Overwhelmed by SPF? We've got you
Let’s talk SPF
SPF, we all know that we should use it and basically what it does right? Right?
Or do we? It can be a great deal of confusion and a sense of overwhelm when we step into the department store, chemist or even a skin clinic and see the million choices you have in front of you. Which one has the best protection for me and my children? Is this safe? What does SPF even mean?!
We see you. This is why we thought we would help you make an informed decision about what we believe is a vital step in everyone’s skin health plan.
Let’s start with the basics. Application and dosage
Sunscreen should be the last step, before make-up, that you pop onto your skin for many reasons but mostly because we normally go thinnest to thickest with our skincare and most people who have used sunscreen before would know, sunscreen is THICK and rightly so, it is there to protect your skin from the UV rays. The best way to think about sunscreen it is like an umbrella, it needs to be the last product we apply to blanket the skin to protect it. Too much unprotected sun exposure can wreak havoc on skin cells causing cellular messaging to misfire and cause pigmentation and in worst case scenarios melanoma.
Application of sunscreen in terms of timing and dosage will impact how effective your sunscreen is as well. In the Pacific region, we have extremely strong sun, we need to ensure we are putting enough sunscreen on to get maximum coverage. Even though there are many different brands/types of sunscreens, messaging around timing and dosage are universal. The Cancer Council of Australia recommends about 1 teaspoon per body area (arms, legs etc), this is rough guideline to ensure that you have enough protection, we recommend a little more for your legs as they are bigger body part. We should also mention sunscreen should be applied 20 minutes before sun exposure, doing at the beach you are already too late. Sunscreen needs time to work with the layers of the skin and become water resistant to make sure you are getting what you want out of it, the promise on the bottle whatever that may be, two, three, fours hours of water resistance.
Keeping this in mind, it is not feasible to rely on your make-up as adequate sun protection if you are heading down to the beach for the day our having a fun day out and about at the zoo or the races. We will always recommend keeping your sunscreen and make-up separate for maximum protection. Make-up is normally an SPF 15+ and we will touch on this a little later on as to why this isn’t an ideal choice.
In Australia, our burn time or damage to our cells happens faster than what you think, it can be as quick as two to three minutes at peak UV exposure. So, it is vital that sunscreen is applied at least twenty minutes prior to sun exposure.
Chemical vs Physical sunscreen
There is a hot point of contention between the two of what is better and our opinion, out the sunscreen on because at the end of the day no matter what you choose for you and your family it is better than going out with no sunscreen on at all.
Chemical sunscreen isn’t called a chemical sunscreen because it has nasty chemicals in it, it has different UV filters than your traditional “blocks” and can be more pleasing to wear as they can thinner in application meaning better for everyday wear.
Physical blocks are sunscreens that have ingredients such as Zinc and titanium dioxide as their main UV filters. These traditionally are a little thicker, but as with advances in cosmetics these have been refined to be a thinner consistency for everyday wear.
There is no wrong and right when it comes to physical vs chemical block this is due to personal preference of feeling and skin conditions such as sensitive skins.
15, 30, 50- What does it all mean!
This is probably the biggest take home of this blog when it comes to making informed choices about sunscreen. As we said there is no difference between physical and chemical when it comes to what is better for coverage and skin health, it comes down to the sun protection rating or the SPF of what you are applying.
The biggest question we have when we chat to our clients about SPF is what the heck does it even mean! SPF stands for sun protection factor meaning how long you can stay in the sun with sunscreen on before you need reapply. Let’s look at the math, let’s say my burn time in Australia is 5 minutes (cellular damage time). If I have a sunscreen on with factor 50 this mean theoretically, I can stay in the sun before reapplication:
5 minutes x 50= 250 minutes- just a little over 4 hours
If I chose a 30+ it would be 5 x 30= 150 minutes- 2.5 hours.
We will put the disclaimer on this for a couple of reasons- this will all be dependent on which activity you are doing. For example, if you are in the water and getting out rubbing your skin or even exercising and rubbing your skin, this will impact this time significantly, you will need to reapply your sunscreen well before this time.
As you can see here why make-up isn’t always the best choice for sun protection for a day in the sun as you will only get about 75 minutes of protection before needing to reapply which when we are looking at reapplying foundation, this isn’t always going to happen.
It is also important to note to choose a sunscreen that is made in Australia for the Australian sun. A SPF 15+ doesn’t have to go through TGA approval to be popped onto our shelves. This might seem fine but as we know how prevalent skin cancer is in Australia, having a SPF 15+ that is going under the radar of the TGA means it isn’t tested or held to the same standards as your SPF 30 and 50+. It is quite a cost to a business to register products with the TGA, so you know if you are choosing an SPF 30 or 50+ this company means business, better protection for your skin.
Love Talking Beauty x
