Tag: face

Olay Regenerist 3 Point Cream

Don’t you just love discoveries? The perfect face cream was right in front of me this entire time, and I didn’t know it! I am so in love with the Olay Regenerist 3 Point Cream (the day cream) that reviewing it has been really hard! I don’t know how to talk about this cream without just raving about everything I love about it.

Olay 3 Point Regenerist Cream day cream review
Olay 3 Point Regenerist Day Cream.

Consistency: Thick but not too thick, and still easily spreadable. I lightly run my finger over the surface of the cream and gently rub a small amount onto my face. Scooping it out and plastering it on would be a bad idea!

Scent: It is perfumed, but it’s a pleasant scent that doesn’t overwhelm you or irritate skin, and once the cream is absorbed, the scent disappears. When I have a cold, the scent doesn’t irritate my sinuses.

Effects: Firstly, it obviously moisturizes skin. My skin is usually normal-to-dry, and I find that a layer of this cream makes my skin look less dry. Secondly, it plumps out expression lines aka fine lines. I don’t know what it does on deeper lines or full blown wrinkles because I don’t have any to test it on. I like that it also seems to help with the redness I get between my brows, and I would say that it does seem to give me a more even-toned complexion when I wear it. Another effect of this cream, which I’ve mentioned before, is that it helps get rid of blue under-eye circles (I don’t think they intended this use for this cream, but it’s a life-changer), and I discovered recently that it also works well on brown under-eye circles (I’ve got some other fixes for those, so I’ll write an article about that soon). I’ve been using it under my eyes for about 18 months but I hadn’t really used it on the rest of my face much until I ran out of Sanctuary Spa Covent Garden cream and now I’ve been using the Olay regenerist 3 Point cream regularly on my face and neck, I have so much love for this cream! There was an instant anti-ageing effect, and it took about a week for my skin to start showing noticeable results. When I stopped using it for a week, my skin looked tired again.

Feel: It doesn’t sting my skin, but I use it sparingly because it’s quite potent stuff. It makes my face feel fresh.

Compared to other Olay products: I’ve had some bad experiences with some of Olay’s other creams, with their Beauty Fluid being about as ineffective as not wearing face cream, and I was a little hesitant the first time I bought this, but from the first use I really liked it and will keep buying it. I buy mine from Amazon, and it always arrives in a plastic-wrapped sealed box, with an outer lid and an inner lid for the jar of cream.

Olay 3 Point Regenerist Cream day cream review
Olay 3 Point Regenerist Cream consistency.

Compared to other face creams: It was a bit like the Sanctuary Spa Covent Garden Active Reverse Day Cream, except the Olay 3 Point Regenerist doesn’t have any SPF. This is the biggest problem with the Olay 3 Point Regenerist, and for this reason I use it with the ROC spray on sunscreen, which I will review separately, but it’s not the ideal solution. UV damage can cause all sorts of beauty problems and I like to keep my skin protected even in the Miserable North of England where I’ve been stranded for a few years.

It was thicker than the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine cream and I thought the Olay 3 Point Regenerist was better than the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream in a couple of ways. Firstly, it makes my skin feel more moisturized. Second, it makes my skin look better overall.

It wasn’t as thick as the Manuka Doctor Api Nourish Night Cream, and I liked the thinner Olay 3 Point Regenerist better because it glides on easily and doesn’t need to be teamed with an oil or similar to keep my skin hydrated.

Science: The Olay 3 Point Regenerist cream is a peptide cream that contains pentapeptide (matrixyl). This increases collagen production in the skin and thickens skin, helping to plump out lines and eliminate veins and blue circles. When used with an exfoliant (such as glycolic acid, which dissolves dead skin cells and increases cell turnover in the skin) the effects are even better.

The bottom line is, this is my favorite face cream, and definitely replaces the Sanctuary Spa Covent Garden cream I was previously using. The only thing I don’t like about it is the lack of any SPF. You can get it here on Amazon.com

Have you tried Olay Regenerist 3 Point? What did you think of it?

Kim Kardashian’s Skincare Routine: High-End Cheaper Alternatives!

