These are hard to categorize, so if I need to modify the selections and descriptors, please discuss. I'm asking about your natural complexion without modifications such as tanning, skin lighteners, tattoos, etc.

Anyway, my skin is medium, color apricot, its considered a neutral. It has an orange undertone.
Not sure it could be considered beige, but that's the closest one.

Ya I am between the choices also, summer time right now more medium light middle of winter pinkish white

I'm purple

pinkish white and opaque

Quote from: Keira on July 06, 2007, 09:20:22 AMAnyway, my skin is medium, color apricot, its considered a neutral. It has an orange undertone.
Not sure it could be considered beige, but that's the closest one.

Thank you-- it wasn't the hue (like orange vs. neutral) I was asking about, just the degree of lightness. Not sure what are the best descriptors for "medium light" and for the next darker one (Keira's shade). But I hoped everyone would understand what I meant.

may i ask what the point of this poll is?  am i going to get free makeup samples?

i'm red, very red as a matter of fact.

I asked because it seems like I'm always the darkest one around. (So far this poll mostly confirms it.) I feel "othered" in my own country because of my olive Mediterranean complexion. I'm always taken to be a Middle Easterner. Sometimes I've been asked if I can speak English. Once a white American racist assumed I was Arab and just went off-- he began scolding me and ranting about "you people." Everyone seems prepared to believe I'm anything but what I really am, Italian-American. As a matter of fact, my ancestors have been in America since circa 1720, fought in the Revolutionary War, and pioneered the colonial frontier. I have deeper American roots than most of those white racists.

One reason it bothers me is even though I live in a town with a large Latino population... and near Washington DC, which is majority African-American... in the transgender and Pagan circles I participate in, how come everybody but me is all lily-white? I hate to think America is still all that racially divided... but I'm afraid it is. It seems everybody groups with their own skin color.

To Latin Americans and African-Americans, I look "white." To white people, I look foreign. I'm in the middle, not really fitting into any racial grouping. Always othered.

Everybody hates Muslims nowadays, but I'll say one thing for them. Go into an American mosque, you'll see every skin tone represented from blackest black to whitest white and every shade in between. It's the only completely racially integrated social scene I know of. Also, it's the one setting where I don't feel othered because of my skin color.

Sorry if I seem overly sensitive, but being transgender kind of aggravates my feelings of otherness... of not fitting in anywhere... I don't understand why we have to maintain these skin color divisions, all I see is one human race, color shouldn't matter at all. I do not identify as "white" or any race at all. I'm just human.

Katia, I heard you can get freebies from Clinique, which is very good quality makeup.

When people hear or read my last name, sometimes I'm asked if I need an interpreter. Not the same thing but...

Thanks for understanding, Nero. You're always a mensch. Hey, you've got an Italian name, paisan. Nero literally means 'black' in Italian.

I was afraid people would get mad at me for saying all that stuff, because race is such a sensitive subject, it's hard to talk about at all. I really just wanted to know if there was anyone else around who looked like me... feeling kind of isolated...

And I think all skin colors are beautiful, without exception. I really have no color preference when it comes to aesthetic or sexual attraction. I love 'em all.

Well, my mother's of Italian descent. She has lovely olive skin, aqua colored eyes, and thick curly dark hair (it's now dyed blonde though). May I ask what part of the country you live that your color is seen as rare? (just give a region, if not a state)

I don't know where I fit. I have olive skin because I'm mixed race, but I've spent 6 years hiding from the sun and becoming as pale as I possibly can so I can pass fully.  So I'm very, very pale olive.

I'm the same as you Tay, my skin gets dark golden brown when I really go in the sun, but I haven't done that since 1997 when I went to Australia.

I came back from that trip incredibly dark compared to now. No one would believe that I could become that dark. I only rarely sunburn so I do have plenty of melanin in my skin (Only if I stay out for 8 hours or more in high UV index with little protection will I get really burned).

My worse sunburn ever was when I was sailing around the Whitsundays (probably wrong spelling) sailing for many days in Australia and the UV index was sky high EXTREME and I went through 5-6 squalls (very violent storm at sea) which constantly wiped away my sunscreen. I did not reapply enough on the back of my legs and right forearm and had an extremely bad sunburn (It looked I'd passed my arm through a fire), which bubbles and skin falling off and all... My arms had thousands of small freckles and a coppery yucky look for 5-6 years after that even with no sun at all.

The last time I got sunburned was when I was 21, on a canoe trip in the Ozarks that lasted for two whole days. Otherwise, I tan easily. I began using SPF 30 this year because I'm getting lasered and have to avoid tanning in order for the laser to work.

I do not tan. I burn. If I'm out all summer, my skin may get one shade darker.
When I'm out in the sun, my skin is a luminescent white with a pink glow. I've come to appreciate it.

Women of colour are the bomb!

Most of the world is full of people with darker skin tones.

So I hate this obsession with trying to be lighter.

I am of European decent, so I have to stay out of the sun.

I'm susceptible to burning and skin cancer.

I envy those of you that tolerate the heat and light of the sun.

You are beautiful in my eyes.

The problem thoundra is that UV rays age the skin.
I wouldn't look like someone in my late 20's at 40 if I had taken a lot of sun.

If your no sun color is a medium copper or a medium golden brown, then bless you, you have
the perfect color if you ask me.

Quote from: Hypatia on July 06, 2007, 09:41:48 PM
As a matter of fact, my ancestors have been in America since circa 1720, fought in the Revolutionary War, and pioneered the colonial frontier. I have deeper American roots than most of those white racists.

I at least beat you on that issue.  1650 here on my father's side.  My Danish mother gave me my blue eyes, fair skin, and hair.

My skin tone is pretty darn white, especially without the heat of summer to "pink" me out.
I can't ever wear shorts, tank tops, sandals, or go out in the sun without covering myself up completely. My arms tan from years of exposure working distibution and whatnot, but they are the exception. The guys will laugh at me for this, but I wear a water-based makeup in the summer, cause it seems to protect more than just sunscreen, and I don't constantly have to reapply. It lasts until the afternoon usually, and then I apply a huge dollup of SPF30. I have to be careful of sunscreens cause some make me break out. Hypoallergenic stuff only. Cancer runs in my family, and I am just coming to the age where it usually rears it's ugly head.

So, you kids take it from the nasty old bitch -- take care of your skin!!!

I need to go to the beach this summer and get some color.  I look like a ghost!

I'm sure someone will be willing to take me!

tink