This vocabulary lesson is all about appearance and specifically how we describe complexion in English. Complexion is skin colour and texture – how it looks and feels.

Colour

Lily-White: this is completely white skin, sometimes called milk-white.
Fair skin is smooth, healthy and clear textured skin that is creamy in colour.

The next three are examples of unhealthy-looking skin.

Pasty or Pallid: when skin is pale and unhealthy in appearance we call it a pasty or pallid complexion.
Sallow: skin that has a pale yellowish tint, sometimes caused by illness.
Jaundiced: this is a darker yellow coloured skin, which is caused either by a problem with the liver or from eating too many carrots! It’s not a healthy look.

Moving on from the unhealthy skin, we have…

Freckled: skin that is sprinkled or covered with small brownish spots is called freckled. Red heads often have freckles.  I get freckles on my nose in summer.
Ruddy or Florid: skin that has a reddish tint is said to be either ruddy or florid. It looks a bit like sunburn or it could actually be from sunburn. Sometimes older men have red cheeks and noses, you could call that a ruddy or florid complexion.
Rosy or Fresh-faced: this is a fair complexion that glows with a hint of pink in the cheeks.
Tanned or Bronzed: the word tanned is normally used for skin that is a light brown colour from spending a lot of time in the sun – it’s not the person’s natural colour.  Bronzed is even darker – that’s a serious tan. We usually associate the word bronzed with surfers.
Olive: this is naturally medium dark skin, often with a golden or greenish tone.
Swarthy, or if that’s too hard to say brown skin: is naturally dark brown in colour.
Black or Dark skin: obviously that’s naturally very dark skin. I think that covers the skin colours.

Texture

Unblemished: skin that is free from marks or spots is unblemished skin.

The next few describe blemished skin.

Scarred: scars are when skin is damaged and then heals, but leaves a mark. So scarred skin obviously has scars on it.
Pimpled: pimples are those small annoying swollen spots you get on your face and neck, especially when you are a teenager.
Acned: when skin is oily and has a lot of pimples this is a skin condition called acne.
Pockmarked: this is when there are marks or scars on the skin that are normally caused by acne or a disease like chicken pox.

That was blemished skin.  Next we have…

Dimpled: a dimple is a small curved in area on cheeks or chin. A dimpled face has one or more dimples on the chin or cheeks.
A face that has short unshaven hair is stubbly, because it has stubble on it.
Weathered or Weather-beaten: skin that is affected by a lot of time out in the weather. Older farmers or fishermen sometimes have weathered or weather-beaten skin.
Wrinkled skin: skin covered with lines or loose folds, we get them as we grow older.

And following on from wrinkled skin – crow’s feet are those lines that are found around the corners of the eyes, when we start to get older.

Bonus Expression

There is a descriptive, but not very nice expression that sometimes people use to describe lines around the mouth.  They call it cat’s bum mouth, because it looks a bit like a cat’s bottom!

As always, comments can be left under the video on YouTube.

Until next time!