Quote:
Originally Posted by SparklingWaves
People took on the philosophy that they were not "fair", "ivory", or "porcelain". They were "pale". "Pale" almost always meant something as quite undesirable or to point of being somehow flawed. Where as years ago, she never had anyone complaining at a makeup counters or describing themselves as "pale". She continued, the customers now are demanding a choice in bronzers (body/face) and self tanners.
This turn in demand, altered the cosmetic lines. There were not enough people to purchase the lightest foundations and the companies responded by not making them anymore. She told me about how one line just simply deleted two of the lighter shades and labed the lightest medium tone foundation as "fair".
Bottom line: It's all about supply and demand. If people want to alter themselves as darker, the lines are going to produce what they want. So, they make more money from sales of foundation + a bronzer and/ or self tanners. It's all about the $$$.
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My philosophy:
The dimensions of skin tones is amazing and all of them should be celebrated. There isn't such a thing as being too this or that. No one should feel they need to alter themselves.
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I think quite a few people (myself included) use the term "pale" because fair just doesn't seem to describe how very light our skin is. Outside of Tarte's Smooth Operator foundation and the original Eraser colors, I haven't met a "Fair" yet that isn't darker than my skin tone (foundation-wise). There are other reasons I classify myself as "pale," too:
1) I avoid sun like the plauge. I use a parasol, the only sunlight I get is while driving and walking short distances to and from my car, and the only time sunlight enters my apartment is when I need to see how something looks in natural light. I could cheerfully live in a place where only one room had a window (I'd be irritated if I couldn't test my makeup in natural light) and I hope one day to have true light-blocking curtains on every window in my home. They might be opened and light diffused in through honeycomb blinds every so often, but I all but live like a sunlight-fearing vampire.
2) The only natural color I have in my skin is the blue of my veins, the purple circles under my eyes, and the pink of blood under my skin. If I lose color in my cheeks from being tired or sick, I look white as paper and I actually scare people. I've been given everything from hugs to homemade chicken noodle soup because I had a cold and looked washed out, which has the unfortunate consequence of making me look dreadfully sick.
3) I'm sort of anemic, so that makes me paler, and I have blood sugar issues, which also makes me paler (and gives me delightful reddish and darker purply dimensions to the ever-present circles under my eyes, which also make me look paler by comparison).
4) Walking in someplace and saying you have porcelain skin sounds a little snooty to me, but I do use it online, like in the MAC live chat. I don't know what it is about saying it aloud to someone that just makes it sound a little off.
I would have classified myself as "fair" several years ago, when I still went out in the sun sometimes and had a bit more natural color to my skin. These days, I classify myself as pale or porcelain. I feel that my skin is so light that "fair" doesn't really sum it up.
