I get asked by all of my friends constantly about what hair tongs I recommend, what oil to put on split ends, which foundations are the best etc etc, but if there is one tip that anyone should adhere to (it’s by no means a new discovery, but it is one thing that people don’t tend to factor into their day to day beauty routine) and that is- wear SPF every. single. day.
I don’t like piling my combination skin high with serum/moisturiser/spf moisturiser/foundation, so instead I get my daily dose of sun protection from my tinted moisturisers and foundation. My favourite SPF products are Chantecaille ‘Just Skin’ tinted moisturiser SPF 15 and Chanel Aqua Vitalumiere foundation SPF 15 and I’ve recently discovered Stila’s SPF 30 oil free tinted moisturiser which gives a lovely light to medium coverage and will be perfect for when the weather warms up a bit. At the moment in these in between seasons I like to mix the Chantecaille and Chanel together to get medium coverage with a matt yet luminous dewy finish that I know will protect me from the elements. I’ve been sun sensitive for a while- having olive skin means that luckily I seldom burn, however I’ve been suffering from pigmentation since the age of 14. Pigmentation can look like acne scars to some people, the first time my boyfriend saw me without makeup assumed they were freckles, but no, they’re little dark brown marks that run from my temples to just above my jaw which are from sun damage. Darker skinned girls are prone to this, so it’s nothing alarming, although sometimes I wonder if the summer holidays I used to go on from aged 12-14 without my mother, and thus a lack of appropriate suncream on my face caused them. Any who, I’ll do a separate post on the serums and treatments I’ve used to fade them another time.
Kiehl’s SPF 50 moisturiser, Stila SPF 30 tinted moisturiser, CHANEL Vitalumiere Aqua SPF 15 and Chantecaille’s Just Skin Tinted moisturiser SPF 15
My mother is the biggest advocate of SPF every day, she wears factor 50 even to just go on the school run on a cloudy day in February, and when she is on holiday sunbathing she has factor 50 and a supercool oversized straw hat which means that her skin is totally protected- so it’s not exactly a miracle that aged 45 she looks no older than 32!
This is something that I’ve been thinking about recently, being a beauty geek I’ve already started thinking about which products I should start using to begin the preventative anti-aging process, at the age of 22 I luckily show no signs of ageing, no dark shadows under my eyes, no puffiness and barely a crease on my forehead when I raise my eyebrows. Funnily enough, just as I was beginning to think what sort of products I should begin using (eye cream maybe?) Into the Gloss wrote an incredibly informative post that essentially summed up that the anti-aging process should begin by simply wearing SPF every day- even in the wind and rain. This Summer I’ve decided that I’m going to start taking after my mum and also employ the oversized straw hat method- who needs a real tan when NARS do such great bronzers? (Laguna in the winter and Casino in the Spring for me 🙂 ). Our skin is our largest organ and we should be taking care of it, I physically wince when I see girls on the beach slather on their factor 5 oil- for reference, I start a holiday with SPF 30 on my body and I only ever go as low as factor 20 towards the end, sometimes factor 15 on my back as it tends to always be a bit paler. I was at the peak of my ‘tanarexia’ in 2008- I was in the South of France and I sun worshipped like it was an Olympic sport, we had the same taxi driver who dropped us off at our hotel who picked us up at the end of the stay, he asked us if we had enjoyed our holiday and I moaned and said I hadn’t had enough sun, which my mum translated to him in her fluent French to which he deadpanned “Elle est noire”. My ‘tanarexia’ only lasted another Summer before I looked back on the photos and realised that I’d taken things too far, I now aim for a golden glow and not full on mahogany!
Now, as a grown up my beach ‘face’ consists of the best SPF ever- Kiehl’s non greasy SPF 50. I love putting this on after cleansing in the mornings, with just a touch of concealer under my eyes and a bright sheer glossy lip colour, that’s my favourite holiday makeup! This Summer I’m looking forward to using Effaclar Duo underneath it, to really give a nice flawless finish. So…if you’re reading this out there and thinking “yeah yeah wear suncream, I know, we’ve heard it a million times before” well..then actually do it, because investing in your skin now will save time and money later on botox, peels and Creme De La Mer! As a side note, for any of you girls in your 20s and early 30s reading this and considering it- preventative botox is a total myth, ask any honest plastic surgeon!
