How to stay sun smart this summer

Posted on 6 January, 2015

While it’s engrained in our culture that we spend an enormous amount of time in the sunshine, with age and science we now know just how bad it can be for both our skin and, in the long-term, our lives. My mum grew up in the 70s and spent too much time at the beach that now in her 40s she’s had to have several skin cancers cut out, so has my aunty and so have other countless Australians.

So let’s just get serious for a moment and put it all into perspective. In 2011, more than 2,085 people died from skin cancer in Australia. The majority of these deaths were due to melanoma, with 1,544 deaths a result of melanoma in that year compared to the 543 deaths from non-melanoma skin cancers. The five-year relative survival rate for melanoma is 90% for Australian men and 94% for Australian women.*

There is the common belief of ‘why wear suncream as an adult when the damage was done as a child?’ and yes it’s a valid question although slightly silly. But as adult, when we expose our skin to the UV (ultraviolet rays), it actually brings out all the damage from when you were a little one. Things like sun spots, pigmentation, wrinkles and of course, potentially cancerous cells that may have been laying dormant…until now.

Our country is already on the road to becoming more sun smart with the banning of commercial solariums slowly happening across the country. Unfortunately, we can’t ban sunlight (and who would want to!?), but we can be smart about it.

Understand the sun smart alphabet

When it comes to sun care, there’s a few key letters of the alphabet you should know and remember.

SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor and is used to estimate the amount of UV radiation it normally takes to sunburn your skin with protective sunscreen.

UV means ultra violet light and can cause damage to the skin. The ‘A‘ in UVA stands for ‘Ageing‘. The ‘B‘ in UVB stands for ‘Burning‘.

But what does the number mean? 

These days sunscreen is available with SPF ranging from 15+ through to 100+ and indicates the time your skin can be exposed to the sun before it starts to burn once suncreen is applied. To work out the appropriate SPF for you, use this formula:

SPF Number x Time to Burn without Protection = Time to Burn with Protection. 

For example: SPF 15 x 10 minutes = 150 minutes of protection.

Sunblock v Sunscreen: What’s the difference?

Sunblock, sunscreen, suncream? There all the same, right? Nope, not quite. There are two types of protective lotions when it comes to suncare—chemical and physical. These days, however, most formulas contain a mixture of both.

Sunblock 

Sunblock is the physical type and contains both organic and non-organic ingredients that sit on top of the skin that shields against the sun’s UVB rays. It acts as a barrier between your skin and the damaging UV rays by reflecting or scattering UVB light.

Look for these active ingredients: Octyl methoxycinnamate, octyl salicylate and octocrylene

Sunscreen

Sunscreen penetrates the skin and protects your skin against UVA making it the chemical type. Once applied to your skin it absorbs the UVA rays before they are able to reach and damage your dermal layer.

Look for these active ingredients: Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide (deflect UV rays); ecamsule (blocks photoageing UVA rays).

Be sun smart everyday

Wear sunscreen EVERY. DAY. No jokes, do it.We desperately need good sun protection to keep our skin safe from new damage. Even by making the simple yet small effort to wear a daily moisturiser with broad spectrum (UVA and UVB) sunscreen from your forehead to your décolletage (the area between your neck and your breasts), you’re minimising sun exposure.

If you wear foundation make sure it has SPF to help protect you during the day as well as sunscreen on the rest of your body (arms, shoulders etc). Such a simple daily routine will help you in the long run. Trust me.

If neither your foundation or moisturiser are SPF, you can still include sunscreen in your routine. Here’s how:

1. Tone and cleanser your skin as normal in the morning.
2. Apply moisturiser as normal.
3. Apply sunscreen—it always goes on after your skincare routine and before your makeup routine.
4. Apply primer as normal.
5. Apply BB cream, foundation etc.

The best sunscreens for everyday use are Natio Ageless Protection Moisturiser SPF30+, Nivea Sun Light Feel Face Veil SPF 30+ and Clarins UV Plus Day Screen High Protection SPF40+.

Be sun smart on holidays

Being on holidays we tend to desire that sun-kissed look to prove we’ve been somewhere beautiful and sunny. While I get it’s the ‘trend’, trust me when I say it’s not worth your health. There are so many other ways to get a glorious tan that don’t involve potentially risking your life.