SUNDAY SPECIAL: Sun protection collaboration

Dear ladies,

first let me welcome you to the whole new look of my blog. I'm still working on improving some things, I have some editing to do and a whole lot of corrections, but I still want to post in the meantime, so please bear with me :) I hope you like it, since I have been wanting a new look for a long time and this one really caught my eye.

Secondly, and possibly even more important, I want to again address the issue of safety in the sun. I already wrote a long post about it, which you should go and read since it guides you through understanding SPF in general (*click* to read that post).

I won't repeat the dangers of exposing your skin to the sun in exaggerated amounts - you do need some sun exposure to get the all important vitamin D, but keep in mind that you need to be careful in the way you achieve that.

SUNDAY SPECIAL: Knowledge is power (a.k.a. all about SPF)

The topic about sun protection is close to my heart since I inherited a skin with many birthmarks that I always need to keep an eye out for. I also didn’t pay much attention to my skin in my early 20’s and I’m trying to be better about it now.

Before we start looking at different products that can help you with keeping your skin safe, let’s start with some basics. Sunscreen helps prevent the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays to penetrate the skin. UVA and UVB rays (which sunscreens protect from) cause wrinkling and sagging of the skin and are one of the primary culprits for skin cancer. So, in short, it’s not a joke.

Wondering what SPF (sun protection factor) to use? Here’s how to interpret the numbers. First, we are talking about the length of time that the SPF will work for. If it takes your skin 20 minutes to get red, then SPF15 will prolong that times 15, so for almost 5 hours. But I don’t really find this as important, since we should be reapplying sunscreen much more often than that. In fact, it’s recommended that we reapply it every two hours and every time we do things that can get rid of the sunscreen we put on our body (going swimming, drying with a towel, sweating etc.). Many make-up products do have some SPF in it, but remember that it’s really not enough to keep your face safe!