Kim Kardashian-West has a skincare routine like you would not believe! The lotions and potions she uses all look so nourishing and luxurious, but it’s about the most expensive list of products I’ve ever come across. So I thought I would go through a few of them (there were many more than these) and talk about alternatives. All the alternatives are still high-end products, they’re just not quite as shockingly expensive as Kim K’s skincare recommendations:

Kim uses Tatcha Beauty Camellia Oil. If you’re looking for a more affordable beauty oil, try the Amaki Japanese Tsubaki anti-ageing face oil, which also contains camellia. Any face oil is going to do some good to your skin, though, it doesn’t have to have such an expensive price tag.

For a face mask, Kim recommends the Chantecaille Bio Lifting Mask. A less expensive option (but still high end) is Dermalogica’s Multi-Vitamin Power Skin Recovery Mask, which is used by Natalie Dormer.

Kim also uses Givenchy Beauty le Soin Noir Face Masks (a lace sheet mask), but I couldn’t find these for sale on Amazon. There’s a variety of fabulous Korean sheet masks out there, though, including these Dermal Korea Collagen Green Tea masks.

Kim’s face cream is the SKII Cellumination Cream (an anti-ageing cream), which is also not available on Amazon; a similar product is the Juice Beauty Stem Cellular Anti-Wrinkle Moisturizer a moisturizer by Gwyneth Paltrow’s beauty company.

Guerlain Super Aqua Eye (under-eye patches to reinvigorate the under-eye area); these are only as good as the Skyn Iceland Eye Gels which are 1/3 of the price. As an extra bonus, the Skyn Iceland ones are used by Natalie Dormer, who in my opinion looks better than Kim K.

Lastly, Arcona Eye Dew (an eye cream). Arcona’s active ingredient is hyalauronic acid. My personal favorite hyalauronic acid eye cream is from By Nature New Zealand (and it smells nice too)!

One thing I thought was a little strange about Kim K’s beauty routine is that it didn’t talk about heavy-hitting anti-ageing creams (there were no retinols or peptides on her list), despite her list being incredibly long. I am also curious about how often she uses all of these products. I wonder how long she spends doing her beauty routine on a daily basis?

Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream Review

So I read an article about 18 months ago about anti-ageing prevention for those of us in our late twenties. The article had some interesting points that got me thinking about the best anti-ageing strategy for people in our late twenties who haven’t really started getting wrinkles yet. I want to discuss that at some point, but the result was that I bought the Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream last year, then never got a chance to try it, so last week I opened it, which is what I’m going to review in this article.

There’s a lot of hype surrounding this cult beauty product and the information from Elemis’s website says this:

“Clinically proven*, the powerful anti-ageing ingredients of Pro-Collagen Marine Cream have been shown to reduce the depth of wrinkles, improve skin firmness, tone and hydration in 15 days.

The unique Mediterranean algae, Padina Pavonica has been shown to dramatically increase the quantity of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) within the skin. By special cell communication, these water-attracting GAGs are responsible for skin moisturisation, improving suppleness, firmness and elasticity. In addition, Ginkgo Biloba providing superior free-radical protection has been blended with precious Rose and Mimosa Absolutes, thus creating the ultimate anti-ageing cream from ELEMIS.

*Independent Clinical Trials”   — Source: http://www.elemis.com/pro-collagen-marine-cream.html

Of course, those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know I am renowned for being very skeptical of the claims of beauty products (amongst other things), but I had to admit everything Elemis said about their cream was making it look like a really good option. It basically works by causing your body to produce more collagen in the area you’ve put the cream, and since loss of collagen is one of the signs of ageing, it looked to me like it would be a good choice if you’re in your mid twenties or late twenties and want to avoid or delete those first anti-ageing signs. Since I’m not going to throw my disbelief out of the window until I have hard evidence, I decided to try the cream for myself.

I bought a small sample size bottle because it was £30 for a sample or £100 for the full sized jar (the price seems to fluctuate between £80-100), and I didn’t know if it was going to work out or whether I would want lots of it. 15ml was a good size for a sample (the same size as a full-sized tube of eye cream, actually) and I’ve been using it for over a week and I don’t think it’s half-empty yet. The bottle looked like this:

Elemis Pro Collagen Marine Cream 15ml sample.
Elemis Pro Collagen Marine Cream 15ml sample.

A couple of points I noticed when I first got it; I really liked the scent of the cream, it was very pleasant and that instantly made me think this was going to be a good product. Secondly, I really liked the consistency. There are a lot of anti-ageing creams, even “entry level” ones that are designed for those of us in our late twenties, which are far too thick and that annoys me because thick creams clog pores and cause breakouts. They’re just not made for normal or breakout-prone skin. Now, usually, I have very clear skin but that’s because I’m incredibly careful about what I put on my face and I stop using anything that causes me issues. The fact of the matter is, I’m prone to breakouts which is exactly why I have to be careful. The Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream had a nice, medium consistency that wasn’t too watery or too thick.

