Can you actually trust your sunscreen?
In 2020, Hawaii will ban all suncreams containing oxybenzone and octinoxate – they’re killing the coral reefs.
I may be even further along the path of SPF elimination. Before you throw up your hands at my irresponsible behaviour, let me elaborate. I’ve always been borderline saintly with regards to sun protection. Over the years, thanks to a vicious sun allergy, I’ve acquired certain guerrilla tactics. On holiday, I’d dose myself daily with anti-histamine, swim in long-sleeved T-shirts, wear longsleeved, muumuus on the beach (my hands would be covered to my nails). Sometimes (Boris won’t like this) I thought a burkini would solve a lot of problems. All the while, I was drenching myself in factor 50 or one of those “total” blocks that leave an un-alluring white film. Gisele Bündchen I was not.
My husband, who turns a delicious shade of Gisele with zero effort and no whiff of burning, would periodically suggest I cut back on the creams and rely more on an astute use of shade. Well, it worked for him.
Obviously I ignored him. I acquired more paraphernalia for a “spontaneous” beach outing than a two-month-old baby. I didn’t burn – or not much. But I was using gallons of chemicals, the body rash persisted and the otherwise exemplary skin on my face would break out in spots in protest at all that cloggy, claggy gunk.
So I’ve had a change of plan. I no longer buy that argument about us needing to wear factor 30 on our faces even in the depths of winter. That strategy might ensure you never get a single line, but at what cost? As for those moisturisers with SPF we were all exhorted to switch to?
“It’s been found that moisturisers with an SPF claim do not appear to protect the skin as effectively as sunscreen,” says Dr Kluk, a consultant dermatologist. “A possible explanation is the amounts of each applied.”
Dr Kluk advocates a dedicated sunscreen. But every day? This is where I’m having serious doubts. The seeds were planted a couple of years ago when facialist Sharon Mcglinchey, a Geordie transplanted to Sydney, told me she never wears sunscreen unless she’s on a boat, where the sun’s rays bounce back from the water, so a hat alone is no good – or somewhere she can’t guarantee shade.
Her skin, despite spending summer after summer in South West Australia, is pale and lovely. Yes, she conceded, some UVA and UVB rays inevitably percolate through the brim she always wears outside in Sydney. And that might mean eventually she gets a few fine lines. Live with it, is her general response. It’s called ageing and it’s better than shovelling on chemicals that wreak their own kind of revenge, ultimately ageing your skin faster.
Hmm, I thought, Sharon’s got a great complexion, her products (MV Organic) are purer than most driven snow, and she’s seen a lot of skin up close. But she’s not a qualified medic. So I stuck it out with the SPFS for a bit longer. Gradually however, I’ve been meeting more dermatologists, facialists such as Alexandra Soveral and doctors who are voicing concerns about the SPF industry. Theirs is not yet a mainstream view, but to me, they make a lot of sense.
This is why I’ve just returned from 18 days in Greece having used only a quarter of the SPF I packed (and I didn’t take much). And guess what? I’m not burnt. I barely even changed colour, which is the way I like it. This is the first time in years I’ve come back without a furious, itchy, bleeding rash all over my chest, legs and arms. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not – and nor are any of the SPF sceptics I’ve met – advocating a devil-may-care approach. Quite the reverse. We all need to become much more mindful about the way we expose ourselves to the sun. Like them, I’m coming to the conclusion that those crazily high protection claims (many of which have been proven by respected independent bodies to be wildly inaccurate) don’t only fail to deliver what they promise they also lure us into a false sense of security. You only have to look at the millions frying themselves (literally) in the midday southern Mediterranean sun in the belief that their factor 50 (or if they’re in the US where the promises are even wilder), factor 90, immunises them from all damage. It doesn’t. As skin expert Dr Marko Lens says, “if SPFS are so effective then why are melanoma rates increasing?” (at a rate of 3 per cent a year).
The answer partly, according to Dr Lens, “is that no one, not even me, ever applies enough, because
it’s boring, and it’s often sticky. Even if they do, the combination of sunbathing and chemicals is hardly an ideal environment for healthy, radiant skin. Unless you’re using one of the few brands that micro-encapsulates its formulae (an expensive process that coats ingredients to ensure they don’t oxidise once they’re in contact with skin), many of those chemicals will trigger free radicals and an unholy chain of ageing – and worse – processes.
By the way, factor 50 offers minimally more protection than factor 30, while dosing your skin with considerably more toxins. Hawaii’s proposed ban should surely make us think about sun-care in a more intelligent way. Meanwhile, I’m still the one on the beach under a parasol, wearing a straw fedora (at all times, even swimming, although not actually when I’m snorkelling, even for me, that’s going too far).
Rash vests? They provide the equivalent of SPF 50, keep you cool on the beach when they’re damp, and warm in the sea. Boden’s matchy-matchy vests and swimsuits did me proud this summer. So no more muumuus, although I have a few pairs of fine linen pyjama style trousers that I wear with a bikini or one piece when I’m not swimming in the water.
I still wear SPF on my face and hands – you have to sometimes. The is Clinical Factor 30 Extreme Protect (victoriahealth.com), which uses micro-encapsulation, feels relatively unobtrusive, absorbs in a jiffy and happens to be Hawaiiapproved is my go to. It’s £64 and the most I’ve ever spent on sunscreen. But it’s worth every penny, and I probably only used half a bottle the entire trip. When I couldn’t avoid exposing my legs (on a paddle board for instance) I used Green People’s SPF (£22, greenpeople.co.uk), also reef-friendly.
I’m under no illusions about this approach gaining traction any time soon (although those rash vests won a lot of compliments). For millions of us, lying in the sun is a psychological boost. I used to be the same as a teenager. Then I’d practically faint from dizziness when I stood up. Funny, that.