Summer is ending and our tans will soon be fading. For someone who is of mainly German/Irish/Eastern European descent, I have been incredibly pale my entire life. Throw in the fact that I live in the Pacific Northwest, and we have me: practically a ghost or sheet of paper. Going shopping for foundation or concealer means I'm guaranteed to be looking for a shade on the end in the lightest colors possible.
Now, I am making jokes about my skin color. To be honest, I fake tanned a lot of the time in high school. But I think the last year I have come to appreciate the beauty of fair skin. The media tends to focus more on the need to have that "freshly stepped off the plane after baking your body for two weeks in Hawaii" look. That look is beautiful too. But I have to say, it is sad seeing people who struggle to achieve that look hate on their own natural paler skin color.
So I have come up with some tips and advice on ways one can really add to their makeup routine. Because trust me - I only recently began to stop fake tanning... and it has taken me a while to find what looks good on pale skin again.
Small disclaimer: I have dark hair, so a lot of these tips may be more geared toward someone with brown or black hair and fair skin!
SPF - This is an obvious one. Unless you are going to be doing some sort of photoshoot or maybe taking an ID photo (flash + SPF = bad bad bad), you need to be wearing something with SPF on your face! If your face lotion does not already have SPF in it, try finding a sunscreen that is geared towards being used on the face (you don't want to clog your pores!)
Eyeliner - my biggest tip for eyeliner as someone with dark hair is to try out a black or dark brown liquid eyeliner. Honestly, in my own opinion, I look much better when I use darker shades of eyeliner on my eye. And I find myself gravitating towards a black liquid one when I am the most pale. On me anyway, the smudged out eyeliner look on my own skin tone just doesn't seem right. The clean line you get with a liquid liner is a better fit. My favorite one is the Maybelline Line Stiletto, which is found at any drugstore.
Bronzer - Okay, this one is a hard one. In the spring and summer, I love to use bronzer. The other times out of the year though I find myself either too lazy (blame school) or I just don't feel that it looks right on me. If you need to use a bronzer though, I highly recommend the Rimmel Natural Bronzer in 021 Sun Light. But be careful and use it with a light hand!
Blush - This is an essential step for someone who has a lighter skin tone. It adds so much color, and it can really liven up your face. Try sticking to peachy coral-y tones or light pinks.
Highlight - Yet another essential step for us pale girls. I'm not sure if I just have mildly dry skin, but I find my face to look a bit flat or dull after applying concealer, powder, blush, etc. Fortunately, we have highlighter to solve this problem. A white or pearly shade is ideal for lighter skin tones, in my opinion. The one I reach for the most in my makeup bag is the famous Benefit High Beam. I also have loved Watts Up! from Benefit as well. I tend to stick to liquid highlighters, although you are all free to try powder if you have more oily skin or want a more subtle glow.
Lipstick - Bright lipsticks are fun, but nude or light pink lipsticks are great for day to day activities. They are also great, of course, for those nights you want to play up your eyeshadow a bit more and want to keep your lips more neutral. Well, I'm sure if you're a makeup lover like me and have pale skin, it can be difficult to find a shade of light pink that doesn't wash you out or just look plain awful. My recommendation for the perfect light pink shade from the drugstore would have to be the Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in the shade Airy Fairy. It's a gorgeous shade and I highly recommend you all check it out! It looks great on a multitude of skin tones as well. I love to throw the Nyx Butter Gloss in the shade Eclair on top as well sometimes to add shine to it.
Those are the best tips I have for all of us pale girls out there. Just remember to have fun with it all and don't be afraid to try new things. There's nothing wrong with having that lighter color. It's not pasty and we aren't "ghosts" or "sheets of paper." We should just embrace the color we naturally have without going to extremes to achieve what society calls "beautiful" or "hot."
-H
Now, I am making jokes about my skin color. To be honest, I fake tanned a lot of the time in high school. But I think the last year I have come to appreciate the beauty of fair skin. The media tends to focus more on the need to have that "freshly stepped off the plane after baking your body for two weeks in Hawaii" look. That look is beautiful too. But I have to say, it is sad seeing people who struggle to achieve that look hate on their own natural paler skin color.
So I have come up with some tips and advice on ways one can really add to their makeup routine. Because trust me - I only recently began to stop fake tanning... and it has taken me a while to find what looks good on pale skin again.
Small disclaimer: I have dark hair, so a lot of these tips may be more geared toward someone with brown or black hair and fair skin!
SPF - This is an obvious one. Unless you are going to be doing some sort of photoshoot or maybe taking an ID photo (flash + SPF = bad bad bad), you need to be wearing something with SPF on your face! If your face lotion does not already have SPF in it, try finding a sunscreen that is geared towards being used on the face (you don't want to clog your pores!)
Eyeliner - my biggest tip for eyeliner as someone with dark hair is to try out a black or dark brown liquid eyeliner. Honestly, in my own opinion, I look much better when I use darker shades of eyeliner on my eye. And I find myself gravitating towards a black liquid one when I am the most pale. On me anyway, the smudged out eyeliner look on my own skin tone just doesn't seem right. The clean line you get with a liquid liner is a better fit. My favorite one is the Maybelline Line Stiletto, which is found at any drugstore.
Bronzer - Okay, this one is a hard one. In the spring and summer, I love to use bronzer. The other times out of the year though I find myself either too lazy (blame school) or I just don't feel that it looks right on me. If you need to use a bronzer though, I highly recommend the Rimmel Natural Bronzer in 021 Sun Light. But be careful and use it with a light hand!
Blush - This is an essential step for someone who has a lighter skin tone. It adds so much color, and it can really liven up your face. Try sticking to peachy coral-y tones or light pinks.
Highlight - Yet another essential step for us pale girls. I'm not sure if I just have mildly dry skin, but I find my face to look a bit flat or dull after applying concealer, powder, blush, etc. Fortunately, we have highlighter to solve this problem. A white or pearly shade is ideal for lighter skin tones, in my opinion. The one I reach for the most in my makeup bag is the famous Benefit High Beam. I also have loved Watts Up! from Benefit as well. I tend to stick to liquid highlighters, although you are all free to try powder if you have more oily skin or want a more subtle glow.
Lipstick - Bright lipsticks are fun, but nude or light pink lipsticks are great for day to day activities. They are also great, of course, for those nights you want to play up your eyeshadow a bit more and want to keep your lips more neutral. Well, I'm sure if you're a makeup lover like me and have pale skin, it can be difficult to find a shade of light pink that doesn't wash you out or just look plain awful. My recommendation for the perfect light pink shade from the drugstore would have to be the Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in the shade Airy Fairy. It's a gorgeous shade and I highly recommend you all check it out! It looks great on a multitude of skin tones as well. I love to throw the Nyx Butter Gloss in the shade Eclair on top as well sometimes to add shine to it.
Those are the best tips I have for all of us pale girls out there. Just remember to have fun with it all and don't be afraid to try new things. There's nothing wrong with having that lighter color. It's not pasty and we aren't "ghosts" or "sheets of paper." We should just embrace the color we naturally have without going to extremes to achieve what society calls "beautiful" or "hot."
-H