I haven’t been on a skin binge in a long while (since Gala Phoenix put out those skins at the skin fair some time back that were all over the feed for months) and I guess it was just waiting to catch up with me. While I find myself falling in love with one skin after the next for the cute-yet-refined faces people have been coming up with, I find myself noticing that, once again, tan is back in style in SL. More and more designers are leaving their fair-skinned friends in the lurch and making many shades of tan, tan, more tan, or really tan. Is it because summer is coming?
They warned me my facelamp would do this to me...
It isn’t that I don’t like tan skin, although I’m more of a fan of pale skin with a smattering of cute little freckles myself (maybe a trace of narcissism since it’s how I look in real life.) I’d just like the choice. I’ve even “settled” for some of the darker tones (calling themselves “fair” or even *gasp* “pale” – harking back to the days where Naughty skins seemed to reign the feed) but I have a major problem: I’m a big, big hair whore and the vast majority of my hair is pale blonde. What isn’t pale blonde is pitch black. Neither of these look good on the tones of tan skin that are so popular in SL, unless I’m going for the “hey look, it’s Malibu Barb…uh, did she get a spray-on tan? No blonde is THAT dark.” look.
Please, oh pretty please skin designers – have mercy on us the melanin-challenged and offer us some lighter tones? ^_^ I know that, like I said above, some people have tried to offer what they consider “fair” or “pale”, but I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Arizona sun already this spring and my skin doesn’t touch these “fair” skins :( My best suggestion would be trying out your lightest skin tone with platinum blondes from a variety of hair shops (most of mine are Magika’s platinum blondes before their blondes went dark and desaturated, but even ETD’s are sufficiently light for this test); if you look like you’ve spent too long in a tanning booth, try a little lighter!
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Ahem.. I know several blondes who tan that dark, even without the tanning booth (I’m rather pale blonde myself, and I tan easily). But I don’t know any blondes with hair *that* pale as in the pic.
It’s the hair colour that’s unnatural, not the tan. Instead of begging the skin makers for paler tans, you should rather talk about hair designers whose “blonde” selection only ranges from peroxide blonde to extra bleached peroxide blonde.
It’ll never work Maegan; they’re looking at fashion magazines filled with all the brunette models that have dyed their hair blonde. Have you tried Fleur skins? Those run pale.
I’m SO with you!
I am a fair one in RL and so I want to be a fair one in SL, too.
It’s disgusting that there are tones naming themselves fair and pale, but being a medium or light tan tone in the end – erm, ya …
BUT! There are some really nice skins in fair and pale out there, and I’m wearing them, bein happy. Just a bit unfair that I really like some skins that aren’t fair and never will be, so I can’t get em :)
I’m totally in your court! Though I’ve given to experimenting with darker skins–SL is fun like that: dark today, white vampire tomorrow–I always gravitate back to fair. It’s my RL complexion, too, and it just looks right to me. The impossibly tan looks, well, impossible.
Fear not. There are still many choices. Two good quality I’ve worn fairly recently with platinum, one with an Exile hair and the other with a Dernier Cri hair, are Kimberly from Free Speerit (now in a lighter tone I haven’t tried yet) and Natalia from Skin Within. Both these are posted on my Flickr page. Other good choices are new releases from YourSkin (goes with some blondes and reds, not all) and, personally, I like the new Curio lines. I generally have worn Curio with darker hair, but Breeze and Sunny have done well with light blondes and reds…with freckles :) Some of the lighter, frecked, Renaissance line at Laqroki have looked good with light hair. The nice thing here is you can get demos and head home and have a private, nakie if you will, fashion show and check them all out.
I left Tuli out! Shame! She has some nice light skins as well.
I absolutely agree. Soooo many skins I haven’t bought because they didnt have a real pale tone. I’m like you, pale, not white, with a smattering of freckles. I adore Rockberry and Lelutka and would spend so much more if they put out a fairer tone. Especially Rockberry’s new freckles.
Isara: Actually, really pale blonde hair runs in my family. It’s not exactly that shade, but neither is ETD’s, which is plenty light. I just happened to prefer Magika’s old platinum blonde because it was sunny and bright instead of desaturated – I’m just a sunny kind of person. :D Many Scandinavians have plenty platinum blonde hair, and most stores do offer darker tones, I had just always chosen the light because they did go with my old skins.
Ivy: No, haven’t been to Fleur in positively ages. I remember adoring the Parfait skins she had but for some reason never got around to going back for them. I think I was still thoroughly in love with my Curio skin at the time. :D
Liliana: Oh, definitely. I have a decent selection of pale skins I’ve picked up over the years, and I still love the Curio skins. It’s just that a lot of designers lately have come out with some amazingly beautiful faces: Laqroki’s Tess was the one in the picture, and really isn’t too-too dark, but still just a bit), Free Speerit’s new Kimberly (who was just a bit dark for me when the store reopened recently but I guess Lisa says they have a paler one now? I’ll have to see!), and Soda (well, these skins have been out for quite a while, but I bought a custom skin from her way back and love the face to bits, but can only wear dark hair with it) – and more, but I just rolled out of bed after a sleepless night and I can’t remember for the life of me who the places were that I -didn’t- end up buying from – all of whose skins were too dark to wear super pale blonde hair without looking off, at least to myself.
Lisa: Oh! Kimberly was a really nice skin but dark for me when I got one at the store opening. I’ll definitely go back and check out the pale one! I’ve never heard of YourSkin so I’ll have to check them out. :D I do love the new Curio lines but – and I don’t know if it’s my eyebrows or my mouth, I can’t figure it out – it makes me look like I’m about to burst into tears. I’ve been vascillating between getting it and worrying about the “sad” look since they came out, but the demos are still in my “Skins I want to get” folder. :D I love the Moonbeam tone. Tuli’s skins are beautiful and I drool every time I see someone else with them on – but for some reason I’ve never been able to get them to look as cute on me no matter how I mod my shape. :S
Ivey: Yes! I haven’t tried out Lelutka’s skins yet since they adopted that name, but I’m with you on Rockberry. I got some free skins from them from recent hunts that would be so cute on me if only they were pale. ^_^