Elemis Pro Collagen Marine Cream 15ml sample.
Elemis Pro Collagen Marine Cream on the back of my hand.

The cream rubbed into my face easily and the same can be said for my hand. The two indentations in my hand, btw, came from a rabbit bite a few years ago. I don’t normally use hand cream because I hate having damp/greasy hands, so my hands tend to be less taken care of than other people’s. This cream left no greasy residue whatsoever and I didn’t feel the need to compulsively wash my hands after using this.

After I rubbed it into my hand, the skin looked moisturized and plumper than with nothing on my hands, and the rabbit bite scars looked less bad as well. I tried to take a photo of my hands side by side for comparison but had to give up and just photograph this same hand again. I don’t know if I managed to photograph it very well (holy CRAP it’s hard to take a piccie of your hands):

Elemis Pro Collagen Marine Cream 15ml sample.
The same hand after rubbing the cream in (I didn’t put any on my fingers, thumb or arm).

When I tried it on my face, the effect was much more subtle (I really couldn’t get a good photo that showed any difference at all) but I could tell it was definitely making a difference, even if I was the only one who could notice it. The only thing I didn’t like was seeing my normal face when the cream washed off before bedtime!! This cream made my face feel a lot more moisturized with absolutely no greasiness, pore-clogging or breakouts. I am not 100% convinced on the anti-ageing properties but one of my friends (who is over 30 and when I mentioned I was doing this review, she told me she loves this Elemis cream) said it can take a couple of weeks for the long-term benefits to show up. I only wish this stuff had an SPF so I could use it more regularly as a day cream.

Conclusion:

This is a very subtle cream, for people who want to prevent ageing or want to get rid of the very first signs of ageing. I didn’t feel that this cream really deserved cult beauty status amongst older women but maybe their skin responds to it differently to how mine did. This cream absolutely did wonders for the back of my hands but the effect was less noticeable on my face. I did like this cream but I’m not sure I’d pay the full £80-100 for it given that I’m currently a full-time student supporting myself from writing. Having said that, if I was earning enough from my writing that £80-100 was a reasonable price point, I would definitely get more of this cream because it made my face look and feel very nice. If you want to buy the full-sized jar of cream, you can get Elemis Pro Collagen Marine Cream on Amazon (US) or click here to buy a smaller sample from UK Amazon (I obviously don’t know where you live, so check if they ship to you).

Tried this for longer than me? Tried this at a different age? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to find out more about the long-term benefits of Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream!

UN-favorites: Make-up decluttering and special visitor

So this week’s video is of all my UNfavorites, as I clear out my make up drawer of products from the last couple of years that haven’t been bad enough to bin straight away, but haven’t really wowed me in any way either.  There is a special visit from a special visitor about halfway through (clue: He’s orange and really, REALLY cute).  Enjoy:

The miracle anti-ageing cream that really works

Today, I’m going to reveal to you… the miracle anti ageing cream that really works!

So I’ve been blogging for a little over a year now and a lot of people have asked me what my secret is. You see, I’m turning 30 in November and I still look like this:

Wednesday Addams cosplay tutorial
Wednesday Addams cosplay from the tutorial I did on Wednesday.

For those people who want to know, I’m here to tell you that I have been using a miracle anti-ageing cream for many years. My aunt is going to be 60 in a couple of years’ time and she uses the same cream as me, every single day before she leaves the house – she looks like she’s in her late 30’s or early 40’s. It’s a very inexpensive cream and you can generally find it in many shops which is always good.

I really like this cream because, unlike retinols and peptides, your body doesn’t develop a tolerance to this one. It also protects you from cancer and, if you make the effort to find the right one that suits you, it makes a fantastic facial moisturiser for under make-up.

Buying face creams is a bit of a minefield, but I have checked and this one is available in the US (although if you can find something similar with a lower price tag, you might want to try that instead). One thing that really makes the difference is that a lot of people buy the body lotion and put it on their face (which overloads the delicate facial skin and clogs pores) but I buy a special face one.

