Take Five: Shan the Sun
Life is so ironic. Okay, it sounds dramatic but it’s so true! I remember as a kid, my mother would literally shield me from the sun, as in stand with her umbrella at an angle and tell me to stand in the shadow. It used to annoy me like crazy! Especially when she made me wear a full-on Darth Vader visor to tennis practice in secondary school, and eventually made me quit ( in her defence, I also had knee problems). Writing this article made me reflect upon this and I don’t think I could thank my mother enough for making me quit! Tough love is what I call it.
As you can probably tell, I’m pretty vain. I used to and still tell my parents that they would never have to worry about me turning “wild” which to them means smoking, going out late, guzzling alcohol etc. because I am far too vain to do that, and that’s the honest truth. Vanity has made me “guai”. One huge aspect of my whole vain-lifestyle-thing is my phobia of the sun. It has been steadily growing over the years and what started out as just religiously applying sunblock when I started university (in London where there is little to no sun most days), it has blossomed (or exploded) into the full gear, every day no matter which country I’m in.
What do I mean by the full gear? I’m talking UV filtered sun visors, UV filtered and reflective umbrella and the occasional UV filtered sun cloth but that’s usually when my mum is around. I don’t want to look like a crazy person you know!
So here is my usual gear: Our Curator has now been inducted into the Visor Cult. Next stop: Reflective Umbrellas.
There are tons more gear you could use but I’m a minimalist. There are UV scarves, UV masks (to shield the lower part of the face that isn’t covered by the visor), UV filtered Car Shield things and then there are the ingestible-s i.e. Crystal Tomato® dietary supplement
Most of the gear I get from this website called Coolibar.
The biggest mistake I see people making is the actual application of sunscreen, something I was actually guilty of until very recently! When you apply sunscreen after your moisturiser (or whatever is the last step of your routine), it is imperative to wait at least 5 - 10 minutes in between these steps. First, you don't want to be diluting the goodness of all your skincare before, nor do you want to be messing up the formulation of your sunscreen. So waiting for your skincare to sink in before applying sunscreen is super important. This also applies to the step after your sunscreen if you wear make up (that includes BB creams or foundations that also have SPF) for the same reasons. In summary, I always leave a 10 min gap before and after my sunscreen goes on.
While I feel like I’ve covered most of my bases, there are 2 things I could definitely improve upon and that is my reapplication and sun blocking my body. I have always been weary of reapplying sunblock because the idea of putting something on top of the layer or dirt and oil accumulated over the 2 hours just seemed too gross. But since purchasing my first Korean BB cushion, I am now an avid puffer (hur hur)! So now I try my best to re apply sunblock every 2-3 hours. As for my body, until I find a sunblock that doesn't make me sweat more than usual (moisturisers and sunblocks always make me sweat!) I'm just going to make do with hiding under an umbrella or uv cloth.
I am always more than open to sun avoiding suggestions so if any of you guys have any other tips, please send them my way via the comments section below!! Always eager to learn
May the force be with you.