Not a goth girl, not yet a tanned woman

Rosie M. Banks — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:05:17 -0800

De-gothify me, good MeFites! I'm looking for bronzing and self-tanning products for the very fair-skinned. I'm a brown-eyed brunette with very fair, cool-toned skin. Normally I burn easily and don't tan well. This was all well and good in my goth days, and works out fine in the winter when I can just play up my high-contrast coloring, and my legs are discreetly masked by tights or pants.

However, spring has sprung and with it nice warm weather. I want to go bare-legged for once without forcing all in my vicinity to put on sunglasses to escape the glare from my milk-white legs. I want to wear bronzer on my face without looking like I have jaundice. Most of all, I want to have a healthy glow overall without looking like George Hamilton or a porn actress. I know it's not realistic, given my skin, to expect a deep tan; I just want a nice glow.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks between me and tanning products is that I naturally do not look good in brown, gold, and earth tones in general. I have not for the life of me been able to find a face bronzer that doesn't make me look sallow and muddy.

Fashion resources for South Asians

divabat — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 08:22:21 -0800

What good fashion/style/beauty resources are out there for South Asian (Indian/Bangladeshi/Pakistani) women that aren't all about saris and lenghas? Thanks to the response to this question, I have been investigation fashion and style a lot more that usual, and am developing my personal tastes further. (I'm keeping a log of what I like; link's in profile.)

One thing that's struck me, though, is that none of the models are South Asian - none of them look like me. They're all mostly white and skinny (and often blonde). When they bring "people of colour" in there are no South Asians, and plus size is way too big for me (I'm a 12-14 with a typical South Asian belly). So it's hard for me to tell if anything I've seen would actually look good on me because there's no one to compare it to.

My tastes run towards the gothic (Velvet Garden is AWESOME), geeky (injoke tees), businessy (I LOVE suits), and ethnic (not just South Asian). I've been thinking of trying out mod, after seeing a photo of Edie Sedgwick, but she's the complete opposite of me bodywise and I have a feeling the typical mod dresses are going to make me look pregnant.

It's harder to find makeup because I have no idea what colours would suit me. I hardly wear makeup but when I do (for very special occasions) I like to be dramatic, particularly with my eyes. However, all the talk about warm/cool/yellow/blue skin tones confuse me. Some websites have pictures or notes of people whose skin I'm supposed to match, but none of them are ever South Asian! I can't even tell for myself because my skin tone can change - right now it's on the fair side because I'm hardly outdoors, but my face can get quite dark, especially when standing next to fairer people.

Searching for South Asian fashion resources is difficult, because I keep getting stuff about saris and lenghas and salwhar khameez. They're nice, but that's not all I want to wear!

Are there any sites or places that tackle South Asian people but have a more Western idea of style?

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Not a goth girl, not yet a tanned woman

Fashion resources for South Asians