It is (dun dun dun….) facial sun cream. Okay, so it’s April 1st and I wanted to write something with a humorous twist but everything I’ve said in this post is still 100% true. Sunscreen is the best anti-ageing ingredient you can buy. I’ve talked about the benefits of wearing the right sunscreen before. The suns rays basically age your skin… even if it’s not a bright sunny day! They can even do it while you’re indoors.

I prefer the Boots Soltan facial suncreams because they have UVA and UVB protection.  You can buy the Soltan Sensitive Face Factor 30 here on Amazon.com although if there’s a cheaper one that’s as good, that’s available in the American market, you should probably buy that one instead.

You can also buy Soltan Face and Soltan Sensitive Face at Boots shops in the UK.

Of all the facial sunscreens I’ve tried over the years (including the Avon ones), the Boots Soltan Face cream SPF 30 (and Sensitive Face) are the best ones because they has unparallelled UVA protection. When choosing a sun cream, the UVA protection isn’t actually related to the SPF – but it’s the part that stops you ageing when you catch the sunlight (I talked about this more here). On British products, there’s usually a stamp with a bunch of stars at the back – you want four or five stars to get the anti-ageing benefit.  That’s why you can’t rely on the SPF in cosmetics to keep your skin safe – they rarely if ever have a UVA protection in them.

I rarely leave the house without some sort of sun protection because I want to grow old fabulously. I highly recommend ignoring SPF (as long as it’s over SPF 20) and going for a five-star UVA sunscreen (that’s why I use SPF 30 instead of 50 – 30 is good enough to prevent burning and I’m really after the UVA protection).  I can’t believe how many people neglect this all-important step in their beauty routine and don’t take the time to find their perfect daily facial sunscreen.

I’ll leave you with the following public service announcement from Baz Luhrmann (director of Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge):

Skincare: 6 Ways Cosplayers Can Get Picture Perfect Skin

Good skincare is critically important, and this is the WORST time of year for skin maintenance due to a bunch of stuff, so I wanted to talk about how to get your skin looking fabulous, especially since I’ve been ill October through December and need to get back into my full skincare routine. If your skin is already fabulous, you may want to skip this post.

I recently saw a cosplay pic that I cannot show you because it’s to do with a secret project that my husband cannot know about yet. Now there’s more chance of hell freezing over than of him actually reading my blog, but just on the off-chance that he accidentally lands here on an internet search, I’m not going to tell you what the costume was. Let’s just imagine it was a Jessica Rabbit costume cosplay.
All you need to know was that, through the side of the amazingly detailed and accurate dress, there was one very miserable looking, red, pimply, washed out leg poking through what should have been a revealing and sexy split.

It got me thinking that perhaps, when people are doing a cosplay, when someone’s taken the time, expense and effort to make a costume of a well-known character FROM SCRATCH, perhaps buying a £5 pot of skin lotion, drinking a glass of water and fixing their skin wouldn’t go amiss.

*OK, I’m sold, how can I sort my skin out so it looks awesome with my costume and hair?*

1. Get some moisturizer. There’s loads of expensive ones out there, but anything’s better than nothing. There’s myths about parabens, BPA and silocones if you want to buy into scaremongering (literally, it costs a fortune to avoid these; don’t waste your time or cash), if not, go for something cheap that smells nice. You are going to moisturize every time you have a shower.

2. Does this costume show your bare legs? Do some leg toning exercises! Cassey Ho has some fabulous leg toning workouts at Blogilates that don’t require any equipment. I have been using her workouts now for over 2 years and they’re a fast way to get into shape for anything where you need to look your best. Exercise tends to make all of you look good for a variety of reasons.

3. Eat well. More fruit, more vegetables (think half the plate), more protein (to make new skin cells), less crap. Look for foods rich in vitamin K such as kale and broccoli, which will get rid of redness under the skin, as well as foods with vitamin E which stimulates glowing, healthy skin (and eat your vitamin E foods such as avocado about 4 hours apart from the vitamin K foods, otherwise they compete for absorption which is why multivitamins containing both E and K are a waste of time).

4. Exfoliate. This removes the dead skin cells so the newer, nicer ones can shine out, and according to Elle MacPherson it’s the best way to stay looking young well into your 50’s.

5. If all else fails, use fake tan (or gradual tanner, AVOID THESE IF IT’S A WHITE COSTUME), foundation for your face, and dance tights. You might want those last two anyway, especially if you’re cosplaying a caucasian character from before the 1990s or anyone from any musical, as they almost all wear Capezio dance tights in the shade ‘light suntan’ or ‘suntan’ (I’ve worked in the ents industry in various jobs, the Capezio tights are industry standard).

