Since summer is here, I feel the need to do my own PSA. Yes. I was a TANorexic. The sun was my drug of choice in my teens, 20's, and entering 30's. I found myself trying to get the beast anyway I could. Baby oil on blacktop, tin foil on a lawn chair, tanning beds, sticking my head out the sunroof. SPF? What was that?
The photo below was taken a few years ago at our vacation house at the beach. At this point, I was so strung out on the sun...
I would usually get a very dark tan (for being *ahem* a natural blonde...you have seen this photo of me when I was 3 to prove my *natural* blondlieness?). Anyway, I'm Italian and Irish. Are these two blood lines even suppose to mix? The Italian side of me gets dark. However the Irish in me comes out in FRECKLES. Lots of them. And then my hair turns a bright white in the summer. It's an odd combination. Like a George Hamilton albino? I've had many terrible sunburns. Once so badly on a trip home from Disney that I needed airport security and a tram car, with lights and sirens, my feet had swollen up with sun blisters, I couldn't get off the plane. SO embarrassing.
So what snapped me out of it? Of course it wasn't the threat of skin cancer. No. It wasn't the sirens and mini ambulance and humiliation at the airport. Nope. It was much deeper than that.
I woke up one morning and looked into the mirror. Closely. It hit me. Oh my god, I'm a walking, talking raisin face. An irish potato neck. A sicilian pepper steak. The wrinkles and sun spots that have wreaked havoc on my skin for years...magically all appeared at once, it seemed. That was it for me. I was scared straight. By my own face.
Today, it's all lotions and potions to try and reverse and stop. (and we all know that's like stopping a speeding train) I'm happy to say that I've been out of the sun for 2 years now, clean and sober. My kids tan easily because of their daddy's olive skin. But I won't let them make the same mistakes I did with the beastly sun. They are lathered up with sunblock like buttered turkeys before they can leave the house, whether the sun is out or not, doesn't matter. They whine at me now, but will thank me later.
So my new drug of choice?
Spray tanning myself to death. I swear by this stuff ladies. It smells good (most self tanners smell bad) and it gives a nice natural looking tan, not orange. Best of all, it doesn't cause wrinkles! Find it here at Sephora. Happy Summer and don't forget your sunblock! xo ~ T
