I went without sunscreen for 40 days during lockdown. Here's what happened to my skin!
Warning: don’t do this at home, alright? It’s been over 40 days since I wore sunscreen on my face and body. I haven’t used a single drop of it since the Manila lockdown started! I do my normal skincare routine otherwise - essence, moisturizer, I even mask - so it’s not really laziness. Part of it is because I don’t have any more Biore UV Aqua Rich backups at home (my HG sunscreen), but a huge reason is a morbid curiosity of mine on how important sunscreen REALLY is to my skin. I wanted to find out what will happen if I just stop using sunscreen altogether. Call it insanity. Call it a sacrifice for science.
No close-ups. I’m not that strong.
First, my routine: I walk the dogs around 6:30 - 7:00 AM (with proper social distancing of course), and finish about 45 minutes to an hour after. I do get sun exposure but nothing past 8AM. Then I walk them once more at around 5:00 - 5:30 PM in the evening, so again I don’t get a lot of damaging sun exposure, which usually happens between 9AM and 4PM. I stay at home in between these trips outside. My apartment however has windows on three of its four sides, but I have curtains drawn all day. Light comes in though because my curtains are not thick; I don’t like my home to be too dark.
In other words, I get some sunlight filtering through the windows, but no direct sunlight other than the times I leave the house. So what happened when I stopped using sunscreen on my face and body?
Must read: Six Pinoy sunscreens to try under P500 (Belo, Celeteque, Kojie San, Dermplus, & Maxipeel)
Well, first of all, I am about a shade to a shade and a half darker than my normal skin color. I know because whenever I do a live video on Facebook to play with makeup, all of my usual foundations before the lockdown are wayyy too light. Only the darker ones look sort of ok on me. I also have light tan lines where my shorts and my t-shirt sleeves usually fall!
The most annoying thing though is how all my blemishes from newer pimples are darker and more stubborn to remove. I am also developing some fine wrinkles that probably only I can see, but this results in a more mottled and tired complexion overall. My skin is simply not bouncing back from damage as fast as it normally does, even with constant moisture, retinol, and exfoliation (both physical and chemical).
So yeah. My 40+ days of stupidly experimenting with a no-sunscreen lifestyle is over. Don’t be like me. Now where can I get some Biore? Although I think there may be some Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV in the office…
