To protect your skin from premature ageing and skin cancer, if you’re trying to improve skin concerns like acne and uneven pigment, then you should wear sunscreen on your face, neck, and decolletage every day if you’re going outside. This should also extend to other exposed areas such as hands, arms, shoulders which area also very prone to sun exposure.
The Sun’s UV light is the biggest preventable cause of skin ageing and pigmentation. Prevention is much easier than trying to undo the damage later, and its usually cheaper as well – especially when it comes to deeper damage that you’ll need procedures to tackle with energy based devices, not just skincare. If you’re not wearing sunscreen, it also means your skincare products have to work harder to get results.
Sunscreen is especially important if you use skincare products with alpha hydroxy acids like glycolic and lactic acids. These can make your skin more sensitive to UV light, so if you’re not wearing sunscreen as well, your anti-ageing skincare can actually make your skin age faster!
The most important thing is SPF – Sun Protection Factor. This tells you how well the sunscreen protects against burning, which is mostly to do with shorter wavelengths of UV called UVB. These are the most damaging rays of UV; as well as burning, they can cause skin cancer and premature skin ageing. UVA protection is also very important and refers to the longer, lower energy wavelengths of UV that cause less burning, but are still linked to skin ageing, cancers and increased pigment production. When choosing an SPF you basically want a ‘Broad Spectrum’ which covers both UVA and UVB protection, and a higher protection SPF is better. For most people, SPF 30 is enough for an everyday sunscreen, but you might want higher protection if you’re getting a lot of sun or you want higher protection. I personally wear an SPF 50 during the spring and summer and an SPF 30 in autumn and winter.
Basically all it comes down to is:
Is it protective enough for what you’re doing?
Is it comfortable and budget-friendly enough that you’ll want to wear it everyday?
An important question and concern is how much sunscreen needs to be applied? To get the SPF on the label, you need to apply 2 mg per square centimetre. This works out to be around ¼ teaspoon or using 2 fingers of sunscreen – this is just for your face. We need to use roughly the same for our necks. If wearing make-up then sandwich the sunscreen in between – apply after your moisturiser and before your makeup! And re-apply every few hours!
Personal favourites of mine include:
- Altruist range
- Heliocare Range
- La Roche Posay Anthelios
- Synergy 6 by intradermology
- SkinBetterScience Tone Smart compact