Now that we are heading into summer it is important to reevaluate your summer skincare, beginning with your face. The first place to show signs of aging. Now many of you use an all around moisturizer with a sunscreen of SPF15 through all seasons. However I believe that during the spring and summer months SPF15 is not enough if it is only applied once a day. This is because in the spring/summer months the rays of the sun are strongest and can cause the most damage.

An important factor to pay attention to is the UV index in your city. This measures the strength of the sun’s rays for a particular city. The scale runs from 0-11, with 0 being low exposure and 11 or higher being extremely high risk for burning in a short period of time.

A great offsite interactive chart can be found here:

UV Index Chart

You may be thinking that you’ve been using the same moisturizer for years and you’ve never burned. Yes, that is possible but damage can be done even though your face hasn’t burned. We all know long-term sun damage can cause skin cancer but it can also cause cataracts, as well as premature aging.

If you are not reapplying your moisturizer every couple of hours its effectiveness is decreasing as the day wears on. This means by the end of the day that SPF15 may only be an SPF4.

I can’t emphasize enough that what you do now will sometimes show its effects quickly, other times, you’ll notice the difference in years to come. This is why preventative maintenance is necessary. The truth of the matter is that we are all going to age whether we like it or not, however we can take steps to do it gracefully.

My recommendation if you want to protect your face while wearing foundation is to use regular sunscreen underneath your normal moisturizer. I like to feel protected, so I use an SPF40 prior to applying moisturizer and foundation. This way I can enjoy my lunches outside without worrying about sun damage. Another reason I like to keep the SPF out of my moisturizer is the same reason I never bought the TV/VCR combos that were popular, too much product in too small of a space. I’m always weary of products that claim to keep me younger, will firm up my skin, even the skin tone and on top of it all protect my face from the sun.

If however you do not use foundation, than I believe that a SPF15 is fine if you reapply during the day and the UV index is low.

Keeping this in mind, Stay protected and stay informed.