I have had a spiritual SPF awakening in my life this past year. Yes. I repeat, a spiritual SPF awakening. Obvi I had to write a poem about it, but seriously guys, buckle up, cause it's about to go down. <----------(#stuffwhitepeoplesay)
So a little backstory folks:
I used to only put on sunscreen as a last-minute means of protection getting fried on an extremely sunny beach day. That was the ONLY time I wore it. Probably like most of the Western world, I valued being tannnnnn.
You know what I mean: tan. Tan where you feel sexy and powerful. Tan like oh no you can't see these weird iron deficiency bruises on my legs because I'm tannnnnnn. Tan like yes I'm gonna show a little shoulder even if I'm in church because I'm tannnnnnn. Tan. You get it.
Oh if I could shake my former self!
Now I'm not even going to talk about tanning beds. Ya'll swim at your own risk with that one, this life guard is not on duty. I'm here to address everyday SPF use.
I don't even have an excuse as many people do: I had a real straight-up DERMATOLOGIST tell me when I was 15 how important SPF was. I had an appointment for a serious case of warts on my feet (ew I know, but that story is for another time.) After taking a thirty second look at my feet, he began fixating on my face full of freckles. I'm not sure to this day if he was in awe of the sheer amount taking up real-estate on my face, or if he was horrified by the potential I had for skin cancer. Perhaps a combination of both.
Either way, he immediately prescribed me a night cream and a daily Olay moisturizer with SPF. To be honest, I thought he was insulting me. I felt like the freaky freckled girl! None of my friends had to wear daily SPF!
So I went on living my life, only applying sunscreen at the insistence of my mother, or only if I had already been burned. It wasn't until Springtime of 2018 when I was following the youtube vlogs of Valeria Lipovetsky that I learned that sunscreen was actually important for daily skincare! She taught me that you can moisturize all you want, but the number one thing that will prevent premature aging is sunscreen and a high SPF!
Man alive. When a gorgeous Russian mommy blogger model is telling you to wear sunscreen, you use sunscreen.
With a new determination to not look like an old hag by the time I'm 45, I started researching SPF benefits and found out pretty quickly that the people with the corner on this knowledge market were the ladies from Japan, China, South Korea, etc.
You know why 40 year old Korean women look insanely gorgeous? It's their skin routines! Yes, those ladies may look strange with their sun hats, parasols, and sweaters on the beach, but they have a wealth of knowledge up those sweater sleeves that us Westerners foolishly laugh at.
So now I wear SPF 50 on my face, arms, hands, chest, and neck every day. I wear it to go to the store, I wear it on overcast days, and I FOR SURE wear it to walk my dog. This skin is going to be protected! One day, when my eccentricities calcify into the veins of my personality, you will see me strolling down the street with a parasol between me and the sunshine.
“One day, when my eccentricities calcify into the veins of my personality, you will see me strolling down the street with a parasol between me and the sunshine.”
My current sunscreen has a Minion wearing a hula skirt from Despicable Me plastered on the bottle. But it was 3$ from TJ Maxx and hasn't caused me to break out yet so I'm gucci with it.
There is NO such thing as overprotection from the sun! Don't just wear sunscreen, try to cover up your skin in general from the sun. Sit in the shade on the beach! Wear a hat. The advice is endless.
Your skin is the first thing to betray signs of aging, and youth is the cornerstone of beauty (for like thousands of years.) Take care of your skin, preserve your youth, look gorgeous longer! What's not to love!
So here is my final ode:
Oh SPF how foolish I've been,
baking and tanning all up in the sun.
If only I had you sooner how luscious I'd be,
if I'd been smarter, what different skin I would see!
The days went by when I used to ignore you
but oh SPF now how I adore you!
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