How to Choose an Ideal Sunscreen

Sunscreens are essential products for our daily skincare regime. It is important to protect our skin especially facial skin, from indoor (lights, computer screens) and outdoor sources (UV rays of sun) of radiation to maintain healthy and youthful skin. Ultraviolet radiation (UV-A and UV-B) is responsible for tanning, sunburn, sun related allergies, aging of skin, patchy hyper-pigmentation of skin and skin cancers. It is also responsible for photosensitivity as part of certain auto-immune diseases affecting the body.

Hence, the importance of sunscreens for medical and aesthetic reasons. An ideal sunscreen should have the following attributes:

1. Should be a product which you are happy to use everyday
2. Aesthetically pleasing
3. Non-irritant
4. Suitable for your skin type – oily / dry/ combination
5. Hypoallergenic
6. Water resistant
7. Broad spectrum, offering protection against UV -A, UV-B and visible light
8. SPF > 30
9. Economical
10. Ingredients should be a good mix of physical and chemical compounds, with preference for natural products

Once you have the product of your choice, the next step is to get into the discipline of daily application. Another thing to remember is that sunscreen application is not enough by itself to offer complete sun protection if we are spending a day walking around in the sun or relaxing by the beach. So we need to use umbrellas and hats to achieve almost complete protection in these situations.
Please feel free to leave your queries and comments.

My next segment will focus on other ways of sun protection and how to still have adequate Vitamin D levels , while protecting ourselves from harmful UV rays.

Until then… Be Skin Happy !