In the past I crumbled to the pressures of being and keeping pale, and on top of that spending a large sum of money on serums to fend off any signs of darkening. At the moment I sport a 'milky yellow' tone with freckles on just the right side of my cheeks, which are an addition from sun damage. When I went to HK I would sometimes feel embarrassed by my freckles and asked if I was mixed raced, that's no problem, my issue stands with the pressure of having a perfect pale slab of a face.
My friend who came from China to study for a year in the Uk had tanned considerably during the winter, and that was because she held an umbrella every time she was out in China; obviously that's kind of frowned upon here if its not raining. She started freaking out when I told her she had tanned since I last saw her in China, but I was thinking no biggie. I remembered my mum talking to me about being tanned in her generation: that the rich and upper class were pale as it was a symbolism of wealth and status, whereas the tanned were the peasants who had to work in fields all day to feed themselves. That is plausible, or there are controversial lines where Asians aspire to be white because they are more 'superior'? I'm a fan of Asian celebrity culture and I don't object to people getting their eyes widen or rhinoplasty, but its damaging to the young girls who feel that beauty is only achieved when they look remotely Caucasian.
Anyway that was just my nostalgic rant built up from my track history. I'm going to embrace every ray of sunshine, but before that happens I need to check my sunscreens.
Caution: no matter how high the factor is, the sun will still damage the skin when sun bathing in long periods of time. A common mistake people have is buying high factors such as 50 and not reapplying regularly because its assumed it'll last all day. Aka getting a higher factor doesn't mean you won't tan faster so please don't expose your skin to sun without any sunscreen.
For my face I'm bringing my Clarins factor 30 Sun Wrinkle Control Cream (£17.50). It smells lush and it offers UVB and UVA protection. The UVB protects you from sun burns (although staying in the sun for hours won't keep you safe) and UVA will contribute towards preventing anti ageing, both of these are right up my street and things you should look for.
For my body I'll be using Nivea Sun factor 50 (a few £s) just because my mum had bought bottles of them. I do quite like these but I've not yet used factor 50 so it might be stickier than usual. I'll still be able to get a nice tan and get that protection.
NB: I used Atorrege AD+ serum to lighten blemishes and brighten skin, which can be found in HK drugstores. I don't use it any more as I've ran out, but I recommend it to minimize appearances of sun freckles.
