The Lipstick Party

Whilst you can’t prevent getting older there are some big factors in skin aging that you can prevent. Skin aging is caused by a combination of factors, and one of the biggest is sun damage. So if you want the best skin care, sunscreen is a huge part of that, but only a part.

It’s the ultraviolet radiation in sunlight that causes the damage. There is both UVA and UVB in sunlight, and it is the UVB radiation that burns your skin. But it is insufficient merely to stop the UVB radiation.

The reason is that UVA radiation, although it doesn’t burn, is much more important to skin aging and also causes many skin cancers including some of the worst.

The FDA doesn’t require the labels of sunscreens to tell us how much UVA protection is included in the sunscreen and the result was that in the summer of 2008 there were only 29 percent of sunscreens that had some UVA protection. A year later that percentage increased to 70 percent but that still means that 30 percent of sunscreens on the market have no UVA protection. The results can be skin cancer and excessive skin aging.  Read more...