First of all, I know that we need sun exposure to live, and without the sun, none of us would be here right now. Let’s just get that part out of the way, because I have no beef with the sun on those accounts.
To understand where I’m coming from, you need to know two things:
- J is WHITE (he’s 1/2 Irish, if you want me to be more precise) and he looks it. Pale skin, reddish tint to his hair, and while he can tan to a certain degree, it always starts with a truly brutal burn. To make matters worse, he doesn’t even have to be IN the sun in order to burn. Most people can be outside for a little while before they start to pink up, but I swear to you, J walks outside, looks towards a sunny area, and his skin starts to char
It’s absurd! Sunscreen helps, but to a very limited extent. - I wear my sunscreen like a good little girl, but I’ve got the old photos to prove that I can tan with the best of them, and once tan, I rarely burn. HOWEVER, when I do burn, I get the mother of all rashes that is painful as well as itchy (the one time in high school that I tried going to a tanning salon, I ended up with a rash so bad that I came close to drawing blood as I scratched in my sleep. I spent my senior prom doped up on Benedryl and in agony, which is never how you want to remember such an event!) The only thing that helps soothe the rash is Vitamin E oil (a thousand thanks to my grandma who told me to try that, because it’s inconvenient but really works!) and since you’ve probably never popped open a Vitamin E capsule, let me tell you about the oil – it is THICK, it takes FOREVER to soak in to the skin, and it actually smells kind of funny. So if you need to put on Vitamin E, you can’t plan to put clothing on any time soon. My point here is that I do everything in my power to avoid this rash, because it’s awful and takes a while to go away.
So, since J burns so easily, we tend to avoid being in the sun as much as possible. That means that I never get a tan and I stay pale year round even though we live in Southern California. So that means that when I DO go in the sun (i.e., the one time a year that my family comes to visit and I go to the beach with them) even being diligent about my sunscreen, I always end up burning, and I always end up getting a rash. The sacrifices I make in the name of playing with my family . . .
Since my burns always turn to a tan though, even from just that once a year occurrence, I end up with obvious tan lines. Well, now I’m in a pickle because my sister gets married in a little more than a month, the bridesmaid dresses are strapless, and I have crazy tan lines from over a year ago. The tan lines have got to go! (Plus, the dresses are a vibrant color and my sisters and the other bridesmaids are all very tan and healthy looking. I really don’t want to be “the pasty girl” in all the photos!)
Most girls in this dilemma would just go to a tanning salon, but I’m never doing that again! The next obvious solution would seem to be to just expose myself very gradually to small amounts of sunlight (in strapless attire, obviously) to try and let nature fix the problem, but I’m wary of burning on accident! (I also have a very limited timeline, because I’m busy all day and out of town most of the weekends between now and the wedding).
So that leaves me with some kind of fake tan, which I’m wary of but not opposed to (I’ve had both good and bad experiences in the past with the MysticTan booths, but the most recent one was a disaster). Help me please! Does anybody have suggestions of different tanning options (I’ve never tried the airbrush tans) or salons/people in the North San Diego area I can trust? I don’t want to be pasty with tanlines, but I also don’t want to be orange with an obvious gap between my face and my hairline
So while I’m busy blaming
- J for our never going outside
- my crazy skin for reacting so horribly when I DO go out in the sun
- and (I suppose) my parents for only coming to visit once a year so that I end up with a static tanline
please let me know what you think I should do to remedy my current dilemma 
And if someday in the future you see small kids who are both perpetually pale and rashy, those will probably be ours. We’ve doomed them to a life of crazy skin. Thanks, genetics!
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What about a lotion bronzer that you apply every day and builds subtle color? Or a powder bronzer the day of? Go to a makeup counter at nordstrom, tell them your dilemma, wear a strapless top and have them fix you. You hate-don’t buy. Plus, washes off!! (I am willing to sponser you on this endeavor because I am awesome.) (Or already took my lunesta for the night)
I use EnvyTan products and they are incredible. My local salon carries them and I will not tan with any other type of solution. If your salon does not carry their solution, you can purchase a pint directly from EnvyTan and take it to your local salon. have them apply it. They also have a few self tanners. I use Lasting Envy: Spray Tan In A Can when I am on vacations and it is a wonderful product. It is the closest self tanner I have found to the tan I receive in the salon. Good Luck!
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