Does Sunscreen Help Wrinkles? – Why You Should Wear It All Year Round!
If you’re anything like me, you really like to invest in your skin? Especially if it’s anything that is going to slow down the aging process.
Most of us are more than happy to spend unlimited amounts on the latest serums and moisturisers to target our aging skin but does sunscreen help wrinkles?
Well what if I was to tell you that every penny you are spending on expensive treatments, products and gadgets, you might as well flush down the toilet if you are not protecting your skin with a daily SPF!
Read on to find out why.
OK so let’s get one thing straight, I’m not saying for one minute professional treatments or anti aging skincare products don’t work, I love both just as much as the next person but what the majority of anti aging therapies do is stimulate collagen production.
This is the part of our skin that keeps us looking youthful, but we lose more and more of our natural collagen as we get older, this is when we start to notice lines and wrinkles.
Using the right skincare or having professional treatments like microneedling and chemical peels will stimulate your skin to produce more of its own natural collagen reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
So what’s the problem, you’re doing all these things, you’ve got a great skincare routine going, so where does sunscreen come in to it?
Heres the thing, we all know the sun is bad for our skin and protect ourselves when we go to the beach on really hot sunny days so we don’t burn and that’s great!
UVB rays are really dangerous and can burn our skin or even worse cause skin cancers.
But did you know UVA is responsible for over 90% of skin aging, it is at a constant all year round and even penetrates clouds and glass.
The reason these UVA rays are so aging is the damaging effects they have on our skins collagen and elastin, this is because their longer wavelengths can penetrate deeper into our skin damaging our DNA.
We will also notice darker spots known as age spots as the sun causes irregular pigment distribution within the skin, along with tired dry and dull skin.
All of which are preventable with a daily SPF.
Does Wearing Sunscreen Every day Prevent Wrinkles?
By wearing a daily sunscreen with a protection factor of 30 or above you are not only protecting your skin from burning on sunny days but every day against premature photo aging.
If the only product you used everyday on your skin was a high protection sunscreen, you would be reducing your risk of premature photo aging by 90%, surely that’s worth doing!
Is Sunscreen The Best For Anti Aging?
A daily SPF above factor 30 will protect your hard-earned collagen and elastin, even on dull cloudy days, UVA rays, the ones responsible for photo aging, these are around all year round.
Does Sunscreen Make You Look Younger?
Many good daily SPF’s contain lovely ingredients to not only protect your skin against aging but will replace moisture and vitamins, some also offer great antioxidant protection.
A sunscreen is definitely the best product you can use for younger looking skin,
Is an SPF In Makeup Any good?
If your makeup has an SPF protection factor of 30 plus and protects against UVA and UVB then this is OK, my only issue with makeup containing SPF is it’s recommended when you apply your SPF you apply a good thick application.
I personally don’t like to apply my foundation this thick so I think it is much nicer to add an SPF as part of your skincare regime or go for a BB cream which are lovely for great protection with subtle coverage without that heavy foundation look.
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Can You Use SPF Daily With Oily/Acne Prone Skin?
You absolutely can, it’s important to look out for products that say non comodogenic or specifically for oily skin.
Can I Use A Moisturiser With Added SPF?
This is fine too, provided it protects against both UVA and UVB and at least factor 30. Many mosturisers have added SPF but not the full benefits of all these components which are all so equally important.
Do I need To Wear A Sunscreen In Winter?
As UVA rays are constant all year round it’s important to protect your skin throughout the year through all the seasons, even when you’re indoors as UVA can even penetrate through your windows.
I used to have a Sphinx cat, this is a hairless bread that would always sunbath in my conservatory, he was an indoor cat so this was the closest to the sun he would get.
In the summer months he would get a little sun tan through the glass.
It wasn’t until years later when I became a skin specialist I understood why! I should have been applying sunscreen to my little friend, although I don’t think that was entirely to blame for all his wrinkles 🙂
Final Thoughts
Whilst it is so important to protect our skin from the harmful effects of the sun to prevent skin cancer, we also don’t want to be throwing our money away on anti aging products and treatments which are going to boost our collagen production to immediately step outside with unprotected skin for the suns harmful UV’s to undo all their hard work!
By applying a daily SPF as part of your skin care routine you are greatly reducing your risk of developing skin cancer and you are massively increasing the efficacy of the skincare products you already use for anti aging.
If a daily SPF is all you use as part of your skincare routine, you are reducing your chance of premature skin aging by 90%!
So if applying sunscreen every day, is the only thing you do for your skin, is it going to prevent wrinkles? Absolutely!
Do you wear sunscreen everyday? Let me know in the comments below.
