Sunday Night Thoughts #5

I hope everyone is having a lovely easter weekend. I love London in the sunshine, the good mood it brings to everyone and how pretty it makes everything look!

Now at the risk of sounding like a kill-joy, I hope everyone is protecting their skin!! Being a science graduate (and a skin care geek), I went to plenty of lectures about skin, cancers, and skin cancer, and remember being very scared by the things I was told. What I do think is good though, is that every summer, in magazines and on the television we are told about the best ways to protect our skin. Where with some topics, I find the information, confused and contradictory, with regard to sun protection I don’t think that there is any reason that people are not sure of the best way to use and apply their sun screen/block.

So just to add to the masses of information out there, I wanted to remind all of a few key points, since one thing which upsets me a lot, is the sight of burnt skin.

• Sun screen should be applied at least half an hour before sun exposure, take advantage of being able to strip off in your room and apply fully all over. Then reapply every 1-3 hours. Sun block on the other hand provides instant protection. 
• Be generous with it, you’ve brought it, you won’t be able to use it again at a later date, so use it!! I think as a rule 1 standard size bottle for a week away, per person! With sun screens in particular cover yourself so your skin is white and let it soak in if you want the full protection.
• Factor 15 or higher, preferably higher, with UVA and UVB protection.
• For those of you who sit under an umbrella you still need sun screen! It only blocks out 50% of sun rays. 
• Ladies, take advantage of the opportunity to wear that oversized hat, and that colourful printed coverup you brought!!

Having learnt that a tan is essentially a sign of damaged skin, it has changed my view somewhat, and I am not disappointed if I end up the fairest in my holiday group. It does seem strange to me that the majority of the year round we use anti-ageing moisturisers and serums and when the main culprit of skin damage literally shines on us, we abandon our concern and expose as much of our skin possible. 

This is a subject I could actually ramble on and on about, especially when you start to think about different cultures viewpoint on tans/skin colour, which sun protectors actually do the job, if different parts of the worlds rays are different and who is the most at risk of serious damage. However, I will stop here and make my final plee with all to protect your skin!! Would love if people would comment on good reasons not to get a tan, mine is the money I will save not having to buy another shade of foundation!