To despair of being pale and freckly at this time of year.

[Tolkienista]

I hate my pale skin and freckles at this time of year, especially when so many people are looking lightly tanned and so lovely in their summer attire. Skin really does look better with a light tan.
For the rest of the year I'm absolutely fine with my skin..
My skin is clear and unlined and I look good for my age too I'm a size 8-10 and can just about wear anything, so there are lots of good things with my body.
I do apply instant tan to my arms especially and sometimes my legs, but it's just wash off in the shower stuff.
Anyone else suffer from tan envy?

Pale but not freckly but I tan really unevenly. My legs just turn a delightful shade of pink, my arms will tab slightly, and then my face looks like I've dipped it in a vat of sun 🤦‍♀️

I know what you mean, I feel the same too, especially if I did it myself .
Many years ago, my sister who is even more freckly than me, had a fake tan (professionally done) for a wedding abroad, she looked amazing, the photos still stand today and she looks so good.
I think if it was me, I'd definitely have it done professionally.

My sister and I (twins) call ourselves “honorary gingers” because both parents sides have ginger hair/pale freckly skin…we just got the skin and the ability to burn on a cloudy day if not careful. Every single “ginger in the sun” joke you hear or see applies to us, but we have light brown hair instead.

Can honestly say not having a tan has ever bothered either of us. Might go a bit less pale on foreign holidays or heatwaves, but that’s about it. We both consider suncream a necessary evil (both late 30’s and remember Mum finding us factor 50 years before it was widely available) and are complete shade hoppers and fans of sunhats.

I'm very pale and burn in 10 minutes. So I've never bothered to try and tan, what's the point?
Without being a knob, it's paid off as I'm 56 and my skin is almost unlined.

One step up from albino here practically! When I was 6 months old, mum left me out in my pram under a tree in the shade. When I came in, I later developed little tiny marks all over me, so mum took me to the doctor. He said I had very little melanin in my skin and the rash was a reaction to the sun. Don't worry, she'll develop melanin/ not react to sun/ she'll grow out of it, she'll be fine.
65 years later, I look like a postbox if I don't wear factor 9 million sun screen! And and and-I love this weather. The thing that really pisses me off is my sister can tan just by standing near a light bulb (bitch) and goes that lovely olivey Italian/ Spanish sort of colour. But I've got better hair so........

I’m super pale, never really tanned just burnt. And now I have an auto immune thing where I bleed into my skin with sun/light exposure so I have to completely cover up. On the upside my skin is great in terms of aging and pigmentation, and if I’m getting my legs out for an indoor event, good old Sally Hansen works wonders

I'm duck egg blue on the Dulux shade card with Jackson Pollock freckle brush flickings overlay paint effect.

The only real downside of very pale skin is that it is very difficult to look toned or have visible muscle definition. That melanin covers a thousand sins, as it were.

You can be just as fit as other people but you will still look a bit less athletic in comparison.

Optical illusion, play of the light, whatever you call it.

Wouldn't change myself though.

I’ve never considered this. I do look softer than many of my friends despite being in good shape and us all having similar gym routines. I’d never have thought it could be my paleness that makes the difference!

yeah, this red haired guy totally doesn't look atheletic. Not at all. and it's all down to his hair and skin pigment. Honest. #Sarcasm

I'm a whiter shade of pale.

I lived through the 00s, the Era of Orange, and I think hating our skin was forced upon us to flog us more products by the beauty industry. (Fake tan, bronzer, mitts, exfoliant, tan remover etc)

This year I was briefly worried the Artemis mission would attempt an orbit of me -mistakenly thinking my bright white skin to be the lunar surface, now my pasty winter legs were exposed for all to see in the warm weather.

I've been told this because I have mixed with military/gym bunny types and apparently it's a well known thing.

But just from watching track and field athletics, boxing or martial arts with your own two peepers - you can see that all of these people are at roughly the same level of training and fitness but the red headed freckly pale ones don't look as ripped as the others.

More fool them when we win, eh?

Better to be pale & interesting than have sun damaged skin I think.

That's not a scientifically controlled experiment. Have you tried spray painting him in different colours to see the various visual effects?

Aha I think that's viking DNA lurking

Ready to sail a long boat at a moments notice*💪

*Light-hearted no complaints please

Ooh this thread has helped me feel less alone as a pale person struggling to get my legs out in this heatwave!
Can anyone expand on the instant tan and the tinted body lotion, as to whether they're worth it? I've occasionally rubbed on a bit of fake tan, but I worry that it'll look orange and patchy. I do want to remove my white glare though if I'm going to ever get my legs out. On the other hand BIG UP those who are inspiring me by not caring about it.💪

Irish blue-white here.

I do use fake tan in summer to take the glare off, but I’ve been doing it for 25 years and old habits die hard.

I actually like the look of pale skin on others - especially ginger/fair haired and freckly people. It’s youthful and cute.

I’m a black haired, green eyed Celt and look like a goth if I don’t at least slap on a bit of gradual tan!

I get asked if I'm unwell if I don't pop concealer on, translucent of skin that I am.

I use dove gradual tan just to feel slightly less ghostly- lest I mistakenly feature on one on those paranormal phenomena documentaries when I'm actually just a celt going about my daily life.

Ohhh look a spirit from the underworld! No. Just me in Tesco freezer aisle with no make up 👻

Same here, I just go blotchy in the sun. Very jealous of people with skin that’s all one colour, tanned or not!

My dd said to me today that she wished she had an ankle monitor on banning her from going out in the sun. She's got her Duke of Edinburgh this week, she got sun stroke last year on it when the weather was much less than this.

I can just look at the sun and be tan, so finding it hard to give her more advice.

OP here and it's my legs more than anything I hate being pale.
I don't know anything about lotions that develop over a number of hours but I use a tinted instant bronzer, easy to use wash off in the shower, but only for special occasions when my legs are out.

😭 living the dream pp. Envious.

If I think about the sun I'll burn 🫠

Courtesy of a few thousand years of ancestors trying to synthesize vitamin D in fuckall sunlight

You can get UV monitors I think for your dd?

yeah my GP told me redheads are very efficient at making vitamin D and I would be unlikely to be deficient
the week after
“your vitamin D level is 9… um I think you should start a high dose course. Now”

I hear you OP. Though I have generally embraced my paleness, I do envy those who can sit in the sun in the afternoon and not burn. Not because of the colour particularly, but because avoiding burning is a pain. I invariably miss a bit with the factor 50 or what I anticipate to be something quick which requires me to be outside turns in to something not so quick and I get caught. I hate worrying about burning, the greasy sunscreen and the sweaty head from wearing a hat. It’s tedious.

Me too, not so much how I look, I have just accepted that I’m fair skinned now and can’t be bothered with fake tan.
It’s more the palarver of SPF and needing to be in the shade, because I will still burn if in direct sunlight longer than 30 mins even with factor 50 on. Also turning bright red when I’m hot and having a face like a big tomato.

My husband and daughters get a beautiful golden tan and never get sunburn - jealous!

I have tan envy too as I’m very pale however, I’m being treated for a few patches of skin cancer, some of which have been removed, with more to be operated on so make do with a tan in a bottle and now cover up completely. Three of my siblings have my dad’s easy tan skin, whereas the other two of us have my mum’s freckly and pale skin.