Sun Protection Factor!

Hello Hello!

I’m back! How’s everyone doing? It feels like it’s been AGES since I’ve wrote one of these (might have something to do with now being back at work? Maybe?…). But as it turns out, I can remember how to navigate my own website to be able to write a new post, yay!

Sooooo, I thought it was about time I wrote one about something that should be a staple in EVERYONE’s routine… You guessed it- SPF! As the title of this post suggests; ‘SPF’ (which stands for ‘Sun protection factor’, Just in case you didn’t know that…) put bluntly, should be worn everyday (yes even in winter too) by everybody if you want to avoid wrinkles, pigmentation and dryness in the coming years of your life. However, as the latter of the sentence may suggest you should start young (which is beneficial), It is in fact never ever too late to start.

Before we delve too deep into this post, here’s a couple of facts as to why SPF is super important to start us off…

(Drumroll for the most obvious one here…) It protects you from the sun, which of course eventually slows ageing and prevents major wrinkles in the latter years of your life. Who doesn’t want that eh?
It’s helps to prevent skin cancer. Just like anywhere on your body, a ‘tan’ is basically skin damage (sorry to break that to you!) and can sometimes lead to skin cancer in the future, so beware! (Oh and FYI there’s always bronzer and fake tan which does the same job, just minus the sun damage ;))
Did you know ‘blue light’ from your phone can have a similar affect to the sun? If not there you go… Blue light penetrates into the skin and breaks down collagen and elastin cells just like the sun. So albeit even more reason to apply, even when you’re not intending to leave the house! A decent SPF will help protect you from this too.
A good SPF product can work the same wonders as your fave primer! Please don’t go for your everyday Nivea/Ambre Solaire body for your face everyday though (nothing against these though, they’re great on the body), they’re a tad heavy for your face. There’s plenty out there that are ‘matte’ or ‘glowy’ finishes specifically designed for your face, so you can shop around and find your preferred finish. (But of course, if a body one works for you, don’t let me stop you… just don’t come running back when it makes you break out or makes your foundation look funny ;)).
UVA & UVB… Whats the difference? To keep it simple- Think of the ‘A’ is UVA as ageing and the ‘B’ in UVB as burning. UVA rays penetrate the skin to primarily cause ageing and UVB rays damage the skins surface and cell structure which can then lead to skin cancer. So overall ladies and gents, pleaseeee always look for an SPF product with both of these covered!
There are 2 different types of SPF: Chemical and Physical. It’s up to you with regards to which you prefer, they do pretty much exactly the same, so go with whatever the hell you want haha!
”SPF30 product 1 and SPF30 product 2 layered together will give me SPF60 protection”. Think again. SPF products cannot be added up together, sorry. There is also only thought to be a 1% difference in SPF30 and SPF50, however SPF50 has a much larger cumulative effect of UVA protection, so reach for the 50 always if you can!

Convinced yet? I hope so, as that ended up being a much longer bullet point section than planned, oops…

Overall, SPF (in my opinion and I’m sure many others) will agree that SPF is equally, if not more important than your basic cleanser! (Of course though please don’t ditch cleanser for SPF, that would be silly…). There are sooo many decent SPF products out there, it doesn’t even have to break the bank, bonus! Anyway your skin is ‘for life, not just for Christmas’ after all (apologies for the use of that analogy again…) so it’s worth investing (I think).

Another point is… I get some people out there think that putting chemicals on your body is bad (that’s fine, I have nothing against you), but one time I was told a story and it’s safe to say it baffled me slightly… So the lady telling this story was clearly a very ‘chemical conscious’ person (again nothing against this). I can’t even quite remember how this story came about but anyway, she proceeded to tell us that she never used any sun cream on her body (face included), she just covered up. Which is absolutely fine, however she then went on to tell us that she had skin cancer (Melanoma) multiple times in the past (I cant remember the exact number but it was definitely more than 5!), how sad is that! This was all rooted from not wanting to put chemicals in her body… Now okay, like I have said above each to their own and I’m not one to judge (I get I sound like a massive snob writing this) but my point is, surely a couple of chemicals going into your body which could potentially cause something later is better than having skin cancer multiple times? No?

Not to be a Debbie downer on your day here, but 1 in 5 people get skin cancer. It’s REAL! And its deadly in some cases. So come on people, you know you now want to hit the sun cream isle in Boots 😉

Plus a little birdie once told me… you can even get a tan whilst wearing sunscreen! Okay it may take a little longer but still…

Anyway, I hope this has given you a nice insight on my perspective of SPF, I really can’t stress how important it is! And it takes two seconds to pop on in the morning (just don’t do it too fast so you miss patches…), just make sure also you give yourself a nice decent cleanse at night to make sure it doesn’t hibernate in those little pores of yours!

In case you are wondering also what my favourite SPF products are… I can’t really make a huge list (sorry) as I have always been quite loyal to one brand when it comes to sun protection, which of course if the iconic – La Roche Posay. They do absolutely mint sun protection products and have a huge range! I especially love the ‘Anti-imperfections 50+’ (which won’t be for everyone) but all the ones I’ve tried have been great! (Oh and by the way I wasn’t asked to promote this brand, just in case you were wondering!).

So there we have it! Happy SPF applying guys, look after that skin of yours, it’ll be with you for life 🙂

Lots of love, Ella x