The Skinny on Sunscreen

We live a world so full of choices that one would wonder how he/she would survive without them. I on the other hand, beg to differ. I agree, having choices some of the time would be nice, but other times, I'd rather be shoved one way and told "this is your only choice."

While browsing Wal-Mart today for something as simple as sunblock, I must have wasted no less than half an hour trying to decide which one(s) to get. In fact, I literally stood in front of the stand where they have it, and just pondered on and on in what felt like hours.

Obviously, one of the first things that I looked for was the SPF (which, by the way, cannot be a more stupid acronym--Sun Protection Factor--way to sound scientific, people) and whether it protects against both UVA and UVB. Ok, so all of them protected against both UVA and UVB (at least, I didn't see any that protected against only one of the two). And as for SPF, I wanted something in the range of 30-50. (Believe it or not, they have one with SPF of 75. I wonder if it would actually make a difference.)

You'd think that once those two things are decided that it would be pretty easy to choose. Nope. The form that it came in varied in countless ways as well. They range from the good old white lotion type, to the squirt bottle kind, to (the fairly new) continuous spray kind, to (the very new) clear gel kind. Apparently, there's a big push for the continuous spray kind this year because practically every manufacturer of sunblock are selling them in that form. I've bought this kind last year. Here's the lowdown on them. Truth be told, they are much easier to put on (no rubbing needed), they give even coverage, they're cool as hell and they dry fast. The downside? They are more expensive (since they're new) and can get used up pretty quickly since the sunblock is pressurized (so it's not filled up to the container's capacity). So since I wanted a sunblock that'll actually last me the whole summer, this was out of the question.

Onwards I went. I noticed that some of the companies that usually sell skincare products (such as Neutrogena and Aveeno) are making their own sunblocks. These usually come in smaller sizes, slightly more expensive and have the feels-clean-and-weightless-won't-clog-pores-while-nourishing-your-skin appeal. So here's where this thought occurred to me: I could buy a smaller one just for my face and a bigger one for the rest of my body.

Keeping that in mind, I tried to look for one for my face first. This is when I noticed that Neutrogena makes them in the form of clear gels. They call it their Fresh Cooling Sunblock Gel. Hm...never seen that before. I decided to give their tester a squeeze and rubbed some over the back of my hand. Wow it drys pretty fast and kind of feels like sunblock (definitely not sticky or greasy)...except, why does it smell like alcohol? I decided to look at the ingredients. Bingo! They do add alcohol in there. I didn't know there's alcohol in sunblock. Do all sunblocks have alcohol in them? I decided to check. Nope. Only some.

Knowing that I have a somewhat oily face, I definitely did not want sunblock with alcohol in it (since it'll dry my face up, which in turn will make my face produce more oil). I glanced left and noticed the Ultra-Sheer Dry-Touch Sunblock in SPF 45, which is "fast-absorbing, leaves skin soft and smooth, waterproof, sweatproof, resists rub-off, and non-comedogenic (won't clog pores)". Perfect, just what I wanted! As soon as I thought this, I noticed that there is also an Ultra-Sheer Dry-Touch Sunblock in SPF 55. The only (other than the apparent SPF) difference between the two is that the SPF 55 one is not comedogenic (will clog pores) but is made with Helioplex technology. Oo I wonder what that is. "Helioplex cover the complete UVA/UVB spectrum by harnessing the full power of...", I read. Eh, at this point, I really would just like to buy the goddamn sunblock and get the hell out of there (it was close to 11pm and I was tired). The thing that mattered to me the most was the fact that I wanted a sunscreen that won't clog my pores (the last thing I need is to break out when I go swimming), I grabbed the SPF 45 one and quickly moved on to finding one for my body.

You'd think that would be easy since I'm just looking for a general-purpose one. I mean, after all, the only requirement that I have was for the sunblock to be big (a large-sized one) and have an SPF of 45 (to match the one for my face). Nope. I was stuck there for another 10 minutes as I searched through the shelves for a large-sized sunblock with SPF 45. Come on, where is the 45? There's 15, 30, 50, 55. WHERE IS 45!?!?

Ughhhhhhhhhh! Ok I'll settle for 30 or 50. But which one? Is SPF 30 strong enough? Would SPF 50 be too strong? I definitely do not want my face to be darker than my body. I'll go for the 30. No wait. The 50. But I don't want my face to be darker than my body!!! The 30? The 50? The 30? The 50? Ahhh!!!!

Eventually, I decided on the 30 since, from previous experience, it seemed to work fine and having your face slightly lighter than the rest of you is ok whereas, it's not ok the other way around.

So, such is the case when you have such an abundant amount of choices thrust upon you. I definitely would have liked to just go in there, grab the sunblock, and then leave.