physical or chemical sunscreen

Treat this as the second part to yesterday’s sermon on sunscreen. Sometimes I do feel my posts sound like sermons? It’s ok. You need not be polite 😛 Anyways, lets proceed.

So, where was I? Yeah, I was talking about how much sunscreen to apply. I finished with that and left you to think about re-application! This is probably one of the most frustrating routines of skin care. And, there are quite many roadblocks to reapply sunscreen.

Sunscreen is supposed to go under makeup and not over, right? So, how can I reapply it? Well, fair enough!

The two finger rule itself not being enough, you have to apply the same amount of sunscreen every two hours. How many layers of stickiness should I have on?

Fortunately, quite a lot of high-end sunscreens are coming matte. So, you can probably go with reapplications. But, seriously, I am the wrong person to answer this.

I use Marie Veronique Organics Moisturizing Face Screen and one pump of it itself makes my face oily after a few minutes and using more of it is way too difficult. I have tried re-application but honestly my work place also doesn’t facilitate the process.

Taking a sunscreen bottle to the washroom kinda looks weird to me. I don’t do touch-ups there so I have only one application and the days I try re-applying, the tint gets too much for the skin and either it shows up as patches or white cast!

One of the ways to reapply the sunscreen is by removing the previously applied layer. Well, there is a huge hitch in that. If you have makeup on, you can obviously not remove the entire thing and reapply so that goes a little impractical as well.

So, the answer again comes back to the same thing – apply according to your schedule and amount of time you would be spending outside. If you stay inside, there is no need for re-application. But, you might go for just one thin layer so as to protect yourself from the light and computer radiations. 

But, you have a team outing or a shopping spree planned, you can go for a thick application. In such cases, always make sure you have applied a thicker-than-usual amount of sunscreen and follow with lighter makeup. Also, make sure that the loose powder you do touch-ups with has adequate protection. 

Though, I would like to make another point here. Just as a bit of sunscreen doesn’t really provide any protection, a bit of loose powder dusted on the face doesn’t give spf 25 amount of protection. For that much of protection, you need almost 1/4th of the product quantity.

How can any summer pass-by without me talking about sunscreen :-O That would be a travesty 😀 Anyways, the reason I did not write about sunscreen till now is first because I wasn’t serious on the blog and second I have written so much on the topic last year. So, if you missed it, you can check out the entire list of posts here.

Anyways, coming back to today’s topic, one thing I have always remained indecisive about is how much sunscreen should be applied. Last time I wrote about this topic, I mentioned the two fingers rule. But, that is actually impractical and I had realized it long back. But, I still tried my best to keep up with it!

But, I was always skeptical and I read a lot on that topic. So, here are my pennies on it.

Yes, you actually have to apply that much sunscreen to give yourself optimum protection. But, re-application is necessary.

If you know you are going to spend the entire day in hot sun, you SHOULD follow the above rule. And, if you already know you will sit inside the house or office and roam only till the in-house canteen or washroom, you can apply enough to cover yourself for the time you are outside.

So, decide according to your needs and schedule. Do not follow any rule blindly but don’t take things in a stride and ignore them either! Its a very delicate balance.

Yes, this is worst of the situations! And, always remember that applying sunscreen doesn’t prevent tanning. And, just like you are always ready when it comes to waxing your legs or getting your facials done on time, same rule applies here as well.

Apply sunscreen everyday whether you go out or not and if the outing is sudden, just make do with as much application as possible in the bare minimum of the time. This is where physical sunscreens come more effective as well.

They start working as soon as you apply them whereas the chemical ones need 20-30 minutes of incubation to start working. And, then, when you are outside for the entire day, make sure you reapply the sunscreen every two hours and follow the two finger rule on all parts of the body, specially which are naked.

This has been my issue since quite long. So, I thought I would pose this question to you all. How easy or difficult do you think is avoiding sun at the peak time in the noons? For me, its always the noons when I can get my works done or find time to go out for shopping or anything!!! Especially, when on a vacation, you are always out in the noons. So, how do you exactly avoid the sun in the peak time of 10-4? 

For me, I do put on a lot of sunscreen which gives me protection and use umbrella and scarf both to avoid the sun. But, sometimes, its just not possible!! Anyway, reapplication of sunscreen is very important when you tend to stay out so please bear that in mind. Also, its very important to follow with an after-sun treatment so as to control some of the damage done to the skin. But, it is advisable to avoid sun at the peak time at any cost.