Sunscreen: Basics and Beyond

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Sunscreen is extremely important to our skin health and appearance. UV light is responsible for about 80% of skin aging, which includes skin discoloration, hyperpigmentation (dark spots), leathering, and wrinkles and fine lines. UV exposure also causes DNA damage in skin cells, which may lead to cancer. Additionally, sun exposure will exacerbate skin conditions such as melasma. Sunscreen protects against both photo-aging (sun-related aging) and cancer, blocking up to 99% of all UV rays. Since summer is around the corner, I thought tackling some of the basics about sunscreen would be appropriate. This is a longer post with lots of details that I hope readers will find helpful. Summary and product recommendations are at the end of the post.  Continue reading →

Skincare Basics

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Photo by Linda Prebreza on Pexels.com

I get asked by a lot of my friends about how they can take better care of their skin and I find myself starting to sound like a broken record. So I thought it might be a good idea to write down some tips and advice and send future inquirers here. Skincare is a vast topic that one can write volumes about (and many have). This post is meant to be a brief introduction, covering just the bare minimum basics, as the title suggests. I’m not a dermatologist and I certainly am not pretending to be offering professional advice. All opinions are based on my own experience and (non-scientific) research, and no I’m not paid by sponsors (though comments and likes will make me very happy).

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