well. For our engagement photos I tanned and I look very strange next to him!
So I’m going au-naturel for the big day.

Stay strong, stay fair and you won’t regret it!
Sun = Damage = Ageing. SO not worth it!

11/28/10 @ 9:02 pm (reply)

18.

Bee

Mrs. Oyster (message) 879 posts, Busy bee

I don’t know. You look beautiful the way you are, and I think the key here is to embrace your skin tone no matter what it is. As an African-American, I’ll admit that I don’t quite understand what tanning on purpose is about… but underneath it all, I think the more comfortable you are with yourself on your wedding day, the happier and more relaxed you’ll be, and the better you will look.

Plus, we’ve all seen some of those internet photos of brides who have done way too much tanning before their wedding day… you can always look at those for some extreme examples.

11/28/10 @ 9:27 pm (reply)

19.

Member

Cotton (message) 367 posts, Helper bee

Stick with it. I was a tan-aholic. I was a lifeguard and tanning bed user in the winter. I quit after undergraduate school but by 27 I had already had a pre-cancerous freckle removed and now I just had another taken off. The scars left when from having to go back after the biopsy to remove anything touching the abnormal lesion are about 6x bigger than the freckles were. And my dermatologist told me that the pre-cancerous freckles were more likely from tanning beds than from the sun.

11/28/10 @ 9:32 pm (reply)

20.

Guest

Moya

I fought the tanning temptation for my recent wedding too! In fact, Zooey Deschanel was one of my inspirations to stay strong. I think it paid off too, I look like ME in our wedding pictures which means I can look back and remember the day and not, “what was I thinking?” Stay Strong!

11/28/10 @ 9:43 pm (reply)

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