A Whiter Shade of Pale

Even though I’ve half-Korean, my skin is pretty pale. My mom has fair skin for a Korean and I inherited her skin tone so my skin is pale with yellow undertones. Normally I try and rock the pale look: I apply sunscreen everyday and try to avoid spending too much time in the blistering Utah sun. I want to do what I can to avoid skin cancer (and I have to admit that I’m not in any hurry to get wrinkles either).

BUT, I also wear a skirt at least once a week and dislike pantyhose. And my legs are naturally a shade of fish-belly white so bright they practially glow. So I thought I’d try using one of the self-tanning body lotions that have cropped up lately. (See? It’s not an actual tanner, it’s just body lotion that gives you a hint of color. *Sigh.* I am such a sucker/hypocrite.) Anyway, I went with Aveeno’s Active Naturals Continuous Radiance for fair skin tones.

I have pretty sensitive skin (I’m afraid that E. inherited his from me) but Aveeno products are in general pretty good for sensitive skin. (Their baby products are what E.’s pediatrician recommended when his eczema flared up.) The lotion has a light scent to it, but it wasn’t chemical-y or bothersome. The lotion goes on and feels like it’s really moisturizing. You’re supposed to wait until it dries to put on clothes, but it seems to dry in just a few minutes. I’ve never had a problem with it rubbing off on my clothes.

(But what’s that, you say? You want to know how it actually works?) Well, it works pretty well. After a few days I started to see some color. There were a few small patches that were a teeny bit uneven (mostly around my ankles), but after a little over a week they evened out. The color looks natural and it’s not orange at all. I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and the color seems to have stabilized at a very light golden shade. It’s enough color for me, but unless you have super pale skin you might want to use the shade for medium skin tones.