The Fourth of July is at the end of the week and for lots of us that means being outdoors. It’s time to break out the sunscreen, hats and umbrellas. But, fun in the sun ain’t so fun if you are suffering later from a sunburn. 1 day of sun can cause painful suffering for days. Most of us have experienced this at some point in our lifetimes. Just because you’re armed with a bottle of sunscreen doesn’t mean you’ll be successful in not getting burned. It’s important to be prepared and stay vigilant while enjoying a day of rays. I have some quick tips for how to properly use your sunscreen and what to do if you get too much sun. Skincancer.org has some great information on their website regarding applying sunscreen and how to treat a sunburn. “Sunscreen Explained”: Make sure you pay attention to these tips they offer.
- Use a broad spectrum spf product- Filters UVA and UVB rays
- Sunscreen should be reapplied every 1.5-2 hours depending on the spf of your sunscreen product.
- For a full day at the beach you should plan to use a 1/4 to a 1/2 bottle of sunscreen per person.
- Reapply every 1-2 hours or when coming out of water or toweling off.
- Where a hat and cover up as much as possible.
If you still end up getting burned make sure to treat your sunburn gently but treat it you must. If you press your skin and see pink while you’re still in the sun, look out, your symptoms will be a lot worse and probably super painful 4-6 hours later. How to treat a sunburn:
- Take an ibuprofen or other over the counter anti-inflammatory. Consult your physician to make sure this is safe for you to do.
- Hydrate.
- Treat burned area with aloe vera or an aloe vera moisturizer. Lotions can also be used effectively but they may keep you too warm and they may not be as pleasant as using an aloe vera type product.
- Cool off in a bath or shower
- Wear loose clothing
- If you have small blisters, leave them be, don’t pop any blisters or you may get an infection. If fluid collects in them you must give your body a chance to heal and absorb the fluid.
- If you have large blisters or blisters covering over 20% of your body then seek medical attention.
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I am a former Birdy Botanicals gal. I love your product line, but due to the lack of offering a sunscreen product for the face, I have since moved on. Should Birdy offer a sunscreen lotion for the face, I shall be back without a doubt. I love the Birdy, but not premature, aging skin. Thanks Sally for all that you do!
Hi Tracy! Thanks so much for your feedback and your request of creating a sunscreen product!
I agree with you that sunscreen is vital to the protection of the skin for health as well as it’s anti-aging abilities. Unfortunately the subject of creating a sunscreen is very complicated.
The FDA considers a product that is called a sunscreen to be a drug. It requires a lot more then just including specific ingredients in a formulation and calling it a sunscreen. The first test is that it requires the product be formulated and to sit its entire shelf life (can be 2 years +) to make sure the stability of the sunscreen ingredients are adequate. Then there is specialized drug labeling and expensive testing to identify the SPF of a specific product. This test alone can cost up to $20,000 according to my manufacturer. The FDA does not take any of this process lightly.
There is also a lot of controversy about sunscreen ingredients and whether they are good for us. Europe is way ahead of the United States as far as the number of sunscreen ingredients they allow on the market. The natural sunscreens work great but to be effective they can leave a white sheen on the face that a lot of people don’t care for. The pros and cons of certain sunscreen ingredients could be discussed until the end of time so I’m not going to go into too much detail here. With that said I do know that a sunscreen is definitely on my to-do list but I want to make a product I can stand behind and have confidence in.
Meanwhile we have some amazing cleansers as well as some serums, moisturizers and multiple use products that can be worn at night when you don’t want the pore clogging ingredients of sunscreen on your skin.
http://birdybotanicals.com/cleansers.php
http://birdybotanicals.com/products.php
Take care and thanks again for your feedback and throwing in your 2 cents. I appreciate it greatly! Sunscreen is definitely a product that I get requests for all the time and some day you will see it on my shelves, but that day is still in the future.
Regards,
Sally