We’re deep in the throes of summer, so I don’t need to remind you to wear sunscreen. Still, you’re forgiven if, on a rare occasion, you end up with a little too much sun. You know, as a treat. You’re only human.
That happened to me when I woke up with a slight sunburn on my top lip. It caught me off guard, not because I didn’t know it could happen, but because until then, it just hadn’t. It turns out that even if you’re a person with a four-step lip routine, you can still overlook SPF on top. And if I’m missing out there, where else am I skimping? I slather my legs in sunscreen, but my feet? Sorry, they’re too far. My ears? Technically part of my face, I guess. And on the days I don’t wear a baseball cap? My scalp’s on its own. Which is to say that all of these neglected areas need to be a little less neglected. Below, what I plan to use to get fully covered.
Lips
The problem with a lot of lip sunscreens is that they taste like you licked a battery. That’s not the case with Prequel Lip Visors. Both shades, a clear and a dusty rose, smell minty and taste a little sweet if you happen to over-apply. Naturium’s Phyto-Glow balms have a similar appeal, with one clear and four neutral-toned shades. My favorite is Getaway, a nude rose that falls squarely into the nudey-brown family I love. Innbeauty’s Sun Balms are a notch higher on the opacity scale, with my go-to being Latte, a milk chocolate with a hint of pink. And for even more opaque options, BeautyStat has a neutral peach and a baby pink, both formulated with l-ascorbic acid and scented like an orange creamsicle.
Eyelids
Applying sunscreen over your eyes is… tricky. At best your eyes water, at worst they sting. The solution is a bit of savvy international shopping by way of Korean beauty sites, which carry non-irritating sunscreens with more advanced filters that aren’t available in the States. Two remain a constant for me: Beauty of Joseon’s Relief Sun and Round Lab’s Birch UVLock. They’re light but not runny and formulated for your entire face, which is the allure here—why use two separate products when you can protect your eyelids and face with just one?
Hands and feet
Isn’t it enough that I reapply body sunscreen throughout the day? Probably not—especially since I’ve been skipping some key areas. Naked Sundays made me a lotion convert. Their Antioxidant Crème, which is a body SPF, is so thick and silky it can work doubletime as a hand sunscreen. But it doesn’t stop there. The tops of my feet, which peek out from my ballet flats, are constantly catching the sun, so now they get SPF via Naked Sunday’s’ crème, too. And for days when I don’t want to carry a bottle, I keep Tula’s SPF 50 stick in my bag and swipe it on in place of the cream. It truly couldn’t be easier.
Ears
I know ears are technically part of the face, but weirdly, I can't accept that, so I don't extend my face sunscreen over to cover that area. Instead, after I’ve put the Naked Sundays on my hands, I’ll take whatever didn’t fully absorb and dab it on my ears. Listen, I didn’t say this is logical, it’s just how I do it. But if you have a better relationship to logic than me, the aforementioned K-beauty formulas will do the trick.
Scalp
The thing about your scalp is you don’t think about it until it’s red and angry. To prevent that, you can just wear a baseball hat (I do), or lean into brush-on sunscreen formulas. Supergoop!’s Poof SPF 35 was made specifically for the scalp, but you can also run a brush-on stick meant for the face (like Colorescience’s) through your part. Bonus: They double as dry shampoo and cut down on greasy shine between washes. Or you can go the easy route with a bottle of Coola’s SPF 30 mist—but only if you don’t have color-treated hair.
—Daise Bedolla
Photo via ITG