By Kendall Farr, Licensed Esthetician, SPADA Skincare
As estheticians, we are always interested in how, when, ( and if) you apply SPF each day to protect your skin. Here’s why: even if your home care is consistent and includes an ideal combination of cleansing, active ingredients like vitamin C and retinol to prevent dark spots and lines, and the support of the right moisturization, if you are not protecting your skin from the damaging and aging effects of the sun – then it all adds up to not much.
Sunscreen is a vital part of everyone’s daily skincare routine as it minimizes the risk of sun damage and reduces the visible signs of aging. But with so many options available on the market, it can be challenging to choose the right one for your skin type and lifestyle. There are two primary categories of sunscreen to choose from: mineral and chemical. Here are the differences between the two and why we recommend mineral sunscreen for daily protection.
First, What Does SPF Mean?
The two types of sunrays that your skin needs to be protected from are UVB and UVA. Easy to remember: UVA ages and UVB burns. Sun protection factor (or SPF) is a measure of how well a sunscreen protects against sunburn, which usually results from exposure to ultraviolet B (or UVB) rays, the type that cause most skin cancers. Experts recommend an SPF of at least 30 for most people and most climates.
Dermatologists recommend using a sunscreen with UVA and UVB protection (Broad Spectrum). The SPF number on the bottle refers to how much UVB it allows in, not how much it blocks. A sunscreen with SPF 15 allows one-fifteenth of the sun’s rays to reach your skin, or about 7%. So, it filters out about 93% percent of UVB rays while an SPF 30 filters about 97%:
- UVB rays cause skin redness, sunburn, and most non-melanoma skin cancer.
- UVA rays -the ultraviolet radiation that cause skin aging- are responsible for premature aging, wrinkles, irreversible DNA damage and malignant melanoma skin cancer.
This is important: sunscreens are not meant to increase the amount of time you can spend in the sun without burning. They provide protection while you are exposed to the sun’s UV rays so reapplication about every 2 hours is smart.
Mineral Sunscreen vs Chemical Sunscreen – What’s the Difference?
Mineral sunscreens use zinc oxide and titanium dioxide to physically block and reflect UV rays from the skin’s surface. Chemical sunscreens use active ingredients such as avobenzone and oxybenzone to absorb into the skin and dissipate UV rays as heat. Mineral sunscreens protect the skin on contact while chemical sunscreens become effective within 20 -30 minutes of application and absorption.
An important distinction between these two options is the FDA’s concern about the potential hormone disruption caused by ingredients like avobenzone and oxybenzone ( in particular) most commonly found in chemical sunscreen formulas. The FDA has a label for substances that it finds to be sufficiently safe for human use: GRASE. That’s an acronym for “generally recognized as safe and effective.” The FDA found that many of the active ingredients in chemical sunscreens – the very same ingredients that filter out harmful ultraviolet rays – were absorbed into the body at levels elevated far beyond the FDA’s threshold of concern. And some of these ingredients remained well above the FDA’s concern level for three weeks after the subjects stopped putting them on their skin. Also concerning, when people at the beach lather up with sun protection and go in the water, all that sunscreen becomes part of the ocean. The coral reefs that are essential to the health of our oceans have been adversely affected by chemical sunscreen pollution. An estimated 14,000 tons of sunscreen washes off into the oceans each year destroying reefs around the world.
In response, the best mineral products are now made with something called non-nano compliance which means a product formulated without nanoparticles. This means that the particles within it are larger than 100 nanometers in diameter, and therefore are not considered small enough to potentially penetrate the skin or harm marine life.
People, it is all about mineral sunscreen…
How to Choose Mineral Sunscreen Like A Pro
In the past, the complaint about mineral sunscreen formulas – while having the highest safety profile- is that they could look chalky on the skin. It was a trick to find a mineral option that absorbed readily, was lightweight enough to wear with makeup and that didn’t leave a white cast. The newest mineral sunscreens avoid this thanks to sophisticated chemistry. Now, the idea is to look for cosmetic elegance on the skin plus the benefits of added active ingredients as found in G.M. Collin’s SPF 45 Tinted Sunscreen. Their newest sun protection offering has an ultra-light, gliding texture that adapts to most skin tones and gives the skin an instant glow that works on its’ own or as a primer under makeup. It’s formulated responsibly with 100 percent mineral filters and non-nano compliance. And it’s blended with carnuuba and rice bran waxes that act as natural SPF boosters to scatter UV light paired with super-antioxidants lycopine, vitamin E, and wheat and lupin oils that work to protect the skin from the aging effects of free radical damage.
While dermatologists are known to recommend that the best sunscreen is the one you’ll actually wear, we’ll go a step further by encouraging the use of what is mineral, clean, and highly effective. When it comes to managing the effects of aging on the skin – sunscreen is your best friend.