You are my Sunshine

I have an obsession with my skin. The other day I was reading one of my "mom magazines" and I stumbled across an interesting little tid-bit. I was reading about using sunscreen and how most people don't use the proper amount. This was interesting to me because in my attempt to thwart nature and have my skin looking "youthful and beautiful" for many years to come I slather sunblock on my face every morning. And yes, that was sunblock, not sunscreen or moisturizer with SPF - straight sunblock. Most of this obsession boils down to the fact that my skin does not look flawless, nor has it ever, and I believe sunblock will help. (Just go with me on this one.)

Anyhoo, back to my article. Apparently, I am not using enough sunblock and it does me little good to even put it on considering the vast difference in the amount I am supposed to be using. So I decided to put to use my newfound knowledge and the after getting out of the shower the other day I squirted the alotted tablespoon of sunblock into my hands.


As I stared at the puddle of sunblock in my hand, all I could think of was, "Hmmmmm, that does look like a lot of sunblock." (Especially considering I generally use about, oh I don't know, 1/4 a teaspoon. And for those of you who don't know there are 3 teapsoons to every tablespoon which would put me at needing about 12 times more sunblock). Courageously, I began rubbing my sunblock in.


Soon I realized my skin was no longer absorbing the sunblock. And I still had a fistful left. Well, I didn't want to wear sunblock if it wasn't going to protect my skin. So instead of "fingering" my face, I just plunged in and started "palming" my face with both hands. Now it didn't matter if I started second guessing this "tested" amount of sunblock. I was too far into it. Eventually I opened my eyes to a face streaked with white. I started to focus in on just the obvious white and gave it a good rubbing. Unfortunately, those white streaks were by now semi-dry and I stared in horror at the chunks of sunblock that began appearing. After I flicked those off I decided to just let my saturated face dry and attempt at smoothing it over with makeup. Hopefully my face wasn't ruined for the day.


And that's exactly what I did. And then I went out into the sun with my caked on mask knowing that I was protected from all rays of sunshine. I also know that I will not be doing that again!


So in an attempt to further pass on the education I received, this same article informed me that I was supposed to be using about 1 cup of sunblock for my entire body. And this was is supposed to be repeated every few hours.......


Meaning my big bottle of sunblock that lasts all year and possibly longer should last approximately 2-3 days.


So open your wallets this summer. Sunblock doesn't come cheap!!