Screen quest

For Dr. Beatrice Wang, summer is a frustrating season. Every day, the Montreal dermatologist watches sun worshippers shed clothes like a chrysalis in spring and slowly bake themselves to a crisp nut brown.

And every day, at McGill University's Melanoma Clinic where she is director, she sees patients looking for help with skin cancer, sun damage, premature wrinkles and uneven pigmentation.

"You just can't beat it into the public mind that a tan is a sign of sun damage," Wang sighs. "Or that it's a sign your DNA has been affected, and that your skin is reacting to protect you by getting thicker and browner. We think of it as healthy-looking, but, ironically, a tan means wrinkling, brown spots, leathery skin and dilated blood vessels. The net outcome is you look a lot older than you really are."

But fear not: The sunscreen industry has just the thing for you. Once a thick, gloppy mess that attracted sand, lint and bugs to your skin, sunscreens have evolved into multitasking super-cosmetics that do more than just protect you from harmful UVA and UVB sunrays.

Got fine lines? There's a sunscreen for that. Need a little moisturizer? There's something for that, too. Don't like the texture of sunscreen? Working on it.

There are sunscreens with anti-aging formulas, sunscreens with antioxidants, sunscreens with moisturizers -- and moisturizers with sunscreen. There are high-end cosmetics like Lancôme's Bienfail Multi-Vital SPF 30 foundation ($58) and Lise Watier Sun Smart SPF 30 ($38), and lower-end lotions, like Boots' No. 7 Soft and Sheer tinted moisturizer with SPF 15 ($17). There are sunscreens with self-tanners (Neutrogena's "colour boosting" SPF 30, $16.99), powdered sunscreens (Pür Minerals' SPF 15 Pressed Powder 4-in-1, $30) and even an SPF 60 lotion from Aveeno ($15.99) with "rejuvenating shiitake mushroom extract."

Before long, predicts Wang, multi-functional sunscreens will not just prevent but also undo sun damage by reducing skin inflammation and repairing DNA affected by solar radiation.

Posted in Beauty on 06/30/2009 - 0 Comments