The Sunscreen Conundrum Skin Care Secret 5

Sunscreen Conundrum

I have always felt a deep conundrum regarding sunscreen. I always asked myself that why should we use sunscreen? What does sunscreen do to your skin? As recent as three years back I did not know the right way of applying sunscreen. And believe it or not, my first instinctive reaction was to skip the sunscreen! Yes blasphemous as it may sound, it’s the bare truth.

Sufferring of the Skin

My skin has paid the price for these mistakes in the form of sunburns, tanning, hyperpigmentation and what not. Together with my ages old suffering from acne, the sun related woes were taking a toll on my skin.
My career as a geologist, which involves prolonged periods of intense sun exposure was not helping my skin situation at all.

Moment of Realisation

Finally I took professional help from a dermatologist for the acne, who also explained to me the real importance of sun protection. From then I started applying sunscreen religiously.

Sunscreen Fun Facts!!

From further internet research, I got to know more fun facts about sunscreen.

• Reapplication:

Sunscreen needs reapplication every 2 hours in case of direct sun exposure. This is because the chemicals in the sunscreen that do the heavy lifting, breakdown when applied to the skin after a certain period of time. So for the sunscreen to keep working, you have to reapply.
Read more about this here https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/phpp.12099
But there are some studies that say if you are indoor, you don’t need to reapply as often
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30273065/

• Amount of Sunscreen:

Recently I got to know from several Instagram reels by dermatologists , an easy hack to gauge the amount of sunscreen that I have to apply. At least 3 fingers of sunscreen is required for adequate sun protection. This is called the three finger sunscreen rule. I realized, I was using way too less sunscreen than the recommended amount. I corrected that ASAP!

• Sunscreen and Vitamin C:

Using a vitamin C serum before applying sunscreen will help to increase the protective power of your sunscreen.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8869680/

These points drastically changed the effectiveness of sunscreens for me.

Choosing the right Sunscreen

The next thing that I find to be very challenging in my sunscreen conundrum is choosing the right sunscreen. A small mistake and the white cast may make you look like the ghost from the Christmas past! Or like a grotesque creature with pilling sunscreen which might appear to be a skin disease from a distance! Even till this day my poor hand suffer severe sunburn during my outdoor work, as they don’t get the same attention as my face.

I have gone through my fair share of hits and misses in my quest for the perfect sunscreen.

In my next post, I will share with you the sunscreens that worked for me and those that you should steer clear from.

You can see this video of my easy daily skincare routine.

P.S This is not an affiliate/sponsored post and I have bought all of these products myself. Don’t forget go carry out a patch test before trying out any new skincare products.

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