So uh, SPF 25 plus SPF 50 equals SPF 75, right?
Behold the most confounding cosmetic question yet – poised to get even more pressing, methinks, given the snowballing stash of skincare-slash-makeup hybrids propped up with pompous-looking “plus” signs scrawled across the packaging.
This numbers game may have worn itself thin a long time ago, but it bears repeating that some form of sun protection is absolutely non-negotiable: You must use sunscreen of some sort, even if it’s billed as a fancy-schmancy face “veil” that just happens to have “SPF” bedecking the bottle.
A quick recap for students new to our beauty school: “The SPF or sun protection factor of a sunscreen is a measurement of how well sunscreen can protect the skin against ultraviolet B rays,” says Joshua Wong, senior patient care pharmacist for Guardian Health & Beauty Singapore.
Sure, that’s easy enough to digest. What about all those numerals, then? “Sunscreens with SPF 15 blocks about 93 percent of UVB rays, while sunscreens with SPF 30 and SPF 50 block approximately 97 percent and 98 percent of UVB rays, respectively.” Will anything ward off a full 100 percent of UVB rays? Short of living a vampiric existence, it’s no go, I’m afraid. “There’s nothing on the market that will give you complete protection from the sun.”
Bummer. Wait. Eureka moment! What if I layer say, an SPF 45 primer under my SPF 50 foundation? Won’t that be equivalent to wrapping Ray-Bans around my entire face?
I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you, but here’s Teri Tay, Dermalogica Singapore’s education manager, with the answer we’ve all been waiting for. Sorry for the slow burn, so to speak … drumroll, please! “If you physically mix two products with SPF together, the final SPF rating will be somewhere between the two SPF products, although you can’t average it out; the mixture will have to be lab-tested for a definitive figure.”
Granted, this isn’t the most gratifying resolution to our riddle, but Teri Tay offers a rejoinder that’s slightly more reassuring: “As most of us won’t be using the recommended quarter-teaspoon’s worth of sunscreen on our face, layering SPF products is the next best alternative to achieve good sun protection.” Whoo-hoo, awesome.
That said, climates mandating the most scrupulous sun protection regimes also tend to make said regimens quite arduous to “adhere” to – and I mean that in the most literal sense possible. “Singapore’s humidity hastens the wearing off of your sunscreen. With perspiration and sebum production, your SPF products will deteriorate dramatically over the course of the day.”
The solution – frequent midday re-application – is a no-brainer, but also back-breakingly burdensome to pull off: Us working folk have enough to worry about, thank you very much.
Teri offers an absolutely brilliant alternative: “Mix equal parts of a lightweight, high-SPF product like Dermalogica’s Solar Defense Booster SPF 50 with your favourite foundation, store in an airtight tub and use this concoction as a concentrated concealer on existing freckles, so that these vulnerable spots get additional protection.” Incredibly ingenious, yes?
Final flourish? Stash a spray-on sunscreen in your slingbag – I’m loving Nivea Sun’s cheap and cheerful Protect & Refresh Invisible Cooling Mist – and spritz generously as a sun-killing makeup setter.
Voila! Layering plus mix-and-matching plus spray-ons equal near-perfect sun protection – no skull-numbing SPF number crunching needed!
Dermalogica Solar Defense Booster SPF50, $120 for 50 ml, is available at all AsterSpring Centres and Dermalogica-authorised skin treatment centres. For more information, visit www.dermalogica.com.sg and folllow Dermalogica Singapore on Facebook.
Nivea Sun Protect & Refresh Invisible Cooling Mist, $25.90 for 200 ml, is available at Guardian Health & Beauty, Watsons and all personal care stores and supermarkets. For more information, visit www.nivea.com and follow Nivea Singapore on Facebook.