One of my most important jobs as a beauty editor is to inform the masses of the harmful and truly damaging effects of UV rays on our skin. Every dermatologist, every doctor, every product formulator and every skin expert I have ever met (of which there are been thousands) has told me the same thing: not wearing sun cream with adequate SPF protection every single day will age and damage your skin at best and lead to skin cancer at worst.
I am all too aware of these risks, so wear a high-factor SPF50 facial sunscreen every. single. day. Even today, when the weather is drab and we haven't seen sunshine in what feels like 84 years, my face is slathered in SPF50. And yet, just two months ago, like so many of us, I was lying out on my balcony, purposefully lounging in the sun. Why? Because something about having those rays hit my skin feels so damn good. But I also know that, when I'm sunbathing, my skin's exposure to UV rays and getting sunburnt is increasing my risk of developing skin cancer. So much so that, when I lie out in the sun, I spend most of the time analysing my moles—it's like I'm waiting for all my years of tanning to catch up with me.
