What is SPF?

It is important to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful radiation all year long. Many cosmetics and creams have at least a minimal amount of sun protection factor, or SPF, but most people do not understand what this actually means or the true level of protection they receive.

At Skin Begins, we have a wide variety of fine skin care products and mineral makeup that include SPF components. If you are looking for high-quality skin cosmetics that offer protection and conditioning for your skin, please visit Skin Begins today.

Understanding SPF

Sun protection factor, or SPF, is a metric for determining how long a product will protect the skin from the sun’s UVB radiation, or the rays that cause sunburn. In general, SPF measures the amount of time a skin product will protect you from sunburn. For instance, if your skin normally burns in 20 minutes, applying SPF 15 would increase the amount of time it takes for your skin to develop a sunburn by 15 times, protecting you for about 5 hours.

As SPF increases, the protection it provides suffers from diminishing returns. At an SPF of 15, your skin is protected from approximately 93% of the sun’s rays. More SPF provides a minimal increase in protection. SPF 30 and 50 only block around 97% and 98% of the sun’s UVB radiation, respectively.

SPF and UVA Radiation

Unfortunately, the protection provided by most sunscreens only applies to UVB radiation. The sun also produces UVA radiation, which penetrates deeper into the skin than UVB. While SPF is not used to measure UVA protection, the FDA is working on an equivalent metric for UVA radiation.

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The skin care experts at Skin Begins pride themselves in their excellence in providing high-quality skin care products, many of which include protection from the sun’s dangers. If you are interested in beginning a skin care regimen, take a moment to browse through our website today.