Saturday, March 19, 2011

A SPF Lesson



Last night I spent some time looking around online at sunscreens. Since I'm spending my spring break in Miami and the Caribbean I know I must pick up a bottle. But being pure Rachael-the-glitter-fanatic I search for a little extra special sunscreen. While I found what I was looking for I had a question. What really was the difference between all the SPF's. I was never really a fan of sun block mainly because it smelled and I wanted a good, gorgeous tan. I did some research on this interesting website I found. Take a look at this math:

SPF Number x Time to Burn Without Sun Protection = Time to Burn while wearing sunscreen*

*assuming that sunscreen is applied properly

Example: If your skin would burn in 10 minutes in the afternoon sun without any sun protection, and you applied a sunscreen with an SPF 15, you would have 15 x 10 = 150 minutes (2.5 hours) before you would burn.

Percentage of Protection from damaging UV rays:
SPF 15 = 92%
SPF 30 = 97%
SPF 40 = 97.5%

Do you use sunscreen?

Check out Go Sun Smart HERE

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