Which sunscreen SPF offers you the best protection from the sun’s harmful rays?

Which sunscreen SPF offers you the best protection from the sun’s harmful rays?

The summer has been hotter than usual, and many of us are going outdoors, or to the beach.

Years ago, my generation used sun reflectors, baby oil, iodine, and reflectors to direct the suns rays.   What we didn’t understand was how harmful it was.   Years later, many of the baby boomers have had skin lesions and cancers removed by their local dermatologist.

Younger generations have been raised on using sunscreens and worrying about the SPF which should tell us how protective the sunscreen is.

The problem is, a higher level sunscreen may not offer that much further protection, while others need to be regularly reapplied due to how much we sweat or how active we are.

It is also understood that a sunscreen’s effectiveness may vary depending on how effectively and thoroughly it is applied.

Stay out too long or use an SPF that is not strong enough and you are likely to get very sunburned.

CNET makes it easy to understand which you should use with their guide on sunscreens and offers advice from experts.

Check it out below

What SPF sunscreen should you use?

SPF 30? 50? 100? What those numbers mean and what the experts recommend.

Sarah Mitroff July 1, 2021, 12:04 p.m. PT

Store shelves are lined with sunscreens touting 15, 30, 50, even 100 SPF, but the higher the number doesn’t always mean you’re getting better protection. In fact, it can even give you a false sense of security that leaves you with a nasty burn. So what number should you aim for? We’ve got the lowdown.

Sun protection factor, or SPF, is the way we measure how a sunscreen protects you from UVA and UVB rays from the sun. Specifically, it’s a measure of how long it would take your skin to burn from UV rays. Let’s say it would take you one hour for your skin to burn without any kind of protection on it. With SPF 30, it would take 30 hours if you applied it perfectly. With SPF 50, it would take 50 hours and so on.

That’s not a real-world metric, however, because SPF protection is measured in a lab setting with perfect application and regularly reapplying the sunscreen. A bunch of factors, like sweat, water and oils on your skin, affect how long a sunscreen stays on your skin to protect it.

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