After a sun-and-sea holiday in Langkawi last year, I came back with these frightening patches on pigmentation on my cheeks.
Since then, I have been obsessive about sunscreens. And then, I learnt that there are sunscreens and there are sunscreens.
I discovered there is such a thing called photostability. Guess what? Not all the sunscreens that are so common in our market are photostable! They break down in the sun and will not provide you with the kind of protection that they promised! For eg, something labelled SPF50 can break down in as little as 30 minutes!!!
Check out the Environmental Working Group's sunscreen press release here.
Check out the Environmental Working Group's sunscreen press release here.
They have a sunscreen guide here too.
I also discovered another concept in sunscreens / sunblock : cosmetic elegance. It means that if your sunblock makes your face greasy, or leaves a whitish cast on your skin, making you look like a ghost, then it's not "cosmetically elegant".
Photostability and cosmetic elegance don't always go together.
For those interested in the technical details of photostability, here are some links for you.
You will also find that we should avoid this ingredient called Benzophenone-3 / Oxybenzone (reasons all at the link). It causes your skin to pigment more (!!!!!!) and worse, is highly PHOTOUNSTABLE. So don't be fooled by the high SPFs!!!
Here are the brands in our shops that have this ingredient:
1. Neutrogena2. Nivea (only 1 or 2 formulations don't have this).
3. Banana Boat
4. Coppertone
5. Kiss Me / Sunkiller
More listings to come later....
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