Unless you live in a cave, it is of general knowledge that the use of sunscreen is of the utmost importance to every human. Not only does it prevent premature aging caused by the harmful UV rays, it slows down aging by 24% and also prevents you from picking up the skin cancer ticket.
Yes sunscreen is probably made from the water of the fountains of youth, but why are we preaching it in the winter months, you might ask? The harmful UV rays from the sun don’t go on winter breaks and there are more scary facts that augment their harmful effects. Now let’s get back to beauty; without a youthful healthy skin base, beauty it self is impaired and makeup cannot offer 24 hours or all year long coverage. So it becomes important to protect our skin while wearing makeup; definitely not a straight forward task, but not unworkable as well. You just follow the guidelines below and you’ll be fine.
CLEANSE:
For the best of results it is important you wash your face before you start your makeup application regime, so as to create room for a clean grease free application of all the cosmetic products.
MOISTURIZER OR NOT?
Usually you should apply your sunscreen immediately after cleaning your face and underneath your make-up. In instances where your sunscreen has moisturizing properties, you need not apply a moisturizer. But if you feel you still need a moisturizer or your sunscreen doesn’t make your skin feel moisturized enough, the question of what comes first then comes to your mind; the sunscreen or moisturizer? This can be solved in a simple way. If your sunscreen is a chemical based sunblock (chemicals in the sunscreen absorb rays from the sun) that needs to be absorbed by the skin to work, it should come first, but if the sunscreen is a physical blocker (works by creating a physical barrier between the skin and sun), it should come after the application of the moisturizer. But ideally a chemical block that also acts as a moisturizer should be used as the base sunscreen.
APPLY SUNSCREEN:
Apply a generous layer of sunscreen all over the face, the neck, the ears, where the hair meets the forehead, and ensure you apply evenly. Then allow sunscreen to be absorbed by the skin for some minutes before applying your foundation. It’s important to allow the sunscreen to be completely absorbed by the skin, to set protection and prevent foundation from sliding off. Do not forget the lips as well, as it has almost no melanin. A lip balm with SPF or opaque lipstick should just be enough to offer protection.
RE-APPLYING SUNSCREEN:
Here comes the part where most women are reluctant even though sunscreen should be applied after every two hours, especially on days when you will be in the sun for long periods of time. It sure makes every woman cringe at the thought of reapplying sunscreen on her makeup at the cost of ruining the perfect work of art she spent hours on. Fret not! There are convenient ways to re-apply sunscreen without messing up your make up. Physical sunblocks (make up will prevent chemical sunblocks to be absorbed by the skin) that come in the form of powders (powder sunscreen), creams and sprays (could be a make-up setting spray with SPF) are your go to products when it comes to reapplying sunscreen. So choose one that is convenient and apply carefully
So you might argue that your makeup products contain some certain amount of SPF, but this is hardly enough to offer full coverage and since most people don’t use the right amount of layers of makeup needed to confer the amount of SPF indicated by their makeup products, it becomes imperative to apply sunscreen. That’s all folks, so go out making huge strides, getting all the attention, looking beautiful and most importantly staying healthy and youthful.
