Sunscreens: how to choose the most suitable one

How to choose the most suitable sunscreen? This is not a trivial issue, nor a very easy one to approach in the absence of good and reliable information. Sun creams, in fact, not only are not all the same and do not all provide you with a certain amount of protection, but they are also different in that they are aimed at a certain skin type. And then on the market we can find different types of sunscreens, such as those from Eucerin, which are produced with different formulations to meet the needs of any skin type.

How to choose the most suitable sunscreen?

Sun creams are very important, as they ensure that the skin has a screen that can protect it from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, stimulating melanin properly, so that you get a beautiful but also healthy tan. But how to choose the right sunscreen? First of all by studying the level of photo-protection and adapting it to your needs, but also by assessing the degree of uniformity of protection: some creams, in fact, are not equally effective for UVA or UVB rays. In addition, a sunscreen worthy of the name should be water-repellent and constant-acting, so it should not disintegrate after a bath or after a few minutes spent in the sun. Finally, a good sunscreen always contains tinosorb, mexoryl or parsol.

Sunscreen: expert’s advice

If you still have doubts about how to choose sunscreen, you’ll be interested to know what Piergiacomo Calzavara Pinton, president of SideMast (Italian Society of Dermatology and Venereology), has to say about it. According to the expert, it is essential to analyze the packaging and labels of sun creams, which should always explain what level of uniformity is found in the balance of protection from the sun and the two types of ultraviolet rays (UVA and UVB). In addition, Pinton’s advice is to also choose the cream based on the presence of at least two of the elements we listed for you in the previous paragraph.

Choosing the cream according to skin phototype

Complexion type is a key factor in choosing a sunscreen, because a particular phototype also determines the level of the sun filter. But how to find out which phototype our skin belongs to? It starts from the “Scandinavian” type, with particularly fair skin and very blond hair, to the “Mediterranean” type, with dark hair and skin. In between we find different declinations of the two main phototypes: the “Irish” type (light complexion, copper hair), the phototype with light skin and brown hair, the light phototype with dark hair, and finally the olive phototype. As is obvious, lighter phototypes need high sunscreen (filter 50 recommended).