I made a post on Facebook today about difficulty finding makeup for fair skin in Germany, and it struck up quite a conversation. Seems a lot of people have the same problem! I remember the selection being a bit better in Canada, but it was still best to go with brands such as Clinique and the selection wasn’t as good with the cheaper drugstore brands. Also, the selection was much better in Victoria or Vancouver than the North Island. Here, I can still find a good shade, but I have to be prepared to pay for it. Clinique doesn’t sell the shade I used in Canada here. Last time I found makeup that really matched my skin, it was made by Shiseido and cost 45 Euro. I bought it.

My first tip is to embrace your fair skin. I really think fair skin is beautiful. I’m not saying it should be the new ideal or anything, but I definitely think that more people should embrace their fair skin rather than trying to tan it. To use a celebrity example, Alyson Hannigan’s character Lily is often tanned in How I Met Your Mother:

(Image courtesy of MTV)

And I’m not saying she looks terrible or anything. She’s an attractive girl. But I think she really suits her natural, fair tone a lot better.

If you’re fair, tanning can be a bit risky. For a lot of people, tanning beds and spending time out in the sun can lead to bad sunburns (I, personally, am very lucky…I’m a freak of nature and don’t burn). Fake tan can easily make you look orange, or like you have dirty skin. A lot of people associate tanning with health, and while people often get paler when they’re unhealthy, naturally fair skin wont look the same if you take care of it. This leads to my second tip: keep your skin glowing. If you have naturally fair skin, it can look extra-dull if it’s really dry, and dryness also leads to redness, which tends to show up a lot more. Make sure you exfoliate and use a good moisturizer. If you have oily skin, blemishes look a bit more obvious, so make sure you take care of that as well. If you have good, clear, moisturized skin, being fair wont make you look ill.

For a third tip, I’d have to say that bb creams and highlighters are your friends. I know that a lot of Asian girls love bb creams, but I recently got into them as well. It’s basically like a primer, and you can wear it under your foundation or on its own. MAC makes a great one, and I use Garnier’s, as it’s more within my budget. The Garnier one is a tad dark for fair skin, so I wear it under foundation, but I don’t find it too heavy. It moisturizes and evens out your skin tone, which is a big help with fair skin, especially in the winter, when redness becomes a problem. Highlighters can also help brighten up your skin. Just be sure to pick one that suits your tone. Yellowish or gold ones are pretty bad if you have cool undertones (you look best in blues and pinks) and if you have warm undertones (you look best in brown and orange), pinky ones will look a bit weird.

Finally, colour choices are key. Any colour you wear, from your hair colour, to your makeup, to your clothing, will stand out more when you have fair skin. Dark makeup can look clownish if you’re not careful. The wrong hair colour can make your skin look dull or red. Clothing choices can make you look washed out. There’s no real rule to this, because it really depends on your undertones (see above) and your colouring. If you’re not sure what undertones you have, I find it best to use white as a guide. If you look better in bright whites, you’re probably cool. If you look best in ivory, you’re probably warm. You don’t necessarily have to be afraid of dark or bold colours. I have fair skin and cool-toned skin, and I look striking in jewel tones (ruby, indigo, turquoise, emerald and violet), and I find black works for me!

Anyway I hope that’s helpful to a few people!