Choosing The Right Sunscreen

Again and again, we’ve heard from numerous beauty and health experts that wearing sunscreen is extremely important. Okay, you get the idea, you know the benefits, and now you’re facing with shelves with bottles and tubes of sunscreens from different kind of brands, what’s next? Read this first to know how to choose the right sunscreen for your skin.

On the sunscreen bottle the first thing that you see is SPF along with a value right next to it. SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor – a log measurement of protection against sun rays. Generally speaking, SPF15 means you can stay out in the sun roughly 2 hours but keep in mind, wearing higher SPF value doesn’t necessarily meant that you can stay outdoors longer than wearing SPF15.

The difference between higher and lower SPF values is not that much as you’d believe. For example, the efficacy between SPF 15 and SPF30 is just a mere 1.2%.

The key point when it comes to sunscreen is applying it – lots of it. You should apply generous amounts of sunscreen on all exposed parts of your body, at least 20 minutes before heading out, to give the time for the sunscreen to absorb into the skin for effective protection. Reapplication is also necessary, especially if you tend to perspire a lot (even if you don’t, re-applying sunscreen every two hours is a good habit to keep you protected).

Still, with different kinds of sunscreens available, how you can know which is the right one for you?

Basically, keep out of the following ingredients in sunscreen: ecamsule, sulisobenzone, avobenzone, oxybenzone, titanium dioxide, or zinc oxide. Your sunscreen should have at least one of these to do the trick and make sure the sunscreen have broad protection for a complete protection.

And generally speaking, even a sunscreen with SPF15 is good enough for most people. Unless you have certain skin conditions (such as lupus, history of skin cancer, or even very fair skin), higher SPF value is a better approach.

If you have a particular skin type, such as oily skin; choose water-based sunscreen that won’t add more oiliness to your skin (gel formulas also work as well). As for dry skin, sunscreen that has moisturizing ingredients such as lanolin oil and dimethicone are suitable and can be pampering (they tend to come in lotion and cream formula).

If your skin tends to be allergic or other skin concerns, avoid sunscreen that has preservatives and susceptible compounds such as salicylates, PABA,  and oxybenzone. Not all allergic skin reacts the same way to each product  it’s best to test out the products first for sensitivity.

Children have their own specialized sunscreen as their skin is more gentle and fragile. Sunscreen containing either zinc oxide and titanium dioxide is perfect for their skin. Even sensitive skin can use a sunscreen made for children.

I guess choosing the right sunscreen for you is not that hard now, isn’t it? Head on and buy our own favorite sunscreen and wear it to keep your skin protected and stays youthful in the long run. Get more skin tips and topics here.