skin

See Also: BALDNESS, COMPLEXION, FACIAL COLOR, FACIAL DETAILS, PALLOR, WRINKLES

1. The blue of her veins … on her breasts, under the clear white skin, like some gorgeous secret —Joe Coomer
2. Each summer his skin becomes like brown velvet —John Rechy
3. Flesh … as chill as that of a mermaid —Angela Carter
4. The flesh drooping like wattles beneath the jawbone —Nina Bawden
5. (Miss Quigg’s) flesh looks as if it’s been steeping in brine for years —Sharon Sheehe Stark
6. Flesh … luminous as though coated with milk —Cynthia Ozick
7. Flesh … soft and boneless as apple pulp —Margaret Millar
8. Flesh was as firm and clean as wood —Kay Boyle
9. Flesh, white as the moon —Charles Johnson
10. Freckles all over … like a speckled egg —Phyllis Naylor
11. Grained like wood (where the sweat had trickled) —Willa Cather
12. Hairless as a statue —Harvey Swados
13. Hands and forehead were deeply spotted like a seagull’s egg —Frank Tuohy
14. Her skin cracked like skim milk —Arthur Miller
15. Her skin felt like plaster of Paris —Nancy Huddleston Packer
16. Her skin had a startlingly fine texture, like flour when you dip your hand into it —John Updike
17. Her skin had the bad, stretched look of the white cotton hand towels they give you in poor hotels —Maeve Brennan
18. Her skin was as pink as sugar icing —Georges Simenon

    The simile underscores Simenon’s characterization of a woman like a ‘bonbon.’

    See Also: PINK

19. Her skin was the color of smoked honey —R. V. Cassill
20. Her toadstool skin drapes her bones like cloth worn thin —William Hoffman

    The simile is taken from a scene in a short story describing a dying woman.

21. His skin hung on his bones like an old suit much too large for him —W. Somerset Maugham
22. His skin is pale and looks unwholesomely tender, like the skin under a scab —Margaret Atwood
23. His skin was tea-colored, like a farm boy’s —Ella Leffland
24. My skin hangs about me like an old lady’s loose gown —William Shakespeare
25. Pimpled like a brand-new basketball —M. Garrett Bauman

    The skin described in Bauman’s short story Out from Narragansett belongs to a blowfish.

26. She had pale skin with the kind of texture that looked as if a pinch would crumble it —Jonathan Kellerman
27. Skin brown as a saddle —Linda West Eckhardt

    See Also: BROWN

28. (The waitress … has) skin dark as garden earth —Leslie Garis, New York Times Magazine, February 8, 1987

    See Also: DARKNESS

29. Skin … (slack, sallow and) draped like upholstery fabric over her short, boardlike bones —Louise Erdrich
30. Skin felt like a series of damp veils, like the wet paper you fold over the wires when you are making papier-mâche —Elizabeth Tallent
31. Skin felt like rawhide which hasn’t been soaked —Niven Busch
32. Skin … flushed as if by a fresh breeze —Franz Werfel
33. Skin freckled like a mango leaf —Derek Walcott
34. Skin, freckled like a lawn full of clover —Rosellen Brown
35. Skin glowed like a golden peach —Lillian de la Torre
36. Skin … gray and rough like dirty milk —Heinrich Böll
37. Skin … hard and leathery … as though you could strike a kitchen match on it —Pat Conroy
38. Skin, hairless and white as bird droppings —Harvey Swados
39. Skin [when you’re old and thin] hangs like trousers on a circus elephant —Penelope Gilliatt
40. The skin … hung from her bones like a quilt on the line —Suzanne Brown
41. Skin like a baby’s behind —François Camoin
42. (One of those lovely, ageless women, with) skin like an Oil of Olay ad —Tony Ardizzone
43. Skin like an overwashed towel —Jean Thompson
44. Skin like dark flames —Margaret Atwood
45. Skin like flan —Scott Spencer
46. Skin like ice cream, like toasted-almond ice cream —T. Coraghessan Boyle
47. Skin like polished stone —Richard Wilbur
48. (He was pale, his) skin like sausage casing —Paul Theroux
49. Skin like shells and peaches —M. J. Farrell
50. Skin … like silk —Arabian Nights
51. Skin like the skin of fruit protected by shade —Paul Horgan
52. Skin like the underpetals of newly-opened June rosebuds —Cornell Woolrich
53. Skin like wax paper —Frank Tuohy
54. Skin like wood —Elizabeth Harris
55. The skin merely hung at her neck like a patient animal waiting for the rest of her to join in the decline —Max Apple
56. The skin of her neck was like a piece of chamois leather that had been wrung out and left to dry in brownish, uncomfortable, awkward folds —H. E. Bates
57. Skin pale as a snowdrop —Jaroslav Seifert

    This is both the first line and title of a poem.

58. Skin … pale as glossy paper —Geoffrey Wolff
59. Skin [around neck] … sagging like a turkey’s —John Braine
60. Skin seemed as sheer as rubber, pulled over her hands like surgical gloves —Sue Grafton
61. Skin shines in dull gray translucence, like wax —Ira Wood
62. Skin shines like polished mahogany —R. Wright Campbell
63. Skin smelled like fresh cotton —John Updike
64. Skin … smooth, as if dampened and then stretched on his skull —Wright Morris
65. Skin smooth as Pratesi sheets … eyes that shimmer like Baccarat at the bottom of a Bel Air hot tub … earrings sparkling like all the chandeliers at Lincoln Center, in Malcolm Forbes yacht and maybe even in all of Donald Trump’s Tower —Stephanie Mansfield, Washington Post, June 21, 1986

    Mansfield’s string of similes sets the mood for a profile of Judith Krantz, renowned for her best sellers about glamorous people.

66. Skin … soft and flabby as used elastic —Jean Rhys
67. Skin so unwholesomely deficient in the natural tinge, that he looked as though, if he were cut, he would bleed white —Charles Dickens
68. Skin … stretched over his bones like a piece of old shining oilcloth —Dominique Lapierre
69. Skin stretched tight like a rubber ball —Margaret Atwood
70. Skin supple and moist like fine leather that had been expertly treated —Elizabeth Spencer
71. Skin, the color of creamed tea —W. P. Kinsella
72. Skin the color of ripe grapefruit —T. Coraghessan Boyle
73. Skin … the texture like the pit of a peach —Stanley Elkin
74. Skin tight and rugged as a mountain climber’s —Ward Just
75. The skin under the eyes was gray, as though she had stayed up every night since puberty —Ella Leffland
76. Skin [a baby’s] was delicious to touch, fine-grained and blemishless, like silk without the worminess —John Updike
77. Skin was pale and drawn, her bones lay like shadows under it —William H. Gass
78. Skin was reddish brown like that of an overbaked apple —Jerzy Kosinski
79. Skin [of bald scalp] was sunburned, and ridged like dried leather —Cornell Woolrich
80. Skin … weathering toward sunset like cracked glaze on porcelain —Dick Francis
81. The startling whiteness of her skin, lush and vulnerable, was like the petal of a gardenia —Kaatje Hurlbut
82. The texture of her skin was round and hard like the rind of winter fruit —Ellen Glasgow
83. The texture of his skin, like coffee grounds —Charles Johnson
84. White skin that looks like thin paper —John Cheever