6. Make sure you get enough sleep, drink enough water: These two make everyone roll their eyes but it’s true! You may need to do these both long-term if you need to fix chronic dehydration and sleep loss, so an extra pint today will help you in the long run, but it’s not a quick fix, it’s a lifestyle habit. If you have chronic insomnia, do what you can and focus on everything else.

Barring acne or infections (which require treatment from a doctor or dermatologist), if you want movie-star beautiful skin all year round, rather than for a one-off event, do those 6 things all the time. If you want your skin to look shit, do the opposite for many many years then complain a lot about how some people are just blessed with good skin.

If you want to make this a year-round goal, to really get your skin looking fabulous, make some time to sunbathe for a few hours a week during summer (less for your face, as too much sunbathing causes premature ageing), as a bit of sun will stimulate your vitamin D synthesis, melanin production (in the skin) and it rebalances your serotonin/melatonin production, which will all make you look fabulous (actually, the serotonin/melatonin won’t, but bringing this into balance properly will help get you to sleep which WILL make you look your best). That way, you’ll be ready for cosplay, fancy dress, and dressing up, all year round. Just do it safely; we all know the rules of sunbathing right?

Why do I say all this specifically targetted to cosplayers? Well, people seem to understand that a character is the product of their costume, hair and makeup, but the skin tone and transparency is also very important. If your skin’s showing red patches and veins through all over it, and you’re trying to look like, oh, I don’t know, let’s pretend (again) that we’re talking about Jessica Rabbit; let’s say you want to be the sexiest woman in Toon Town (or whatever, I can’t tell you the real costume I was looking at but you get the gist), you need to fix your diet to improve the skin from the inside and start moisturising to help the skin from the outside.
This is true of all cosplays, and it’s what most real leading actors do who have a long career (I know, I’ve worked with many), so why not make it a routine?

It really doesn’t matter what size you are, whether your eyes or ear shape match the character, whether you tracked down the *exact* shade of eyeshadow used in the original film/series/whatevs, what does matter is getting your skin to look like it deserves to wear the costume which you just spent days, months or years making. Everything else can be worked around or fixed with makeup.

If you look at the most successful cosplayers, the ones on the lists of best cosplay, they’re not size 0, they’re not 34GG of the breasts, they generally don’t innately look like the character, but the reason we find them visually pleasing is because they look vital, radiant and larger than life… which is generally something they share with the characters they portray.

It’s not complicated, you don’t need expensive or time consuming rituals to look good, just follow these steps and you too can score a perfect 10 for your cosplay.

Bunny Picture: Sebastian Washes His Face

In accordance with the new posting schedule, here’s two pictures of Sebastian washing his face; he’s our little grey Netherland Dwarf bunny.

Sebastian washes his face. He is such a Sebasti-pon!
Sebastian washes his face. He is such a Sebasti-pon!
...And then he washes his paws because they needed washing too. So cute.
…And then he washes his paws because they needed washing too. So cute.

Do You Use The Right Sunscreen?

With so many different types of sunscreen on the market today, it can be hard to know which type is best for sun protection. And that’s if you don’t even try to contemplate what Sun Protection Factor (SPF) you need to protect yourself from skin cancer and other damage from ultraviolet rays such as premature ageing. Twenty years ago, many people used to view sunscreen as optional. Thirty years before that, sunscreen had barely been invented and everyone thought SPF 2 (yeah, you read it right) was the biggest thing ever. These days, we’ve all been terrified into knowing better, and advances in SPF technology means we can all afford to protect ourselves from UV sun damage. Skin cancer is the ninth most common cancer in Europe (there are actually three main types of skin cancer, but they put them together for this statistic), and malignant melanoma (the really bad one) is the 19th most common cancer worldwide. While that doesn’t seem like a lot, these figures are rising quickly, because our parents and grandparents (and so on) trashed the O-Zone layer that used to reflect many more of the harmful UV rays back out into space. So the meek inherit the Earth – but only after the pushy have wrecked it for everyone. Thanks, gramps. Isn’t it handy that they invented sunscreen around the same time we really needed it?

