Tell the truth: when buying sunscreen, do you really know why you opt for an SPF 30 or 50? This information is always present in the packaging of the product, but many people have no idea what it means and why it is so important.

The SPF is nothing more than the sun protection factor, the measure of the protector against ultraviolet sun rays B (UVB), responsible for leaving the skin red when we are in the sun. And the SPF number indicates how long we can be exposed to the sun's rays without that happening. We swear it's simple to understand! For example: if a person's skin takes five minutes to suffer the effects of the sun, using a 30 SPF sunscreen they can stay 30 times longer than that period, i.e. 150 minutes! 

This is not to say that a protector with higher SPF is necessarily better than one of SPF 30, the minimum recommended to protect the skin. They do protect longer. Dermatologists also usually point them out because almost no one applies the product optimally. The amount indicated by professionals corresponds to one teaspoon for each segment of the body, such as each arm and each leg. In the whole body, it would be about 100 grams in each application. Hard for someone to follow that to the letter, huh?

 

Therefore, a safer way to get the same result is to bet on a sunscreen with a protection higher than 30, which used in the "incorrect" way (going back there to the question of quantity will correspond to a lower FPS, but still within the recommended. 

Reapplications are also very important for optimal skin protection and the recommended thing is that regardless of the factor, they are done every two hours or every time you sweat a lot or get into the water.

In addition to SPF, there are other components in sunscreen that are important, such as protection against UVA rays, which is what pigments, tans and can stain the skin. Filters that protect against pollution and blue light (that of computers and mobile phones), which is also harmful, can already be found on the market.