What You NEED to Know about Sunscreen...
Even though summer is coming to a close, it doesn't mean you should stop thinking about your SPF.
Even in the winter months, the sun's rays are extremely harsh on the skin and the cold months can be the most crucial in preventing sunburn, premature aging, and even skin cancer!
Late last year the FDA unveiled several new rules regarding sunscreens that would take affect in 2012 to better protect consumers from the misconceptions about the products.
WHAT IS SPF?
SPF stands for "Sun Protection Factor", the ability of sunscreen to protect against UVB rays.
UV RAYS
There are three types of Ultra Violet (UV) Radiation, UVA, UVB, and UVC. Only the UVA and UVB are harmful to the skin because UVC rays are too short to reach us and our skin and are blocked by the Earth's ozone layer.
The results of too much UVB rays come in the form of sunburns and can be seen as redness in the skin and are immediate the short term effects of too much UV light.
UVA rays are the ones responsible for prematurely aging the skin. You can't see the damage being done by UVA rays until much later, showing up in your skin as fine lines, wrinkles, sagging and age spots.
SUNSCREEN MATH
SPF is measured by person to person and varies for each individual. It is measured by the time is takes you to burn. If it takes you 20 minutes in the sun before you begin to burn, then a SPF 15 (for example) prevents burning 15 times longer (about 5 hours). You should reapply that sunscreen every 2-2.5 hours (half that time it takes you to burn).
A HIGHER SPF ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER
SPF 15 sunscreen filters out 93% of all incoming UVB rays.
SPF 30 sunscreen filters out 97% of those rays.
SPF 50 sunscreen only filters out 98% of those same rays.
You can see that although there was a large jump from SPF 30 to SPF 50, the jump in protection has barely changed. Your skin would benefit more from using an SPF 30 sunscreen than an SPF 50 - which doesn't do much more in protection and you're putting a lot more chemicals on your skin.
MYTHS
In the past you could have looked at sunscreens that claimed that they were "waterproof" when there is no such thing as waterproof sunscreen... only "water resistant."
PHYSICAL VS. CHEMICAL
Physical Sunscreens: protect skin from the sun by deflecting or blocking the sun's rays.
The UV filtering ingredients typically found is a product containing a physical sunscreen are Titanium Dioxide or Zinc Oxide. These are also the ingredients that are responsible for "white casts" in photos.Titanium dioxide can be problematic for some people. If you find that you break out from using mineral makeup, Titanium Oxide could be the reason why. Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide are helpful in protecting against UVB and UVA rays, but not the full spectrum of UVA rays. Both ingredients are FDA approved and don't cause free radicals.
Chemical Sunscreens: work by absorbing the sun's rays.
There are many different ingredients that go into the making of chemical sunscreens, most notably is Avobenzone. It is typically used in conjunction with other UV filters to make it more stable in skincare. Chemical filters offer more coverage against UVA and UVB rays than physical sunscreens. Avobenzone, for example, protects against the full spectrum UVA rays, however, chemical fillers can be more irritating to the skin and cause more allergic reactions. Chemical sunscreen ingredients are generally safe, however many haven't been approved in the united states but are used in Europe and Asia.
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