No, this article is not about the latest Netflix series! It’s about fake tan. When I came to Ireland for the first time as a foreigner student, I was confronted with a new culture, tradition and a different vision and ideal of beauty. The first thing that caught my eye in my first lecture was the skin of other girls. Little by little I began to observe the skin of girl’s on-campus and women in general when I walked through the city. Something seemed to be unusual, a little weird to me. I am referring to the ‘fake tan’ of women if it still does not click for everyone. But first of all, what is fake tan in precise?

Fake tan is a “lotion containing chemicals that react with the skin to produce an artificial suntan” according to the Oxford dictionary. This phenomenon is not only occurring on young girls. Women, in general, apply the product mainly to parts of the body that are not covered by clothing, such as their hand and ankles. As the sham tan is not usually used on the face or neck, it is relatively easy to recognise by the difference in colour. After application, the sham tan gives the skin an orange colour. It does not look natural at all, as the skin colour is not homogeneous. I share the idea of looking tanned, it makes you look better, but we all know that Irish women are not tanned due to hours and hours of sunbathing. Although strong and too much sunlight can be dangerous for the skin and cause problems like cancer, I believe it is healthier than using these products. I wonder what the dangers of self-tanning products are. Are they harmful to health or is it comparable to a simple skin lotion?  

In my own culture, the French, women use Fake Tan as well, but it is less common than in Dublin. In my culture women prefer to look natural and are using tricks to go unnoticed as if they don’t have used it. Maybe Irish women have more of the American culture, with heavy make-up and a lot of craftsmanship. For example, most French people wear make-up so you don’t see it, while most Americans wear make-up so you can see it. These cultural differences are especially visible in social networks like Instagram, where people show their self-expression or new make-up products and publish make-up tutorials.  Irish women are perhaps more visible in American culture. 

I have noticed while walking through supermarkets and drugstores, that there are many different brands of fake tan. I have never seen this before, which I think explains why wearing fake tan is very common in Ireland and the demand is very high. I have spoken with a lot of Irish people about this subject, their opinion is divided, some like it, others do not. However, I have noticed that men do not use this product or if so, then just a minority. On campus, there is another way to get tanned. Students have the opportunity to get an appointment at the beauty spa inside DCU Sports Complex, as they offer a service for tanning. The application of spray tanning by a professional can look more beautiful, more homogeneous and without distinction, it leads to a more natural look. Suggesting this service to students on campus is a good idea, as the professional will ask questions about the customer’s skin before application and can also prevent abuse and danger.

The cultural differences are striking, I am often told that I look French, so I asked them why? Their answers were: my short hair, my clothes (fancy classics) and how I wear make-up (not too much). Irish girls look rather pretentious. I believe they don’t care what other people think. They wear a short skirt, large boots, a narrow cut top and coloured hair: blue, purple, red or platinum blond. As for the men, I have noticed that many wear tracksuits to go to university. In France, we are not allowed to do so, as this type of dress is considered “lazy” or only practical when doing sports or relaxing at home. When I returned to France and saw some Irish people in the Neo-Masque school again, I was surprised, because some had changed their clothing habits. I came to the conclusion that they do care about how they represented themselves in public, but their behaviour has been previously influenced by their own culture and the environment in which they found themselves. In France, it is very important for students to be dressed up when they go to university, but maybe it is because they spend more time on campus than they do here at DCU. I have noticed myself that since I have been at DCU, I have paid less attention to how I look at lectures, as I live only a few minutes away from the campus and therefore I am usually only on campus for a short period of time.

Everyone behaves according to the habits of their culture, but this can change with age, the discovery of a new culture or a new ideal of beauty. There is no such thing as a universally accepted ideal of beauty, just as there is no such thing as a deprived ideal of beauty. Every personality and culture make up the richness of our campus at DCU.

Eglantine Vigneron