Monday, November 30, 2009

First Day of Summer...



Today (December 1st) is the first day of our Australian summer...time for those who love the look of Dita Von Tease (as I do!!) to get out the broad brimmed hats, paper sun parasols and the sunscreen to preserve or English rose complexions! I am 30-something now, and I wish I had heeded the advice of my Grandma Jean away back in my primary school days. Grandma always told me time and again to cover up (hat, sunscreen, etc) whenever I was in the sun or I would end up "looking like a wrinkled old prune" - and she was so right ! But it is so much more than prevention of wrinkles and skin cancers.....protection from the sun will also prevent blemishes and discolouration that are really the first tell tale signs of an aging face. Oh to go back in time knowing what I know now !! Young girls, if you are reading this please protect your skin ! You will thank me for it one day !

There are products and cosmetic procedures to remove the signs of sun damage (think Nicole Kidman - what did she have done to remove all those 'BMX Bandit' freckles, I am desperate to know ?!!!) but at this point in time they are very expensive ($2500-$3000plus) with no real insights into long term health and safety from their use. The best cosmetic procedure once again is protect protect protect.

Personally, I don't like to go to heavy on the sunscreen as it leaves a very greasy look and heavy feel to my make up all day long - I cringe when I leave greasy finger prints on my glass sliding doors...my children do enough of that without my adding to it ! I am also quite wary of exposing my skin to too many chemicals - I once visited the snow with some friends and after putting sunblock on our faces, I reached out to wipe a dab of it off the car, and came away with sunscreen AND chips of blue paint off the car - not impressed !!!! For these reasons, although I am not into product promotion here, I prefer to use Olay SPF15 moisturiser every day - it is not too heavy, and the chemical component isn't as bad as an SPF30. For the rest I prefer old fashioned methods of hats, parasols and shade.

As you can see by the pictures I have attached to this post, people in the past have not always been aware that the sun is the primary cause of aging. Once again, Grandma was right - against all the information available at the time, she knew about skin health and I have to say, her complexion was beautiful right up into her 70's.......I only hope my grandchildren may one day be able to say the same about me........I think I will have to do something about these freckles for that to happen !!!!

1 comment:

  1. What a terrific cover of the AWW! I love it! That is a scary sunscreen story. I must admit I do think in the future they will be horrified we splashed chemical sunscreens around over our children and ourselves. I am forever seeing old ladies with lovely skin and when I ask their secret it's something iike Ponds and they always add 'I never went into the sun' Alas, I lay in the sun and slathered myself in vinegar to burn as that's what you did in the '70's! How I wish I could go back and redo all that damage! xx

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