Sunscreen is something that we all know we're supposed to wear on a daily basis and it gets especially drummed into us from a beauty perspective as the best way to maintain the youthfulness of our skin. The thing that bothers me is that there is a lot of misinformation about the level of SPF required and the benefit to skin. I'm here to bust those myths!
The first thing to talk about is SPF numbers. Now you may well know that sunscreens generally provide protection from 2 types of rays: UVA an UVB. SPF numbers relate purely to UVB rays. These are the rays that burn our skin. Here is a quick breakdown on the level of UVB protection provided by the different SPF numbers:
So as you can see the difference in protection between SPF 15 and 50 is only 5%. This is most likely why the World Health Organisation only recommends a broad spectrum sunscreen of SPF15. Please note the words 'broad spectrum' here. Broad spectrum relates to the sunscreen offering protection from both UVA and UVB rays. So let's talk about UVA rays now.
As mentioned above, SPF ratings have no impact on protection from UVA radiation. In fact, often higher SPF sunscreens provide less UVA protection. The interesting thing here is that UVA rays are the primary cause of what the beauty industry wants you to worry about: skin aging and wrinkles. It's also the type of ray that causes certain types of cancer. The thing about UVA rays is that they are very clever things and can pass through clouds and glass, and get to your skin when you don't even realise it. This is why it's very important to ensure your sunscreen protects you from UVA rays.
Another fact I want to share is that the SPF number has no impact on how long it lasts on the skin. High SPF Sunscreens do not last or remain effective on the skin any longer than a lower SPF sunscreen, and must be reapplied as directed with the same frequency as even the lowest SPF sunscreen.
In terms of application frequency, with chemical sunscreens, this is determined by how long it takes for the skin to absorb the chemicals. With mineral sunscreens, it's the amount of time it takes for movement, sweat and other factors to remove the sunscreen.
The moral of the story here is that it’s important to wear a broad spectrum sunscreen of minimum SPF 15 daily and reapply as needed. This is why I made our Protect + Clarify Daily Face Lotion which offers SPF15 protection and protection from those sneaky UVA rays. It also contains other natural ingredients which help to keep your skin looking as youthful and healthy for as long as possible. I hope you love it!
Keeping our skin healthy shouldn’t be a difficult or complicated task. However, there are some really simple mistakes that we all make from time to time that can be detrimental to the health of our skin both short and long term. Here are the top 5 mistakes I commonly see:
1. Over cleansing
This is perhaps the most common skincare misstep. We all seem to think that squeaky clean skin is healthy skin but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Every time we cleanse our skin, we’re not only stripping it of dirt, food and make up, we also remove naturally produced oils in the skin, as well as some of the microbiome (the good bacteria, microorganisms etc) that helps maintain our skin’s barrier.
The skin on our bodies is often neglected as we tend to focus on our face and figure our bodies will just look after themselves. Big mistake!
Because our skin is our largest organ and most of what we put on it gets absorbed, choosing high-quality products for the body is so very important. They need to be 100% natural and as organic as possible, to avoid causing skin reactions, disrupting our hormones, and not adding to the toxin burden on our liver.
There are also some simple things you can do to look after your body that will reduce dryness, stop eczema from flaring up and keep it glowing.
The summer holidays are almost here and for many of us it's time to think about packing our bags for a little time away, if not a little time out. When I'm packing for our 2 week annual beach holiday it has to be simple and light-weight. I don’t have the space nor the time to spend hours on my skin and so I make sure to only include products which will keep my skin in top shape, quick smart.
