Author: Surrey Laser Clinic

Recognising these distinctions and practicing sun safety can protect your skin from harmful UV radiation, reducing your risk of skin cancer and premature aging. This blog explores the difference between tanning and sunburn.

The Basics of Tans and Sunburns

Tans and sunburns are the body’s reactions to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun.

Let’s break down how each happens…….

Tans

• Exposure to UV Rays -When your skin gets exposed to UV light, especially UVA rays, it produces more melanin.
• Melanin Production – Melanin is a pigment made by skin cells called melanocytes. It helps absorb and spread out UV radiation, acting like a natural sunscreen.
• Types of Melanin – There are two types, eumelanin, which is darker and offers more UV protection, and pheomelanin, which is lighter and offers less protection.
• Tanning Process – As melanin increases, your skin darkens, creating a tan. This is your body’s way of trying to protect itself from more UV damage. However, even a tan can’t fully protect your skin from harm.

Sunburns

• Excessive UV Exposure – Sunburns occur when your skin is exposed to too much UV light, especially UVB rays.
• Damage to Skin Cells – UVB rays penetrate the outer skin layer (epidermis) and damage cellular DNA, leading to inflammation and the redness and pain of a sunburn.
• Inflammatory Response – Your immune system responds by dilating blood vessels and sending inflammatory cells to the damaged area, causing redness, swelling, and pain.
• Long-Term Effects – UVB rays can damage DNA and cause mutations in skin cells, increasing the risk of skin cancer. Sunburns are a clear sign of serious skin damage.

By understanding how tans and sunburns work, you can better protect your skin from harmful UV rays and reduce the risk of skin cancer and premature aging.

Identifying Sunburn – Symptoms and Immediate Steps

Recognising sunburn and acting quickly can help reduce discomfort and prevent further skin damage. Here’s how to identify sunburn and what to do if it happens….

Signs of Sunburn

• Red Skin – The skin looks red and may feel warm.
• Pain and Tenderness – Sunburned skin is often painful, tender, tight, or itchy.
• Swelling – Severe sunburn can cause swelling.
• Blisters – Severe sunburns may result in blisters, indicating significant skin damage.

Immediate Actions

• Get Out of the Sun – Move indoors or to a shaded area immediately to prevent more damage.
• Moisturise – Apply a gentle, soothing moisturizer with aloe vera to reduce dryness and pain.
• Hydrate – Drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration.
• Pain Relief – Take over-the-counter pain relievers like ibuprofen to ease discomfort.
• Protect Skin – Keep sunburned skin covered or stay in the shade to avoid further exposure.
• Handle Blisters Carefully – If blisters form, do not pop them to avoid infection.
• Rest – Stay in a cool, shaded area and avoid activities that could irritate your skin further.

If you need any help or advice with your skin this summer, please get in touch and chat with one of our Experts, or call us at 01932 731762.

The Role of Hydration in Skin Health

Hydration is crucial for healthy skin. Adequate water intake keeps skin elastic, soft, and supple, while dehydration causes dryness, flakiness, and dullness. Dehydration can make dark circles more prominent as it thins the skin, revealing blood vessels. Drinking water improves blood circulation, which may reduce the appearance of dark circles.

Benefits of Staying Hydrated

• Clearer Complexion: Water flushes out toxins, enhancing skin tone.
• Reduced Puffiness: Balances the water-salt ratio in the skin.
• Anti-Aging: Maintains skin elasticity, slowing the aging process.

How Much Water Should You Drink?

The Eatwell Guide recommends that people should aim to drink 6 to 8 cups or glasses of fluid a day. Water, lower-fat milk and sugar-free drinks, including tea and coffee, all count.

You may need to drink more fluids if you’re:

• pregnant or breastfeeding
• in a hot environment
• physically active for long periods
• ill or recovering from illness

Can Drinking Water Reduce Dark Circles?

Dark circles under the eyes are a common issue, often blamed on lack of sleep, stress, or aging. While numerous eye creams promise amazing results, the power of hydration is often overlooked. Can drinking water really help reduce dark circles?

Why Do Dark Circles Appear?

Dark circles result from the thin skin under the eyes revealing blood vessels more clearly. Factors like sleep deprivation, aging, and genetics can make them more noticeable.

Beyond Drinking Water

Hydration isn’t just about drinking water. Foods with high water content, such as cucumbers, watermelon, and oranges, as well as herbal teas and infused waters, also contribute to hydration.

Additional Tips

• Quality Sleep: Aim for 7-8 hours of restful sleep each night to allow your skin to repair.
• Comprehensive Skincare: Combine hydration with good sleep, a balanced diet, and effective topical treatments for the best results.

For personalised advice, book a Skin Consultation with one of our Experts, or call us at 01932 731762.

Higher is not always better… This week, we wanted to share this fantastic BLOG from our friends at Alumier. We are incredibly happy that we have Alumier products at Surrey Laser Clinic

There are so many sunscreens available now – and they’re all labelled with lots of confusing information – so it’s easy to just reach for the one that looks like it has the highest protection. SPF 50 is higher than 30 and 40, so that’s better, right? Not always. Sorry to disrupt your brainwaves, BUT if SPF is the only thing you think about when it comes to defending your skin against the damaging impact of the sun and environment, we’re here to tell you “think wider…”

The negative effects of the sun’s rays (the degradation of skin health, advanced signs of ageing to name a few and lest we forget skin cancer) come from a multitude of rays, not just burning UVB rays. What about environmental damage? What about the full spectrum of light that comes from the sun including UVA, blue light and infrared? There’s also free radicals and pollution to consider, too.

