Why Using Specific Sunscreen On Your Face Is So Important

Most of us know that wearing sunscreen is essential. But did you know that the sunscreen on your face needs to be different than the one on your body?

As you might have already guessed from the title of this article, in this text we will discuss why wearing a specific sunscreen on your face is crucial! We protect ourselves in various ways, warm clothes in the winter, hats on our heads, gloves for our hands, warm shoes for our feet. But what about our skin? It’s no breaking news that we need to wear sunscreen in the summer (unless you’d be willing to burn and peel your skin off) – we’re no Daenerys Targaryen!

So, you go on holiday, you put some sunscreen on and you go to the beach. That’s quite good but what about your face? This has been a topic for quite a while actually. And while doctors strongly recommend wearing sunscreen all the time, 365 days in the year, we will look at why you have to do that and why it’s important to have a separate sunscreen for your face.

Let’s just start by telling you the crucial facts you need to know about those nasty UV rays:

1. UV rays cause skin cancer

Obviously, that’s not the most pleasant topic but in order for you to understand why you really need to wear face sunscreen, it’s essential to remember that unfortunately, UV rays can damage DNA in the skin, which can lead to skin cancer.

2. UV rays cause skin ageing

Sun exposure ages the skin and if you’re not being careful with it it can lead to massive changes in your skin quality. Moderate exposure to the sun gives you your much-needed vitamin D but overdoing the tanning can cause your wrinkles. And of course, we don’t want that happening!

3. UV rays damage your skin every day

It’s a myth that sun exposure ONLY in the summer is harmful. In fact, it is harmful all year along and even if it sounds like an absurd idea that during January when you’re freezing your butt off your skin STILL gets damaged from the sun, that is in fact happening. In addition, UV rays can go through a glass which means that you can barely escape them. Maybe it’s actually a good thing that we don’t get much sun during the cold months?

4. UV rays are dangerous ALL year along

Doctors recommend wearing a minimum of 15 SPF, even if you work mainly in an office and don’t see the sun much during your day. They also say that in order for your skin to be properly protected, you must wear 15 to 20 SPF in the winter and 30 to 50 SPF in the summer.

Now that we’ve stated the important facts, we also need to highlight the significance of wearing a specific sunscreen for your face, aka a different one than the one you use on your body. The reason for that is because body sunscreens are designed to be thicker and harder to penetrate because you’re putting them on your legs/arms/stomach. The skin there isn’t as thin and delicate as your face and can handle a thicker consistency, hence why so many of the sunscreens we use take ages to get dry.

What you need to do in order to properly protect your face is sunscreen that specifically says it’s for the face – they’re more delicate, thin and quick drying, and most importantly they don’t clog your pores! Additionally, for the winter times, there are many drugstore face creams that have SPF of 15 or 20, which is perfect for the average winter day. That way you’ll know you’ve taken care of your skin and won’t have to worry about looking wrinkly in 15 years or worse.