Wow. Great article. I must admit I have not been using sunscreen daily. I have been guilty of only applying on the hottest and sunniest of days. You have converted me. In fact, I had to go apply sunscreen before completing this message. I naturally have young-looking skin and am frequently told I look younger than my years and now I know how to keep it that way. Thanks for this article. Do you think young-looking skin is also hereditary? My mother and grandmother also looked younger than their years.
Hi Deb, there’s definitely something in our genetics but environmental factors play such a huge part, I’ve seen studies done with identical twin, one which never went in the sun, healthy lifestyle ie. didn’t smoke etc the other twins lifestyle was the opposite, the twin with the healthier lifestyle and didn’t expose their skin to the sun had significantly fewer lines and wrinkles, age spots and generally younger healthier looking skin.
Thanks for your comment Deb.
Great post on the affects of the skin. I use a moisturiser daily, but never thought about how sunscreen could be an option.
Definitely worth considering this in future. I find sun cream to be greasy on my skin, but if I had one that wasn’t I’d use it! Any recommendations?
Great post and thank you for this. Very helpful indeed.
Hi there, I know exactly what you are saying about finding sunscreens greasy, have a look >>here for my recommendations, these are for mineral sunscreen which are not greasy at all and have lots of other great benefits for your skin so you will want to wear it everyday!
Hi Amy,
Great article! I definitely do not wear sunscreen every day – I knew I didn’t wear it as often as I should, but I had not idea just how badly I was doing in the sunscreen-wearing department. I’m in my mid-twenties and have only ever applied sunscreen when I remember to before spending a day on the water, but you’ve convinced me that I should consider adding it to my daily routine. Do you recommend applying sunscreen under makeup, then? What do you think of daily moisturizers that contain SPF, but don’t necessarily say what level of SPF?
Thanks,
Jade
Hi Jade, yes I would always recommend putting SPF under your makeup, alternatively go for a tinted BB cream which has broad spectrum coverage, the same goes for moisturisers, if they don’t specify what SPF they contain it’s likely it’s not sufficient enough to provide enough protection.
Hope this helps.
I didn’t realize that it is also recommended to wear sunscreen in the winter. Although the UVA rays are weaker they (at least, that’s what I have been told) they still have an effect on your skin then? I usually use coconut oil, since it has a natural SPF, but it is not a 30 but a 15 SPF. Is there a natural (and plant-based) sunscreen that you can recommend me?
Hi Christine, actually the UVA rays are just as strong in the winter as the Summer but I can see why you would think that as UVB are not as strong when the sun isn’t out
I would always recommend a natural mineral based sunscreen have a look at this post for some good ones https://beautifulskinguru.com/best-natural-sunscreen-for-the-face-why-you-should-avoid-chemical-filters/
Hello Amy. I enjoyed reading your article – absolute great information. I believe more people should be aware of there skin , including sun damage. You don’t have to get sunburn to get skin damage. And often this damage only shows or surfaces later in life. Wearing a good quality SPF is anyones first line of defense . Thank you for the insightful article.
Thats so true Felicity, even a tan is actually sun damage, it’s our skins weird way of trying to protect itself my producing more melanin or pigment, but the more we tan we will just see the damage later on down the line by prematurely aging and age spots.
Thank you for your comment.
Yeah, I made sure how strong the sun and UVA rays are when I’ve noticed that I got tanned even being dressed and little lines from my underwear were left on my body.
I agree with you that protecting our skin all year round is extremely important if we want to look young and beautiful.
Thank you for sharing, Amy!
I know what you mean Natalie, sometimes when you can’t feel the rays you don’t realise they’re there, especially UVA which are around on dull days.
Thanks for your comment.
My personal favorite SPF moisturizer is the non comedogenic Aveeno blackberry complex. It is so gentle on my skin, affordable, and has a ton of benefits for being a simple over the counter moisturizer. I agree you should definitely have spf protection all year round! Lovely post!
Thats great Shyla, thank you for sharing!
I really enjoyed this article as looking after your skin is so important. I follow a healthy diet and drink water, but didn’t realise the importance of wearing sunscreen all year round. I was aware that UVA rays can penetrate glass, but forget it can also penetrate through cloud. You’ve definitely inspired me to start using sunscreen every day! Yes, sphynx cats are very wrinkly, and need definitely need a sunscreen to protect their delicate hairless body:) Thanks for sharing:)
Hi Kathy, a heathy diet and drinking plenty of water is great for keeping your skin healthy but for preventing premature aging we need to wear SPF everyday all year round, I think it’s so easy to forget when it’s not a sunny day isn’t it.
Thanks for your comment.