Friday, April 30, 2010

The Perfect Glow

The perfect glow:

As a teen, there was nothing better than spending my time baking (or should I say burning) in the sun. Once the summer arrived I would launch a quest to get the best tan as fast as I could. So instead of slowly building a tan (which is also not healthy) I would head out, grab a lounge chair, smear on the oil and lie out for hours - moving only to do either the flip or dip. The flip, of course, was rotating from stomach to back and back to stomach every 20 minutes… as I did not want the rays to miss a single spot. The dip was jumping into the nearest body of water to cool off the burning sensation that was covering my frying skin. After a day of this I would get ready to go out, dressed in something white, with blue eye liner and silver lipstick to help enhance the color (blisters) all over my face.

Well, needless to say, those days are behind me and the era of avoiding the sun is here. I have come to terms with the white pale skin look . But for many of you that still want that “healthy glow” but know that spending too much time in the sun is damaging, you do have options:

Self-tanning cream: today's self tanners no longer make your skin orange, but be sure to pick a tint that will match your own skin tone.
Self-tanning sprays: similar to the cream but they are applied standing in a machine (remember Ross on "Friends"?) or a person can spray you manually.

Testing a small patch first is best. Also, do not forget to exfoliate all over to avoid streaking