Check It Out!

If I'm preachy about one thing, it's taking care of your skin in the sun. May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month and it's a good time to just get all this information out there. Now, there has been a lot of back and forth about sunscreen, vitamin D, and general hubbub about the suns effects on your skin. The fact of the matter is, excessive and repeated exposure to UVA/UVB radiation mutates your genes resulting in skin cancer. It's NO JOKE. Cancers like melanoma don't even have to manifest itself in place that regularly see the sun (bottoms of feet, scalp, nether regions). Your dermatologist doesn't just exist to give you Botox or give you Accutane; you need to see them yearly to check everything (I mean everything) for signs of skin cancer. I know my generation was and still is obsessed with being tan and I remember going with my mom to the local tanning salon to get brown for prom and going to the beach four days a week all summer without a lick of sunscreen. I WAS STUPID, but that doesn't mean that I can't do something about it now. I am now an avid fake-tanner, sunscreen slatherer, hat wearer, umbrella toting good-girl when in the sun. There are so many ways to protect yourself from the sun; it never hurts to ask your dermatologist what are the best ways to protect yourself. My sun care routine involves the following:

What's Normal and What Isn't

The ABCD's of detection: 

Asymmetry: does it look like a circle, or is it wonky?

Border: like asymmetry, is the border even or varied?

Color: one shade, OK. Two shades, get it looked at.

Diameter: Bigger than a pencil eraser= get it looked at

Sorry for the gross picture, but a visual guide is always a good thing to have. Again, self-diagnosis won't do anything but make you crazy. Go to your dermatologist if you have ANY concerns!

What can you do to keep the sun off

1. Sunscreen! Mineral, chemincal, I figure as long as you wear it you're better off. The difference between the two is a mineral or physical sunblock immediately blocks you from the sun because the sun protection comes form micro milled minerals covering your skin like a barrier. That's why they tend to look really white when you put them on. I always use a mineral sunscreen on my face because it's non-irritating. Here are some of my favorites:

Skinceuticals Physical Fusion UV Defense (for face)

Coola Mineral Sport SPF 35 (body)

Shiseido Extra Smooth Sun Protection Lotion (for face and body)

Chemical sunscreens contain ingredients that have a chemical reaction with your skin (takes 15 minutes), that scatters UVA/UVB radiation instead of reflecting it like the mineral ones. This is the most widely available kind because the synthetic chemicals are cheaper to make than mining for minerals (not a Starcraft reference). I like to use mineral sunscreens, but chemical ones are easier for me to find and not so hard on my debit card. Here are some of my favorites:

Sun Bum SPF50 Moisturizing Sunscreen

 

 

Australian Gold SPF 30 Spray Gel with Bronzer

There are sooo many ways to keep yourself safe in the sun. This will be a sort of ongoing series for the month since I've already created what might be my longest post. The important thing is that you can still have fun outside, you just need to be safe about it!I spend as much time as I can at the beach, but I suncreen up before I go and use other measures to make sure I don't end up a wrinkly old hag in 10 years. I've seen some of the girls I went to high school with who tanned religiously and they look so old! I want to be forever young!

Saving Face: Favorite Facial Sunscreens

It was a beautiful weekend weather-wise and guess whose ass got sunburned? ME! I was out of town and forgot my usual facial sunscreen and was quickly reminded how important it is to protect your face! I'm "blessed" with the thinnest and most easily burnt facial skin on the planet. It gets dry and itchy if I get too much sun so sunscreen is my saving face (huh huh!) in the spring, summer and early fall. Here are a few of my favorites that I use interchangeably depending on the day and activity:

(photo: skinceuticals.com)

1. Skinceuticals Sheer Physical UV Defense SPF 50: This stuff is the BUSINESS. I love it; I've bought it a million times and I've never been burned when I've used it. It's great for normal-to-oily skin and has never made me break out. I use this sunscreen in conjunction with a vitamin CE Ferulic acid serum (super antioxidant!) to give my skin some serious protection while also reversing my past sun damage. This stuff is recommended by lots of dermatologists because it is gentle and gross-chemical free which makes this a good bet for everyone.

