Why is a tan considered optimal. I think pale skin is beautiful!

[Liuckle]

Not saying tanned isn't beautiful
I just find it interesting!

I have pale skin. So much so that some nights my legs glow in the dark. I do find tans (natural, not burned or leathery /peeling) look attractive. I always have. I also think it can make people seems slimmer, can hide some things or make certain features pop.

The annoying thing is that I do tan a bit (after going red first) but only from wait up , despite wearing dresses,shorts etc. The half and half contrast is definitely not a good look, not that I particularly care.

I have the best of both worlds. I tan easily apart from my deathly white patches. Thanks vitiligo!

My husband has very pale white skin, he doesn’t look unwell. I’m south asian with yellow undertones,

When I have a tan the yellow tone ramps up and I look awful.

Yes it winds me up when I've been on holiday and people comment disparagingly that I'm not very tanned, as though:

1. A tan is the only sign you've enjoyed your holiday, and
2. Everyone's skin is the same and everyone can tan

I lived in very hot countries for almost a year and barely looked darker than my normal pale shade I just don't tan

I'm with you OP.

In my insecure youth I tangoed myself to fit in then gradually realised I like the contrast of my dark brown hair with pale skin, and so did my partners. Rosy cheeks help too. Saying that I'm now in Peri and those flushes can get out of control !

I don't tan so I never really bothered to try. My skin at 53 is virtually unlined. There are some benefits to it! Also, I find it very uncomfortable to be discussing skin tones in a disparaging way: 'pasty' 'unhealthy' 'blemished'? Seriously?

I do my best to stay out of the sun or I go red and blotchy.

DH is Irish and his skin is so pale you can almost see through it. Two of our sons are the same, so fair that they never tan at all. I think it's a beautiful skin tone.

I’m quite tanned at the moment (someone asked me the other day where I’d been on holiday - nowhere!) and I don’t lie in the sun, I just spend quite a lot of time outside - I walk to/from work, run and cycle and generally enjoy being outdoors and active and have the sort of skin that tans easily in those sort of circumstances. If I lie in the sun in really hot countries I just go red and blotchy though! I have terrible tan lines tho 🫣

Pale, perfect skin looks beautiful. Very few people have perfect skin.

All skin is beautiful.

For me - medium skin tone ( not the fairest but brown hair blue eyes) I look so much better with a tan. And because I am also fat, tanned fat looks better than as I saw someone else on MN call it recently ; 'aspirin white' fat.

I'm super pale, I'm not keen on it but I've never fake tanned in my life I'm too lazy to faff around and the thought of fake tan on bedsheets makes me feel ill, I'd probably look a twat anyway.

I'm a sun dodger because I hate the heat and being very pale is preferable to looking like a lobster.

Up until 10 or so years ago it was virtually impossible to find a foundation to match my skin tone, every brand made me look like an Oompa Loompa, it was only when companies started expanding shade ranges to like 30+ shades that I could find something to match.

In Asia (sweeping statement, might not be all of Asia!) pale skin is seen as aesthetically superior and preferable over tanned skin. If you’re tanned then you’re lower class working outside all day, fairer means you’re richer so spend more time inside. I think that’s the theory anyway!

(No authority on the matter, someone may be able to correct me. I spent some time in China and they loved my pale skin.)

‘There’s no such thing as a safe tan’ so says NICE, so for that reason along with many others, I hope that being pale becomes fashionable again.

I know that most of us (except perhaps those with Celtic/English rose complexions) look healthier with a light tan, but the deep mahogany look on a Caucasian person is ghastly IMO.

When I was a goth i wanted to be pale so bad. All these magazines with translucent skinned models and here I was a half South American with reddish clay toned skin trying desperately to get what I could never achieve.
Now I think every skin tone is beautiful. But it pisses me off that some get a Mediterranean glow with none of the other bits like my oily skin or sweatiness. How is that fair? I think if you tan easily you should also be saddled with the grease like me.

I'm pale-skinned, with green eyes and brown (was originally very dark) hair. I get lots of freckles, so when they join up a bit, I sometimes look a bit tanned.

I'm very pale. I use one of the gradual tan moisturisers on my legs on holiday as my legs look way way better with a bit of colour. I look awful on shortish shorts when I'm natural but passable when I'm very light brown.
I refused to wear fake tan on my wedding day much to the horror of a couple of my f friends. I just don't look like me with fake tan on my face and arms so I would have looked weird.

Absolutely agree with this! I lived in China for 12 years and locals envied my pale skin. Pale skin means you don’t work outside.
my dd had very pale skin and bright blonde hair; she was adored by the Chinese!

A light golden tan is lovely mahogany brown not so much .

I agree. I'm a happily pale person

I love natural tan when I've been in sun, I don't need foundation and glow :3 but can't take tan.. just look like I've got jaundice 😂 I'm not overly pale anyway.. I'm quite red... my skin colour hasn't been noted 😂 I use to be nicknamed Rudolph 😭 I am just really really red 😬

I love a tan mainly because I don't tan. Dark haired, blue eyed and can't tan at all. I have my red haired mother's skin and my Dad's Irish colouring (yet he tans to chestnut in about 10 mins!). I am a year round fake tanner because I just prefer being brown.

My daughter, however, has perfect, blemish free porcelain skin. She carries it off beautifully. She'd look odd with a tan and she'd do lucky!

"She's so lucky" that should have said. Thanks phone!

I am quite pink and avoid the sun generally, I have too many moles to risk sunburn and hate fake tans of any kind. I would love to have porcelain skin and if someone invented a spray porcelain skin coverage I would pay to have it done.

Generally, one looks healthier, slimmer and fitter with a tan. You’re lucky if you have beautiful pale, porcelain skin (even luckier if it’s olive or dark IMO), but most white Brits tend towards pinkish, mottled tones - I know I do! Personally, I know I look better with a tan, as do most people I know.