Boots suncare specialist answers your questions #1

On Wednesday I had a great chat with the very nice and extremely knowledgeable Mike Brown from Boots and asked him some burning questions (see what I did there?) about suncare, that have been bothering us here at Beaut.ie.

I had a list of questions and I asked you guys to let me know if there was anything else you wanted to know.

I found out TONS of fascinating stuff! For instance:

• Boots invented titanium dioxide, a staple ingredient in most good suncreams.
• Boots invented the five star system for suncare which tells you instantly how much protection a product offers.
• They never test their products on animals

So let me kick of with a just a couple of the questions we asked:

I wear makeup and so I can't keep reapplying sunscreen during the day. But I've heard that after a couple of hours the protection wears off. Is this true?

Well if you're on the beach, or actively sunbathing, you do need to regularly top up your sun protection. But if you're mostly indoors, at work for example, then the sunscreen you put on in the morning and the foundation you put on on top of that (pick one with an SPF) will do the trick. Just make sure not to sit out in the sun at lunchtime - and if you do then wear a big floppy hat! Once the foundation you put on in the morning is still on your face then you're okay.

Is moisturiser with an SPF as good as sun cream?

Yes it is. But it's not suitable for sunbathing because it's not as thick and doesn't adhere to your face as well. So, moisturiser with an SPF will protect you perfectly under your foundation, during the normal course of events. But when on holiday or sunbathing, you absolutely have to use a suncream, as sweat, sand etc can degrade the protection in the moisturiser. Your Clinique Cityblock is fine for normal day to day life - but use a proper suncream on holiday.

Why do my eyes stream when I put a high SPF product on my face? Am I allergic?

Well you could be allergic to one of the ingredients, but Mike thinks it's unlikely. Apparently products with a high SPF have certain ingredients that dry very quickly on the skin, the water evaporates very quickly indeed and the vapour is probably what is making your eyes water.

Too much for one post so I'm making this one the first in a series - and watch this space for the rest of the answers!