Both my grandmothers were Irish. Perhaps inevitably, I am possibly one of the palest people in the world. You think you’re paler than me? Don’t be so sure. I’ve only met one person of comparable paleness (a natural blonde), most people who claim to be pale will invariably stick out one forearm alongside my own fair freckled one and gasp in astonishment at how tanned they look compared to me. Sometimes they actually seem quite crestfallen about it, perhaps a sign of changing attitudes to what used to be something of an affliction. It’s becoming something to be proud of, as all other skin colours already are.
It’s not just your face you worry about when you’re pale, but Dita Von Teese has shown the true beauty and appeal of pale skin.
I spent the best part of my teens and early twenties stressing about many aspects of my appearance, and my skintone was one of the most irritating. You have spots, you wear concealer. You don’t like your haircolour, you dye it. Small boobs? Padded bras and clever dressing. Pale skin? An endless stream of streaky fake tans (and orange hands, possibly the worst aspect of all) or you risk serious skin damage and long term health problems by frazzling yourself in the sun or on sunbeds. There is never a clean, healthy alternative to your natural skin tone. It’s possibly one of the most fundamentally unchangeable things about your appearance, without serious risk to your health I mean.
I’ve sunbathed. One summer in my early twenties I spent entirely in Bournemouth, I actually went a rather delicious nut brown on my back and shoulders. But that was only after an accidental frazzling early on and daily exposure (with SPF I might add) for several months. And then it faded and the idea of frazzling my pale, mole-dotted skin the next year to try and effect the same change……good grief, no thank you.
I’m not sure how much of it is maturity and how much is just sheer boredom (or perhaps both, since maturity does seem to have stemmed from boredom and aquiescence so far for me), but I really couldn’t care less about it now. I still occasionally slap a little fake tan (the lightest, least effective I can find) on my pins, simply to save the general public from being blinded by the glare, but I’ve otherwise consigned the notion of bronzing to the back of the beauty cupboard. People comment on my paleness, but there’s almost a sneaking admiration. In an age of perma-tanned footballer’s wives and over-styled girl groups, someone daring to stand out as an ivory anomaly is truly startling.
Nicola Roberts. Former fake-tan addict and newly revealed pale and proud girl.
Speaking of which, the motivation behind this train-of-thought post was the news that Nicola Roberts from one of those girl groups, Girls Aloud, has started her own make-up range for pale girls. Now, now. Don’t all start complaining that that market is already catered for, because believe me – it isn’t! We ghostly pale gals need specialist make-up as much as those with darker skins. The difficulty in finding an appropriate foundation colour is greater than you could ever imagine. The embarrassment of buying the palest on offer, only to find that you look like a clementine-head in daylight is pretty excruciating. And don’t get me started on blushers. I don’t wish to have orange cheeks either thanks very much. Most of the pink blushers end up making you look like Aunt Sally from Wurzel Gummidge.
It remains to be seen just how good this range will be, and whether it will encourage other pale girls out there to ditch the fake-tans and join us proud-to-be-pale-ers. But it’s a good sign, alongside the current popularity of porcelain doll-like models and actresses, that the snobbery against pale is starting to dissipate. Although as with so many things in my life, I wouldn’t want to become too conventional. So perhaps it’s best for things to stay as they are, and for pale girls to be as unusual and unique as we already are. Just think how much younger we’ll all look when we’re middle-aged!
More pale icons. Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Kylie and Rachel Weisz. All fond of vintage clothes, are we seeing a pattern here?
As for tips (if anyone is vaguely interested), I can highly recommend Rimmel foundations for paleness. I currently sport the Renew & Lift in 100 Ivory (you can never start too early with the anti-aging malarkey…..I wish to remain proud of my skin), but Boots 17 also do good pale shades in their range. As for blusher, well I’m currently very happy with my Benetint by Benefit. Pricey but the bottle lasts for ages and I love being able to use it on my lips as well for a very natural English rose look.
Celebrate your natural skin tone, whatever that may be!!
Last week I had the very great pleasure of attending a video shoot for Mr Jah Wobble‘s new track, Blow Up. I was asked by Paul Gorman (Yes! He of the superb book and blog, The Look. Very chuffed I was too…) if I might like to be a Sixties-styled extra and, naturellement, I jumped at the chance. Also, naturellement, I managed to fail to take my camera with me on the shoot so you’re best off going and having a butchers at Paul’s blog about the day (in case you didn’t already).
Pint-sized Peelpants on tiptoe with the gorgeous Jenny Drag
p.s I had forgotten this Jah Wobble song from way back when. I remember loving it, but I can’t have had a clue who he was! 
Liz Eggleston 