Sun Care

Every week when we write the Look Lovely Daily Diary we include a reminder about your cleanse, tone and moisturise facial routine. Your face is the part of your body that gets the most attention, which is why we put so much emphasis on looking after the skin on your face.

In order to maintain your general health, and to look your best, it is important to take proper care of all your skin. Many people are unaware that the skin is actually an organ, as important to your well-being as a healthy heart or liver (or any other vital organ).  Your skin protects you, heals you and needs to last a lifetime.

Sun care is an important part of taking care of your skin.  Skin cancer is a growing problem in the United Kingdom.  According to the National Health Service, more than 90,000 were diagnosed with skin cancer in 2006, and each year about 2600 people die of skin cancer.

Skin cancer occurs through damage to your skin by the sun’s ultra-violet rays.  Proper sun care can protect your skin from the damaging effects of the sun and help to protect you from skin cancer.

The most basic item in your sun care kit will be sun cream. If you have ever purchased sun cream you will know that it is labelled with a SPF number.  The letters stand for ‘sun protection factor’, and as a very general rule, the higher the number, the more sun protection given.

The actual level of sun protection that a particular SPF will give you depends on how easily you sun burn.  A rough guide is that if you will usually start to burn after 10 minutes in the sun, a sun cream with SPF 15 will allow you to safely stay in the sun for 10 times as long – so 10 times 10 minutes would be 100 minutes or 1 hour 40 minutes in the sun.

We think that you also need to ensure that you have applied a sufficient quantity of sun cream, that you should consider covering your head and that you should take care to stay hydrated.

If you are concerned with the cost of sun care we suggest that you look for sun cream at Boots.  Their Soltan range is excellent value for money and very effective.  There are frequently ‘buy one get one free offers’ on the Soltan range, which allows you to mix and match products.  If you cannot get to a shop, try the Boots website.

When cost is an issue you may wish to look at ChemistDirect on-line, as this site often has good offers on some sun care products.

The choice of natural sun care products continues to grow. Pat has used sun care products by Liz Earle; these are available from the Liz Earle website or John Lewis.  

If you are looking for a choice of organic sun care products, we recommend Green People.  Their products are mostly organic, and they have some products specially formulated for children.  If you have sensitive skin, their 'no scent' sun lotion may be worth trying.

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