To Tan or Not To Tan?

Over the last few days I've built up a bit of a tan as I've spent most of my time outdoors in the glorious sunshine. When I went back to work everyone commented on how well I looked, and how brown I was. It got me thinking, do I look better suntanned or not?

I tan relatively easily, but I do try to be careful in the sun and use copious amounts of sun lotion. I think I do look a bit more attractive tanned, I feel more confident and slimmer. I think having a bit of colour helps to even out my skin tone and hides blemishes, especially on my face. It's like putting on foundation or tinted moisturiser - not that I use either of these products - but it just seems to help hide any scars or spots or marks on your skin.

But I hate having tan marks... I've got a couple of strap marks on my shoulders and a line on my face where my sunglasses were. It's SO annoying! I have a wedding to go to next month and the dress I'm wearing is strapless so it will look weird with tan marks. Not quite sure what I'm going to do to disguise it...

I've been sunbathing topless only once before when I was on a beach holiday in Ibiza a couple of years ago. I never thought I'd ever have the guts to do that but it was really rather liberating and I loved the all over tan I got from it - but it's not really the sort of thing you can do here!

I remember my Mum telling me to keep out of the sun because having white skin was seen to be more desirable as it meant that you were more well off and didn't have to go work in the fields outdoors and therefore get suntanned. And it seems that some Asian women still strive for white skin - when I go back to visit relatives and family I always see lotions and potions to whiten skin and women actually buy it. It seems so odd that over here women buy fake tan to make themselves look darker!

Anyway, I've decided that for me, I do look nicer with a slight tan. I don't want to get really brown, and neither do I want to look like I've been tangoed orange with bad fake tan! So I'll continue to use my factor 30 sun lotion everyday and if I get a little bit of colour then that's no bad thing.