I have been horribly burnt about four times in my life. Mostly as a child when I refused to wear the suncream my mother offered, (factor 100, slimy, greasy, stinky), and had to suffer red calves or red arms or a red face. Now, of course, I am a shrieking neurotic about sunscreen. When there is sun.
These days, my children stay still, (don’t miss those wriggle/fight/flee days), and agree to have the sunscreen applied and have never been burnt. Well, Kitty on the back of her neck a bit - once - but we don’t mention that. It’s my husband that I have to bully to do it, as what he likes to do is flop out like a lizard on the first day of sunshine, burn horribly, be angrily mystified as to why he is burnt and then complain about it for the next two days. Then peel. Now I bark at him to wear SPF 30 on the first day of sunshine and, after that, I don’t care what he does but I will not be sympathetic if he burns.
Yes, I’m that person. When there is sun. When there is no sun, the idea of wearing SPF suddenly becomes, to me, like the most insanely stupid and laughable idea. I feel something approaching anger when it is suggested that I ought to wear SPF in February when the clouds hang touchably-low over my house and I’m not going outside anyway. Even at the moment, when the sun is being unpredictable and I’m certainly not sunbathing I feel a bit resentful about it.
I already feel pretty peeved at the multi-stages of my skincare routine. At the moment I’ve got it down to Curel gel cleanser and No7 Future Renew Serum with a Medik8 retinol in the evening about twice a week. You want me to wear SPF AS WELL? What a chore! And I envisage my skin, wrapped in layers and layers of this gloop, struggling to breathe, breaking out in zits. I know, this is very 90s of me.
But there is also something else going on with me, psychologically, about damage and preventative damage and sun damage and something and the damage is done now so what’s the point in starting SPF now… or something.
But then I keep reading that a good SPF can actually patch up some sun damage here and there, so I have for the last three weeks diligently been applying SPF to my face every day, ignoring how foolish I feel when it tips down with rain, thunder and lightning lashing the bathroom window as I pat the stuff onto my forehead.
I am using up the tail end of Sun Project Sun Water Cream while also starting on Garnier’s Invisible Serum Super UV. Nadine Baggot also loves this, which has Vitamin C and salicylic acid in it, which will… do whatever those things are supposed to do. All of these creams, I grudgingly admit, feel okay on the skin and have not given me any more breakouts than usual.
How about you? Do you feel as much of a stroppy teen as I do about SPF? Or are you rigidly plastered in the stuff from January to December? Which is your favourite? Please leave a comment for the group in the handy box below.
Morning! I wear La Roche Posay 50 every day. It’s a lovely light moisturiser and it doesn’t give zits. I should technically be reapplying it throughout the day but forget to. On hols, I wear Piz Buin factor 30 everywhere the entire time. I am Irish skinned, only ever get freckled and blotchy with weird tan lines as if the sun snapped a photo on a my skin the precise time I had my fingers splayed across my cheek… Husband wears no factor, goes mahogany and looks like he went in a separate holiday. I’m obsessed with Trinny’s overnight rejuvenation but my product addiction has waned because I think it’s all a massive con. We age, we die. Nothing will stop this.
I absolutely hate it (feel like my face is drowning in layers of goo) but I’m a complete SPF neurotic. Rather obsessive about my skincare routine, so I relish ‘goblin mode’ days at home so I can just let my skin breathe. (Side note: WHY is being a woman so much bloody faff?)