Wear your sunscreen!!!

Thank you for making your way to my *brand new* blog!

What I would like to focus on in this blog is health. Not just physical health, like exercise and eating right, but mental health as well. I also care A LOT about good skincare, so healthy skin is also going to be a topic of bloggery.


With my very first post I'd like to talk about SUNSCREEN! Looking outside my window you would not think this is a very relevant topic, but you'd be wrong good sir (or madam)! Sunscreen is important to wear year round, every day, repeatedly. You are constantly being exposed to UV rays that are harmful to the look, feel, and health of your skin.

The American Academy of Dermatology recommends we wear sunscreen everyday because of the harmful UV rays. Even on cloudy days, 80% of UV rays can pass through and get you! The FDA has really updated labeling laws so that it's easier to know what our sunscreen will do for us.

To reduce the risk of skin cancer and early skin aging, the sunscreen must offer two things*:
1. Broad-spectrum protection (protects against UVA and UVB rays) and
2. An SPF of 15 or higher. Without both, the sunscreen only helps prevent sunburn.
(check http://www.aad.org for more information)

I use an SPF of 55 every single day. I know that might sound extreme, but I've got a good reason. When I was 23 I started taking a birth control and suffered a pretty gnarly side effect from it. It's called Melasma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melasma). Basically I had brown spots all over my face and the sun made it 100% worse. Every time I went out in the sun the brown areas would get darker and eventually were impossible to cover up with make up. That is really what started me on my skincare kick! It was kind of like a blessing in disguise. If I had never gotten the melasma, I might never have cared as much about my skin... and I could have way more wrinkles now! Or skin cancer...

I used about every product you could think of the lighten to brown areas, but nothing really worked. The only thing I could do was prevent it from getting darker, so that's what I focused on... hence the addiction to sunscreen. Last year, however, I started using a product that has completely transformed the look and feel of my skin. The line is called Reverse and it's made by Rodan + Fields Dermatologist (https://rskinner.myrandf.com/Shop/Reverse), a company created by the same Dr.'s who invented proactive. My skin has lightened up SOOOO much and feels great and has a lovely little dewy look :) This blog is not all about Rodan + Fields, so I'll share more about it later... I just gotta give credit where credit is due.


Take away:
1. Wear sunscreen! Every day, you need to protect yourself from skin cancer and early skin aging. It doesn't necessarily matter what the brand is, but you need to make sure to check that it protects against UVA AND UCB rays... and you don't need to wear 55 every day like I do, but make sure it's 15 or higher!
2. Don't wait until you get brown spots all over your face to realize that taking care of your skin is important. Let me learn that lesson the hard way for you. It's NOT WORTH IT!!! :)
3. Share my blog with friends and family that you don't want to get skin cancer... that's everyone right? Just checking :)

*Courtesy of the American Academy of Dermatology website: http://www.aad.org/media-resources/stats-and-facts/prevention-and-care/sunscreens