Sunblock and Sun Protection
The days of basking in the sun with baby oil are long behind you and now you’re ready to get serious about protecting your skin from the intense Colorado sun. But not all sunblock or sunscreens are created equal. Taking the time to understand the sun’s energy and your sun protection will help you gauge how to choose the right products for your skin.
Ultraviolet A Sunrays versus Ultraviolet B Sunrays
The sunlight that makes its way to us is made up of long wave ultraviolet A (UVA) and short wave ultraviolet B (UVB). Simply put, UVA rays can penetrate deep into the dermis (thick layer of skin below the epidermis, or surface), causing premature aging and put you at risk for skin cancer. UVB rays penetrate into the epidermis, or top layer of your skin, and cause superficial damage, resulting in sunburns.
Sunblock vs. Sunscreen – What’s The Difference?
Sunblock contains the physical or mineral ingredients Zinc Oxide and/or Titanium Dioxide that safely deflect the sun’s UVB energy and scatter that energy to keep it from penetrating your skin.
Sunscreen contains chemical ingredients that absorb and reflect mostly UVA and some UVB rays. It’s important to look for one of the physical sunblock ingredients in your sun protection as your primary line of defense and the chemical blocks as a secondary choice to achieve broad spectrum coverage.
Sun Protection Factor (SPF)
The SPF number gives you an indication of the duration of sun protection in your sunscreen. For example, an SPF 15 means you can be in the sun 15 times longer than it would normally take you to get a sunburn without protection. If your skin burns in 10 minutes without any protection, then SPF 15 will give you 150 minutes of coverage.
Everyone knows that a tan may look good on the skin in the short term, but ultimately it causes wrinkles, dark spots, a change in skin’s texture, or possibly more dangerous side-effects such as skin cancer. That’s why keeping your skin protected is imperative!
We carry a wide array of sun protection products from Elta MD, Skinceuticals, Neova, Lira and Hylunia to effectively cover all skin types. We have moisturizer + SPF combo products, tinted sunscreen, body sunscreen, sunblock for acne-prone skin, water-resistant sunscreen, chemical-free sunblock, nano-partical free sunblock, and more. Most of our sun protection products are paraben free, making them safe to use for the entire family!