Factor 50 suncream sunblock SPF 50 high. Avon

More importantly, no statistic is ever going to show whether skin cancer will happen to you or not. Since sunscreen is really good at preventing premature ageing, and protects you from ultraviolet rays, why risk it at all? Here’s the types of sunscreen and their pro’s and con’s:

Sun Block:
Typical range: Factor 50 and over.
This is the gloopy stuff that looks like emulsion paint when you put it on your skin. It is favoured by very pasty looking people (the correlation is probably because it makes you look whiter) and is renowned for being able to block EVERYTHING. But is that necessarily a good thing?
According to Model Beauty Secrets, you should be using factor 50 and over. My aunt, a nurse practitioner (no, Americans, it’s not like being a nurse, it’s like being a doctor with less pay), also recommends factor 50+ during summer months.
But there was that rumour last year about whether high-factor sun block caused Vitamin D deficiency. I’ve written an article all about Vitamin D that’s very scientific and much more comprehensive than anything I’ve seen to support this theory, and here’s what I think: If you don’t get Vitamin D from your diet, for example if you are vegan, then you need to get it from somewhere. HOWEVER, if you don’t get the cholesterol (as vegans don’t), going unprotected in the sun is useless because your body won’t have any raw materials to turn into Vitamin D! I’m glad to see this myth getting shelved again for the time being, but I do think our fear of cancer and ageing is starting to spoil the fun of going out on a sunny day – with OR without sunscreen.
My biggest gripe with high-factor sun block is that it suffocates my skin, overloads it with crap, and makes me break out in horrible spots. That can’t be good for you either, and I can’t see models walking round with white skin and red spots all over to combat fear of ageing – surely ageing skin is just as bad as red breakout spots! It’s a trade off, though – if you burn easily and have very fair skin, or if you’re a child, use sun block. Otherwise, go for something lighter and re-apply regularly.

Tanning Oil (with SPF):
Typical range: Factor 2-15
This is a light SPF for people who wish to tan in the sun. I’ll be honest, I’ve been using this stuff during the thirty degree heat wave we’ve been having in the UK this week (I use the factor 15). I’m not convinced it’s actually making me tan any quicker than normal sunscreen, but it definitely feels nicer on my skin, is quicker and easier to apply, and leaves me feeling non-sticky, which are all a good thing.
The cons are if you have greasy skin this might not be for you (I have normal skin, bordering on very slightly dry), and obviously it’s not going to be great for sitting around the house in your best dress – you might get oil stains. But for its intended purpose – tanning – it’s the best sun protection and skincare you can get, as it doesn’t leave your skin feeling overloaded.

Face Sun Cream:
Typical range: Factor 20-50
This is a special type of sun cream that is made for the more delicate skin on your face. After all, you wouldn’t use body lotion on your face, so why use body sun cream on it? The pros are that it’s usually formulated to be non-greasy, non-shiny and some of them are even gels that are supposed to be more hydrating (for my normal skin I disagree and feel drier after using a gel for some reason). The downsides are that hardly any shops actually stock it, and that it can cost the same for a tiny tube as it costs for a whole big bottle of the body sun cream. Avon does some good ones but they can be very expensive so keep an eye out for special offers.

Facial Moisturisers with Sun Protection:
Typical range: Factor 10-20
These are usually daily moisturisers such as Olay that have a small amount of sunscreen in them. The advantage is that you don’t need a separate cream for sunny days, but the disadvantages are that you probably won’t re-apply it during the day, and that means that the sun will burn through it as the day goes on. Factor 15 needs to be reapplied every 20-30 minutes in direct sun exposure or on a cloudy day, twice during the day (source here) and most people put their face cream on and forget about it. This leads to premature ageing, so you’re better off going barefaced and suncreamed in summer or on sunny days (remember you can even burn while skiing, so cream up whatever time of year that the sun is out) so that you can re-apply without removing all your makeup. Additionally, it’s only really useful if it’s factor 15 and above, as I discussed earlier, and annoyingly they don’t seem to do an SPF 50 day cream worth a damn.

Body Sun Cream:
Typical range: Factor 15-30
This is the best sun protection for most people. It isn’t too cloggy and isn’t too lax on the protection, and it goes well under normal clothes without causing grease stains or other problems. The advantages are that it’s cheap and easy to come by, and that it usually comes in a good sized bottle so you don’t need to worry about whether you have enough to keep reapplying. The disadvantages are that it won’t protect you enough if you’re pale or a toddler, and that it can cause you to break out if you use it on your face.

