10 Tips for Staying Safe in the Sun // Summer Ready

Since summer is hopefully not too far, I have my South Beach Daphne Anchor Bikini and it’s sun awareness week I thought I would share my top 10 tips to staying safe in the sun this summer.

1. Sun care should start before you even leave the house, apply your suncream before reaching the beach/pool/park as your more likely to apply enough and more evenly. Apply it everywhere even places that will be covered by your bikini as you can still get burnt through it.

2. Start with a high SPF. It so tempting when working on your tan to lay in 40C heat with SPF 5 having had no real contact with sunlight for the last 11 months but don’t you’ll regret it. Sun burns can be unbearably painful and very dangerous. Instead start at SPF 50 (30 if you have a medium skin tone) and work your way down to SPF20. My personal general rule is to never go under SPF15 and I promise you, you will get a tan through suncream (my friend that always gets the best tan always wears SPF 50!). Using an SPF will also help your skin hydrated meaning you’ll tan more evenly and your tan will last longer.

3. Don’t go under SPF30 on your face, you can easily darken your face with bronzer (or even a little fake tan) but the damage on the thin skin on your face will be basically irreversable.

4. Reapply, reapply, reapply. Suncream won’t last all day especially if your in and out of water or sitting in the sun so don’t forget to reapply. I wouldn’t say you need quite as careful application as the first time round, meaning you can skip exposing your butt cheeks and boobs but make sure everywhere else is covered in SPF.

5. Apply suncream even if you won’t be spending the day sunbathing. It’s so tempting to skip suncream on a day of running errands, sight seeing or hiking but it’s just as important in the summer months. I would say never, ever skip SPF on your face (okay, I’ll let you off if you forget in winter) but if theres a possibility you’ll be spending more than 15mins in direct sunlight apply suncream. This includes driving, sitting next to a window and walking.

6. Be sensible. I know we’re always told not to sun bathe during 11am-3pm but sometimes it’s the most convenient time, if so make sure to follow all my steps and be very careful. I always take an hour out for lunch to give my skin a break and makeup sure I haven’t started burning and move my whole body straight out of the sun if theres even a hint of redness. You do not want to burn, this will also mean you will probably start peeling and have to starting the tanning process all over again.

7. Don’t forget to apply SPF to the tops and bottoms of your feet (if actually sunbathing as you’ll be lying on your front too), the tops and backs of your ears, lips, your hairline and end of your nose. If you have particularly fine hair you may even need some along hair partings.

8. Pay attention in order to get a flawless tan. You will need to flip from front to back regularly, apply higher SPF to area that are tanning far quicker than everywhere else and be sure to remember the inside of your arms need sun too (I would say legs too but I always find people look far too inappropriate trying to tan the inside of their legs.

9. Wash it all off. By far my favourite part, you can cool yourself down and analyse your tan which I always feel is almost invisible until this step. I would also recommend an after sun, for me it has to be an Aloe Vera one as it’s just very cooling. Avoid any heavy creams as they’ll feel very uncomfortable. Keep skin regularly hydrated with more aftersun to maintain the tan in tip top condition, I believe it’s almost impossible to over-do it with the aftersun and I have been known to apply aftersun half way through my sleep to make sure I don’t peel.

10. Never use last years suncream. Suncream has a relatively short shelf life and I would recommend simply getting rid of your SPF at the end of summer as your SPF20 could actually be SPF4 by the next time you get it out. This does mean you should avoid over buying and instead use the 3 for 2 offer to buy a high SPF, medium SPF and one for the face.

And a few more quick tips:
Make sure your Suncream protects against UVA and UVB
Inexpensive suncreams offer the same amount of sun protection and you can get some great ones for under £20.
Apply suncream even if it is a little cloudy in the summer as there are still very harmful rays.

I’m currently trying out a handful of suncreams and will report back with a few of my favourites soon and just to prove you can tan through SPF20 heres a photo of me last summer.

What tips do you have for staying safe in the sun? Do you have any summer holidays planned?
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