(photo: Coola.com)

2. Coola face SPF 30 Cucumber Matte Finish Sunscreen: If you tend to get shiny and greasy from other mineral sunscreens, this stuff will make your life a whole lot easier. Coola is a great company that focuses on keeping your skin protected naturally with mineral sunscreens and it's fancy "Plant UV" technology. They come in scented, tinted, and unscented varieties, but I like this cucumber one because it's very refreshing in hot weather! Great for sensitive and oily skin; it won't run in your eyes and stays put!

(photo: SunBum)

3. Sun Bum PRO spf 50 Premium Endurance Sunscreen: This stuff is what I use for strenuous outdoor activities that require the sun to be on my face for a long-ass time. I use this when I go backpacking, surfing, boat trips, long runs; anything where I'm going to be out and doing something sweaty. This won't get into your eyes which is a HUGE source of uncontrollable anger for me. Nothing makes me want to punch a stranger more than having my sunscreen burn my eyes like a thousand fiery volcanoes. It's a mineral and chemical sunscreen, but oxybenzone free, which is something I like to keep off of myself since it can irritate my face.

(photo: Sephora)

4. Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection Cream SPF 50+: If my skin is being dry and finnicky, this is the stuff I go for. Asia is in love with sunscreen and, in my humble opinion, Shiseido has the best of the bunch. They come in very high spf's, they have stick sunscreen, high spf foundations, and even high spf eye creams; these people love their friggin' sunscreen. This stuff stays on really well and doesn't leave me with any post-sun exposure dryness that some mattifying mineral sunscreens can. 

Just For Fun

(photo: Zinka)

*Zinka Colored Nosecoat: Now, I use this stuff in the flesh/tan color to cover up my tattoos to keep them from fading in the sun, but if I wasn't constantly aware of people's judgmental stares,I would wear this in a fun color like hot pink or neon green. If you have giant, inconcealable balls and want to protect your skin beneath layers of neon sunscreen then go for it! I promise I won't make fun of you!

I hope this helps keep your face protected and fresh as a baby's. With the proliferation of bronzers and awesome facial sunless tanners, loading up on the sunscreen is inexcusable. You can make a lighter face match a bit of a darker body (that's usually my case). Try out some of these sunscreens and be forever young!

Sun Care Wants: The Most Illusive Sunscreens Ever

Sun Care Wants by elbonner on Polyvore

I know I JUST posted something about vacations, but this really has little todo with that. After an unexpected trip to a French pharmacie in Saint Martin last summer, I was introduced to the wonderful and fabulous world of French sun care brands. Since I was dragging my boyfriend with me I didn't have the chance to look at every bottle in this tiny store, but it was seriously like I had died and gone to heaven. It had every product you could imagine and I even found a whole display devoted to the ever illusive Hei Poa sun care brand. I bought a bottle of monoi sunscreen, brought it home and cracked the bottle after dropping it on my tile floor. I saved as much as I could, but it was no use. I haven't been able to find any of the beautiful products I saw in that pharmacie and I'm asking the gods of the internet to help me find ways to have these products shipped to the US.

Soleil des Iles is a french brand that utilizes monoi (they all do) and I have barely seen an internet presence at all except another American begging French people on a message board to buy some and ship it to him. I want to try it SO BAD, but all I can find is the French online store that I can only translate so much with my high school French vocabulary.

Polysianes is one of the products I saw in the shop in Saint Martin that I kick myself daily for not picking up. Another monoi-based product that is very hard to find online and when I do it's always in Euros and way too expensive to ship.

Hei Poa is a little easier to find; their monoi is easily available on Amazon. Their sunscreen is another story; it's incredibly hard to find a US supplier and it makes me so sad because this stuff is an island in a bottle. It doesn't break me out and I never got burnt when I wore it.

IF ANYONE READING THIS KNOWS WHERE THIS STUFF IS PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I'm dead serious, I want to try this stuff so badly without having to travel to France to do so. Thanks a lot internets, all I can do now is sit back and wait.