no bake skin

So if you know me, you know that for the better part of the last, oh let's just say EIGHT YEARS, I've had this unusual healthy, uh, glow. Always. In the summer, of course, but in the winter too. Occasionally, someone would ask me how I got so tan, and I would tell them, of course, that my dad is an Indian. (You'd be surprised at what people believe these days.) And when a friend coined the Pocashauntas nickname, it stuck, naturally.

In real life, I'm white - pale, ghostly. Thank you Mother. We have this sort of translucent skin that the Roman goddesses would have envied. Then along came Island Tans. I started working there just out of high school. And while the job actually turned out to be one of the better moves I've ever made (I could blog about the life changing experience Island Tans was for me, seriously), I also found the beds of bulbs.

I also discovered just how much I love being tan. Love it. I can't even tell some of you how often I went: (1) You will realize how fraudlent my skin tone really was, and (2) You'll all tell me I'm going to die of cancer.

And yes, I'd say that given the amount of time I've spent baking, I'm at risk. (But then again, pretty much everything gives you cancer these days. I fear cancer.) So roughly a year ago, when a certain redhead, whom I was not yet eternally attached to, told me I was killing myself and challenged me to not tan for a month, I of course took him up on it. (He didn't think I could do it, and I enjoy proving people wrong.) And I haven't tanned since.

Now I will be the first to admit that I miss it. I miss the tan, I miss the warm twenty minute break. However, because it is a battle I cannot win as the redhead has significantly better arguments (uh, cancer, oh and then there's, um, cancer), I don't bother. (Plus it costs money.)

Oh, and then I discovered Jergen's Natural Glow lotion. Sure, I may look like I have a fake tan, but at least this fake tan doesn't contribute to real cancerous cells. (Until, of course, research is developed that links bronzers to cancer.)

But really? I'm enjoying this glow. It's lovely. Straight out of a bottle sunshine.

(However, I'm really looking forward to baking next to a swimming pool this summer. Don't tell.)