The warm weather last week is hardly worth complaining about, but it leaves me feeling a tad self conscious in my sundress and sandals. My fellow fair skinned women will agree. They know what I’m talking about: putting on sunglasses and glancing at your legs every 200 feet or so, letting the tint in the lenses trick you into thinking you got at least a little sun on your legs. Or sitting in class and quickly taking a tally of everyone in the room who’s more tan than yourself (read: everyone) and proceed to feel incredibly lame. Or being bold and skipping the sunscreen for a gutsy three hours, only to get horribly burnt, live up to your tan counterparts for a week, peel and be forced to start all over. Occasionally we break down and try to sneakily purchase some Jergens in Walgreens before we run into anybody we know, proceed to hide it behind our other lotions and pretend that the smell doesn’t make us want to vomit.

This Monday, I’m here to tell all my fair skinned gals to cut it out and embrace your fair skin. Let’s be real, nobody is coming up with a solution for us anytime soon that doesn’t result in skin cancer. So we might as well work with what we got. Below are three ways to flaunt your fair skin this spring:

1. White and beige: Us fair skinned people often shy away from any color that might exaggerate our lack of color, but the fact is lighter colors actually work to bring out our color rather than making us look washed out. Rather than throw on a bright color to try to add some contrast, white and beige bring out some color and create a very natural and feminine look. Throw on some comfy chino cut-offs and a semi-translucent white top for a simple and pretty spring outfit. Ps. Try to shy away from pastels and bright yellows.

2. Red lips: The exception, naturally, is lip color. Fair skinned women look fantastic with bold lip colors in red, orange and pink. Don’t limit lip stain to dress up events and nighttime dinners on the patio at Rustico, wear it all day, everyday. Lip stain is a fair skinned woman’s best friend.

3. Black or dark nail polish: Dark nail polishes work well for women with fair skin. A navy blue or black would be perfect for the summertime and balance out the white and beige I talked about above.

Fair skinned ladies of Marquette, how will you rock the fair skin this spring?