Check Your Suncreens!
Check Your Suncreens!
As you know, I’m a big user of sunscreen. I’m extremely pale, I burn in less than 5 minutes and I can’t tan. I just get red and peel. Yuck. If you have rosacea like I do, it’s very bad for you to get burns, so I really do everything I can to prevent sun damage and sun burns.
I keep sunscreen all over the place. I keep it in my cars, in the little bags on my bikes, in my bathrooms, I keep it by the door to go out, etc. I always go through my facial moisturizer with SPF rapidly. I never thought that I needed to check the expiration dates on my sunscreen.
I was wrong! Ray has been riding his bike outside and using one of the spray on sunscreens by the door. He ended up with a burn on the back of his neck. I asked him if he’d made sure to rub it in.
If you’re using a spray on sunscreen, it is imperative to spray it on your body and then rub it in. If you just spray it on and don’t rub it in, you’re getting like SPF 2, instead of SPF 50 or whatever is on the bottle. I know a lot of people use mist sunscreen incorrectly, so in case you didn’t know before, you do now!
Also, don’t forget your lips. I didn’t know about putting lip balm with SPF on your lips for years, and I have a freckle on my upper lip line. Protect your lips!
So anyway, I looked at the bottle of sunscreen that Ray had been using and sure enough, it said it had an expiration date of 2012. Oops! Major mistake on my part!
Don’t let this happen to you! Check your bottles of sunscreen regularly, especially if you hoard sunscreen around the house and your cars like I do!
If you do get burnt, I recommend that you use 100% pure aloe to cool the burn. Nothing feels better to me than pure aloe. The one I prefer, by Fruit of the Earth, is pure aloe, no added scent or coloring. This is only if you have a mild burn. I’ve had nasty second degree burns with blistering, which required medical treatment. If you have a serious burn you should consult your physician immediately!
While I know Fall is happening in many parts of the world, if you’re in Florida, like I am, or in warmer climates like Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, etc, you need to remember to use sunscreen and check your labels! I know that I use sunscreen year round.
Have you ever had your sunscreen go bad? Did you end up with a sunburn? Do you wear sunscreen year round?
cinseven13 It is so important!
lumay1966 My problem is I do go through my facial moisturizer with SPF fast. But the rest of my body because I keep it all over the place and put it on in various places, I don’t go through those bottles evenly. I should just keep it all in the bathroom and then I won’t have that problem.
If one is using a 6-8 oz bottle of sunscreen correctly, then it should be used well before it expires. I think the suggested amount is 2 T of sunscreen to cover your entire body.
That’s funny, just last week I just checked all of mine and tossed one that was going to expire at the end of the month! I’m always reminding my family about expiration dates.