What about UVA and UVB?

Most sun creams nowadays protect against both UVA and UVB.  UVA can age us and UVB can burn us, so finding a sunscreen that protects against both is important.  The SPF on the bottle usually refers JUST to UVB, which prevents burning, but does nothing to stop premature ageing (just to make it more complicated)!  To find out the UVA rating, there is now a labelling requirement that if it says “UVA” on the label, a sunscreen has to protect you against 1/3 of the amount of UVA of the SPF.  For example, if your sunscreen was SPF30, with a UVA sticker on the bottle, it would have a UVA SPF of at least 10.  If there’s no UVA logo, there is no obligation to protect you from UVA.  To make it more complicated, there’s also UVC, but apparently that still gets stopped by what’s left of the O-zone layer.

General Sunscreen Tips:

  • The bottle needs to be kept in a cool place: This is so the suncream doesn’t degrade from the heat – yep, suncream has to be kept out of the sun. The fridge is good if you’re in a super-hot country like Greece or Tunisia, but in the UK it should usually be fine in a cupboard, drawer or shelf in your house.
  • Don’t forget the lips! Your lips are unable to produce melanin to protect themselves from the sun so they need all the help they can get – an SPF 20+ lip balm is perfect for men and women alike.
  • Don’t forget your scalp either! You can either spray suncream onto it directly or wear a hat, but don’t get sunburn on your scalp, I have it on high authority that it’s a terrible place to get it!  The hat is the better option if you need to protect your hair as well.  Baldies and people with a shaved head should use a high SPF because most of the sun will catch your head.
  • Follow the airport’s rules on what size bottles you can take with you:  It’s really embarrassing to be made to throw away all those suncreams and after suns when you get to airport security, and it’s a surefire way to annoy the other passengers who followed the rules (yes, the rules are really dumb, but you can’t change ’em, if you don’t like them, travel overland like I do most of the time).
  • Reapply it regularly: Often if you touch your skin (e.g. your arm) and it feels dry (like it doesn’t have any moisturiser/suncream on) then you need to reapply.  If you can’t tell, then reapply to be safe.

Which sunscreen are you using during this heatwave?  Let me know in the comments!

Cute bunnies! Rabbit lawnmowers! One washes face; another sleeps, eats dandelion.

It’s Soft Soft Sunday, and here are my seven favourite cutest bunny pictures of my rabbits from this week.  In the spotlight this week are Katie and Fifer because they did some really adorable things while I had my camera to hand for a change (usually they dodge the camera):

Left: Fifer, Right: Katie.
Left: Fifer, Right: Katie.  This is a run I’ve set up in our front garden to get the grass mowed by bunnies.
Fifer strikes a pose.
Fifer strikes a pose, surrounded by grass he and Katie have cut down for me.
Left: Katie, right: Fifer
Left: Katie, right: Fifer.  Tired from lawnmowing, the bunnies settle to some flopsy time.

In the next four pictures, watch Katie eat a dandelion in realtime:

Katie eyes up a dandelion.
Katie eyes up a dandelion.
Katie bites dandelion
Katie bites dandelion
Katie eats dandelion.
Katie eats dandelion.
Katie moves on to find new nibbles.
Katie moves on to find new nibbles.  This whole sequence took about 10 seconds to unfold.

What did you think of Katie and Fifer’s cute bunny adventures this week?  They had a lot of fun exploring places but all my cat-proofing (which has stopped the other 6 cats getting in) hasn’t stopped one persistent feline from trying to get at the bunnies when they’re out of their run (which is all the area behind that fence next to Katie in the final 4 pics), so I have to supervise them outside rather than from the kitchen window, which limits what I can do when they’re outside, so affects how long they can be out, which is a shame.  Fifer is more timid and gets a bit scared about being loose in the garden if I’m outside, because he’s part wild and doesn’t relate to humans very well, so he hardly comes out while I’m there, but Katie will nose my legs and play chase with me sometimes.  She’s come a very long way from when we first brought her home and she was too scared to come out of the travel box for over an hour, and Fifer was the bravest out of the two of them!  I sometimes forget we haven’t had her for a full year yet, and that we’ve barely had Fifer for a year, they just seem so much like part of the family and I get bunnysick for them when we’re away from home, and they miss us too (all five of our buns usually won’t say hello for the first 24 hours when we get back from holiday just to show us that they are displeased that we let someone else come and feed them).