Your SPF questions, answered by La Roche-Posay

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I think everyone should be careful in the sun, however there are individuals who are at higher risk, and those would be people who have very fair skin types, blue eyes, easily sunburn and I think those individuals should be particularly careful. There are also people who spend a lot of time outdoors. Whether it’s with work, or with hobbies – I think those individuals should also take extra care.

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I think that the most important step we can take to protect our skin in the sun is to actually avoid sun exposure when the sun is at its highest in the sky, and at its strongest. Normally I suggest avoiding the middle of the day sun. If you do have to go out, cover up! So with clothing, hats, glasses to protect the skin. And your sunscreen that you use should be applied 20 minutes before you go out, and then should be reapplied every couple of hours if you’re spending a prolonged period of time outdoors.

So there’s lots of steps you should take to protect your skin, one is to avoid the sun when it’s at its highest in the sky. So in the middle of the summer I’d suggest avoiding 11-2pm in the sun. If you’re out and about, cover your skin with clothing; hats, glasses etc. It’s also really important to wear a sunscreen every day to protect your skin in the sun and this should be reapplied if you’re out and about every couple of hours to ensure you get the best protection.

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Ultraviolet or UV comes from the sun and there’s two types – ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B. Ultraviolet B causes sunburn on the skin and it causes skin cancer on the skin as well, so you have to be particularly careful with ultraviolet B. Ultraviolet B is at its highest in the middle of the day, and at its lowest at the extremes of the day so you need to take extra caution in the middle of the day. Ultraviolet A is up all day in the summer months and even present in the winter – it goes through clouds and windows – and penetrates deeper into the skin and causes the changes we see with skin ageing – so pigmentation, wrinkles, fine lines etc. So it’s really important to protect against both. We’re very lucky that the sunscreens that we have these days on the shelves protect against both; they have filters in them that block both UVA and UVB.

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The Sun Protection Factor or the SPF is the protection you have against Ultraviolet B. And the higher the SPF, the more protection you get.

We don’t apply our sunscreen thickly enough to always achieve the maximum SPF so I always recommend you go for a higher SPF so that you get the most amount of protection you can. And it’s really important to reapply your sunscreen as reapplying it once is often not enough, particularly if you’re on holiday, you’re swimming, you’re towelling off after you’ve been for a swim. So it’s really important to reapply every couple of hours to make sure that your sun protection is adequate

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Sunscreen should be applied every day. I suggest you apply it every morning before you go out on the face, even if you’re going to work. The number of re-applications is dependent on what you do during the day, so if it’s in the summer and you’re going to go out in the middle of the day then I’d reapply your sunscreen again, particularly on the face and exposed sites before you go out. If you are out and about all day or you’re on your holidays, then you do need to reapply every couple of hours because it tends to rub off or you tend to miss bits so it’s really important to reapply to get the best protection.

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The sun’s not out, but there are still levels of UVA and UVB in the winter months, particularly UVA which is present all year round, just slightly higher in the summer months. So particularly from a photo-ageing, or ageing point of view I would wear sun protection on your face every day – summer or winter – to prevent the signs of ageing.

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I generally encourage people to use a separate sunscreen for their face. The facial skin is very sensitive and different in different people. Some people are prone to getting break-outs or spots, some have very dry skin so you can really tailor your sunscreen for your face dependant on your skin type. Also for the ladies you can wear sunscreens almost as a primer, as a base layer before you put your make-up on and to give you that extra protection during the day.

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Generally I’d suggest that the sunscreen range you use is one that has a high factor, so gives you good protection, and also so it’s broad-spectrum, so covers the UVA and UVB range. So La Roche-Posay and the Anthelios range are generally designed for people with sensitive skin. None of the products have fragrance in them and they have minimal ingredients in them, so generally I’d go for well recognised brands that are designed for sensitive skin.

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La Roche-Posay have a great range of products so they really have something for every skin type. They have products for oily skin types, those with combination skin and those with very dry skin, so there really is something for everyone in the range.

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It’s really important to use a sunscreen every day, even in winter months, because ultraviolet, which is an invisible radiation, is present all year round, even in the winter months. Because we know ultraviolet can cause problems with skin cancers potentially, and also skin ageing, it’s really important to incorporate sunscreen use into your daily regime so it becomes routine.

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La Roche-Posay as a brand is heavily involved with dermatologists to develop and design their sunscreens. They have a huge range of products – something for everyone. From children to adults. From tints within their sunscreen, to light formulations to spray formulations. So really there’s no excuse. Also La Roche-Posay spend a lot of time involved with sun awareness campaigns and skin cancer campaigns to really help the public be aware of the dangers of sun exposure, so as a whole, La Roche-Posay work very hard with dermatologists to get the best out of their sunscreen range.

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The best thing you can do to prevent ageing is to use a sunscreen every day.Sunscreen really is the best anti-ageing product you could ever use.