Your Ultimate Sunscreen Guide: How to Shop for SPF and Protect Your Skin

Wendy Rodewald-Sulz

Wearing sunscreen every day is just about the best thing you can do for your skin. Not only does sun protection help to decrease your risk of developing skin cancer, it also prevents premature aging of the skin. According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, “People who use sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher daily show 24 percent less skin aging than those who do not use sunscreen daily.” (Please excuse us while we slather on the zinc oxide.)

Even though the benefits are clear, many of us still aren’t giving our best effort to protecting our skin from the sun. It’s true, shopping for sunscreen can be overwhelming, and there’s plenty of misinformation out there about how to use sunscreen effectively (yes, you need to apply every two hours; no, there’s no such thing as a “waterproof” formula). To help you learn everything you need to know, we turned to the experts—board-certified dermatologists—to create this ultimate sunscreen guide. Stay sun-safe out there, friends.

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