Welcome to Sun Protection Week.
I’m using “week” very loosely here because I probably won’t be able to sustain seven consecutive days of writing. I’m not a blogging superwoman like Liz and my offline life is as chaotic exciting as my online life. I’ve been brewing this blog series for a while now. Are you excited? I am!
Enough foreplay, here we go!
To be honest, I am very confused by whether I need to use a separate sunscreen when my moisturizer or foundation already has SPF. This should’ve been a no brainer.
Most of the dermatologist-written articles I’ve read seem consistent in saying that I need to put on sunscreen in addition to any other face base that already has sun protection.
But seriously, if you’re as oily as I am, doing the sunscreen + face base combo is like over-layering icing on a cake. The icing will slide down eventually and the whole thing will look like a mess.
Anyway, I’m not the type to take recommendations as they are so I decided to read more on this. I googled for how SPF is measured and what constitutes enough sun protection.
Apparently, SPF is determined by testing 2 milligrams of formula per square centimeter of skin.
I took it to mean that 2 milligrams of foundation with SPF30 rating offers the same protection as 2 milligrams of sunblock with SPF30 rating if applied within the same size surface area.
It is said that this is equivalent to a conservative 1/3 teaspoon for the whole face, the teaspoon rule. That means that if I want to get all the SPF from my foundation alone, I have to apply 1/3 teaspoon of it.
One of the sources of my confusion is:
milligrams = unit of mass/ weight; and
teaspoon = unit of volume
Looks like 1/3 teaspoon is just an estimation (hello me, of course it is). And I don’t think there’s a direct conversion of milligrams to milliliters — and I’m not about to determine the density of my foundation just to get an accurate conversion of volume to mass.
Be that as it may, it’s already settled that I won’t put 1/3 teaspoon of foundation on my face. But the more important question is:
Will I put on my face 1/3 teaspoon of sunblock?
My answer is NO. That will look like me channeling my drunk inner geisha. Anyway, is there really a brand of sunblock that looks decent enough spread out on the face — at that volume??? If you know of one, tell me.
As I try to imagine it, I feel like I put the same amount of either sunblock or foundation when I wear each solely.
What I know now is — and I can not speak for dry or normal-skinned people — 1/3 teaspoon of sunblock or a combination of sunblock foundation is the same banana to me. This is what I mean by that:
amount of grease churned out by my face
+
1/3 teaspoon of sunblock or a combination of sunblock and creamy anything
=
cake icing analogy
aka melting down face
Whatever it is that I put on my face — be it sunblock, foundation, or a mix of both — I’m sure that I always do not reach a third of a teaspoon. It would be the same less-than-1/3-teaspoon any which way I do it, every single time.
Right now, I think I’m not putting enough sun protection by derm doctors’ standards, and — gulp — I’m ok with that O.0
Although… I think I may be doing something else to mitigate sun damage… But more on that later in the week.
I have to be honest and say that I haven’t actually compared how 1/x teaspoon of sunblock looks like versus 1/x teaspoon of foundation. Maybe I’ll do an experiment on that.
What do you think?