Serious Sun Care and Sunscreen

Asian women are notorious for the care of their skin when it comes to the sun. The sun can damage and age the skin, giving rise to sun spots and wrinkles. Asian women often use various sun cover ups and sunscreens, which is their beauty secret to having youthful, pale skin.

Sun Covers:

Asian women are very diligent about blocking the sun's UV rays from hitting their skin. They often wear wide brimmed hats to cover their faces:

and also these strange hats with clear face covers that doubles as a visor:

The visor can be lifted up to use as a brim, or pulled over the face to protect skin.

In the popular music video Gangnam Style by Psy, you can see jogging women wearing these sort of visors.

They also use arm covers and gloves to protect their arms and hands from aging while driving or going out on a walk:

Arm covers for driving from DAISO

Driving or walking gloves from DAISO. I own a pair that looks like the one on the left, they sort of look like floral gardening gloves.

Below are photos of some driving/walking gloves that I own. I bought them both at DAISO. I am very careful about protecting my hands from the sun. I usually put them in my pocket, wear gloves, or cover them with a long sleeve. After a trip to Hawaii I noticed I had a mole on my hand that grew, since at that time I did not protect my hands from the sun with sunscreen. Ever since then, I started to always wear sunscreen on my hands. Unfortunately, my hand modeling days are over, since I have a burn on my left hand from an iron.

I love these, they look elegant, but it's too bad they only offer minimal protection from the sun.

These are also driving gloves, they offer full protection from the sun. The only thing is, they are kind of large. They also have nice gripping dots on the palms. I think these are actually the same kind of gloves they give pall bearers.

You may often see Asian women using umbrellas during the day as they walk around outdoors. This blocks the sun's direct, damaging rays. Although effective, the UV rays can still reflect off of other objects, such as sidewalks and buildings, so an extra layer of protection is still needed, which brings us to the next topic.

Sunscreen:

 Asian women are also very diligent about wearing sunscreen. You may seem them in public, shamelessly looking in a compact mirror, re-applying sunscreen to their face. They wear it rain or shine. UV rays can actually go through clouds, so it is a good idea to continue to protect your skin with sunscreen even on a cloudy, winter day.

In the U.S., there are limited varieties of sunscreens available in drugstores, with more varieties in specialty beauty stores. In Asia, there is a huge variety of sunscreens available. There are sunscreens in the form or liquids, and powders, not often found in the U.S., along with the usual cream and lotion sorts. Many of these sunscreens feature active mineral ingredients (like Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide), as opposed to the chemical sunscreen ingredients. The mineral sunscreen provides broad spectrum protection, with the added benefit of evening out skin tone because the mineral sunscreens have a whitening effect, since they protect the skin by reflecting UV rays.

Liquid Sunscreens:

My personal favorites are the liquid sunscreens. My favorite brand is the Biore UV perfect milk, because it is pretty cheap and has a high SPF  50and PA+++, the highest UVA protection. The price range for this is usually $7 if you buy it in Asia, to $13 if you order online. One bottle also lasts me about three months.

Biore UV Perfect Milk

This sunscreen is quite watery and milky, and has a nice, dry finish.

Sunscreen rubbed into my hand. It is almost invisible.

Shiseido also makes a nice liquid sunscreen, but it is quite pricey at $40 for a little bottle. These liquid sunscreens are perfect for oily skin, as they dry with a nice, light finish. They usually have a metal ball inside of the bottle because you need to shake the bottle to mix the ingredients well before dispensing.

Shiseido Sunscreen

Powder Sunscreens:

We are told that we are supposed to reapply sunscreen after every two hours or so, but it is often difficult to do if you are wearing cosmetics. This is where powdered sunscreen is really useful! You can simply layer it on top of your makeup. Below is a foundation SPF 25 compact by Mistine that I bought in Thailand. It was so cheap, only about $5 US.

Powdered Sunscreen compact, SPF 25, by Mistine, a Thai beauty brand

I mostly bought this because of the beautiful flowers. I will probably refill the compact when I finish it.

It is a Thai brand, but it is made in Korea!

It has a secret compartment for the applicator sponge.

Powdered sunscreens attached to a brush are really convenient. One that I have tried was by Peter Thomas Roth:

I also bought the raw sunscreen ingredients, powdered zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. I put zinc oxide in a powder container and I usually mix a little in with my liquid sunscreen to add more protection to my sunscreen. It also gives my sunscreen an extra powdery texture, which is great for my oily skin. Be careful not to overdo it, you can look as white as a geisha.
A word of caution: powdered sunscreens are dangerous in their application as you might inhale the powdered particles, which may cause cancer and other lung problems. Make sure you use a powdered sunscreen in a well ventilated area and hold your breath while you apply. Using a brush to apply puts more particles in the air than using a sponge applicator.

Some Asian women are sunscreen hoarders. Here is my personal sunscreen collection for this Summer:

Collection of sunscreens for the Summer.

 I use the Biore UV liquid sunscreen for my face, the BabyGanics sunscreen for my neck and hands, and the Coppertone Wacky Foam and Sublime Sun Oil sunscreens for my arms and legs. The powder container in the picture is powdered zinc oxide which I mix into my facial sunscreen.