Yes. Yes, you do.
Regardless of whether you are indoors, outdoors, if the sun is shining or if it is perched behind thick cloud- you must wear sunscreen every single day.
“UVA is there for 365 days of the year,” dermatologist Dr Cara McDonald tells me. “It’s fairly consistent. Even if you’re not burning, even if you’re not outdoors for more than a couple of minutes walking to your car, hanging out the washing or going to the supermarket, you can still be exposed to enough UVA to age prematurely and potentially get skin cancer down the track.”
Neither clouds nor windows will block UVA rays, as they have a longer wavelength than UVB rays and are therefore able to penetrate both. This means that even if you are indoors, in winter, broad spectrum SPF is essential. “Broad spectrum means that there has to be a relative, adequate amount of cover for UVA compared to the UVB coverage which is labeled,” Dr Cara explains. “Unfortunately, sunscreens are really complicated and labelling is very confusing for people. For that reason, people are still don’t protect well enough against UVA a lot of the time.”
“In an “SPF 50,” the SPF is specifically telling you how much UVB coverage we have. This is why our labelling has changed in recent years, because UVA was not accounted for adequately at all. It’s proportional. If the sunscreen is labeled “broad spectrum,” you know it has this proportional coverage of UVA, but you need it to be SPF 50 or above in the UVB for the UVA to actually be half-decent.” To protect our skin from the specific UV rays that can penetrate glass, windows and clouds, that UVA coverage in the winter months is crucial.
“The bottom line is you want SPF labelling over 50 so that you know you’ve got adequate UVA [protection], and it needs to be labeled as “broad spectrum”. It needs to be SPF 50 and broad spectrum to know that you’ve got enough UVA coverage.”
The supposed SPF in your foundation won’t cut it either, as the amount of makeup you would need to apply in order to reach the labelled sun protection factor is far more than can comfortably sit on the skin. “The bottom line is you couldn’t put enough on,” says Dr Cara. “It’s not going to be high enough. If you want the best protection you can get you, are not going to get it just from foundation. Use sunscreen.”
Where some will argue that unprotected sun exposure is healthy as our skin requires Vitamin D, it’s important to note that the body can still absorb Vitamin D while you are wearing sunscreen. “No sunscreen gives you 100% block of UV light,” says Dr Cara. “You are always going to get a little bit of UV through any sunscreen or any sun protection unless it’s a complete blackout clothing type protection.”
“Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world,” says Dr Cara. “We know the sun causes skin cancer. We don’t have any good evidence that sunscreens cause any worse problem than that. So, if you want to choose, I would choose to prevent skin cancer- which we know can be deadly. We know it causes skin cancer, we know it causes premature ageing. Which one do you want- sun protection, or those two things? It comes down to a choice.
“It’s about making it a routine. Don’t worry about the weather. Don’t worry about what time of the year it is. Don’t worry. If you can’t reapply during the day just put it on once a day when you brush your teeth. You will be a lot better off in 10, 20 years time than you would be otherwise.”
The above quotes are from Dr Cara McDonald’s interview on the Glow Journal podcast. Read the full transcript here, or listen to the episode on iTunes or Spotify.
Photography: Melissa Cowan
Hair & Makeup: Sophia Pafitis
Model: Kate Mogg at Precision MGMT
Styling & Art Direction: Gemma Watts
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