SPF is important, but not the only thing that you need to be looking for in a sunscreen, it turns out choosing a high SPF isn’t a shortcut to total skin protection. So, let’s find out what is.
 

WHAT DOES “SPF” MEAN?

SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor and in short, it’s a measure of the length of time your skin can last without burning. For example, if you have very fair skin and you burn within one minute of standing in the sun, put on SPF 10 and you’ll be able to stay in the sun for 10 minutes without burning. SPF 30 = 30 minutes and so on. The difference between them is actually quite minimal… let us explain. SPF 30 blocks out 96.7% of UVB radiation, SPF 40 blocks out 97.5% of UVB radiation and SPF 50 blocks 98%.

SPF IS important because UVB rays can damage skin health, but they can be blocked by clouds. They’re only around on very sunny days, making up 5% of the UV rays that reach the earth’s surface.

We refer to UVA rays as ‘stealth ray’. They travel through clouds and glass, and they’re present 365 days a year. These long light waves can penetrate through to the deep layers of skin where they can cause collagen and elastin degradation. Lines, wrinkles, discolouration… the works. FYI – A sunscreen’s SPF doesn’t measure its ability to protect against UVA, so if you’re only looking at SPF, you need to zoom out… way out.
 

PROTECTING AGAINST THE ENVIRONMENT

There are two main filters used in SPF products – chemical and physical.

With AlumierMD, they chose to formulate with physical sunscreens only, specifically, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide because they protect against both long UVA and short UVB rays. They work, in the main, by sitting on top of the skin reflecting the light away, so it doesn’t degrade by doing its job. Therefore, once you put it on you are protected until you take it off.

Each of the sunscreens offers high-performance daily protection by going beyond the science of skin defence. Think power antioxidants, vitamin C and super hydrators sodium hyaluronate and hyaluronic acid.
 

Formulating sunscreens that you WANT to wear

White coats at the ready!

Let’s all imagine we’re chemists formulating with the sunscreen filters zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, there’s a lot to think about. Photostability? Frequency of application? Spectrum of protection? Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide aces them all. Plus, they are the only two sunscreen filters generally recognised as safe and effective (GRAS) certified by the FDA.

They are both thick white minerals, meaning chemists will have a job to get a high SPF that feels nice to wear, without chemicals. You’ll often see that high SPFs have a blend of physical and chemical filters. We have pushed our SPFs to SPF 40 or SPF 42 which is as high as we could get them without leaving a white cast or adding chemical filters. And we’ve done it! They feel so lightweight and comfortable, 90% of people* said their skin was more hydrated when using one of our sunscreens.

You might notice a change

Recently the European Commission announced they will only recognise SPF 30 or SPF 50 and not any SPFs in between. So that means our SPF 40 and 42 sunscreens must now say SPF 30 on the bottle, even though the percentage of protection remains the same and they will continue to be labelled SPF 40 and SPF 42 in the North Americas.

Why didn’t we upgrade to an SPF50? Because it would only offer 0.5% more protection, would be unpleasant to use if we didn’t add chemical filters and SPF only speaks to one portion of environmental protection required to protect the longevity of skin health.

So, between a basic formula with high SPF, and a hard-working hybrid sunscreen, with robust filters, that protects against all six environmental aggressors (UVB, UVA, pollution, free radicals, infrared and blue light) PLUS tippling up as your hydrating serum and foundation or tinted moisturiser…

Your pro can help you find your perfect match with personalised sunscreen recommendations for your individual skin needs and as ever, please get in touch or book in with one of our Experts here, if you want to have a quick chat, please do give us a call on 01932 731762.

When it comes to skin health, regular facials are a must to support skin’s natural renewal process and reveal a healthy looking, fresh appearance.

The skin cycle

Did you know that your skin is constantly renewing itself?

Every month dead skin cells travel from the innermost layer of the epidermis to the surface of the skin in a process called keratinisation.

These dead skin cells or corneocytes, still have a vital function in forming the skin barrier, which protects skin from aggressors such as pollution, germs and other irritants. As the cycle continues, they are naturally exfoliated by the skin over time. This prevents the build-up of too many dead cells (which would clog up the skin’s surface) and in turn stimulates new cells to grow.

What happens to our skin when we get older?

As we grow older, this skin renewal process slows down. Rather than a month, keratinisation can take up to 45 days or more, depending on the individual biological activity.

This means that dead skin cells build up on the surface of the skin, resulting in changes to the skin quality including roughness, enlarged pores, congestion, irritation, and a dull, greyish looking appearance.

What’s an advanced facial?

To help and support a healthy skin renewal process, we strongly advise regular ‘advanced’ facials with your experienced skincare professional, every 4-6 weeks. More than a simple “pampering” facial with relaxing massage techniques, advanced treatments include Hydrafacial, laser or chemical peels, along with products containing biologically active ingredients to support the health of your skin cells and address your individual skin concerns.

Please get in touch or book in with one of our Experts here, if you want to have a quick chat, please do give us a call on 01932 731762