[unpaid/purchase/affiliate] It’s summer so the SPF Brigade are in full swing on Instagram, scaring us witless about even thinking about the sun. We are assumed a common-sense free zone with no ability to adult without a lecture about the dangers on the sun. The algorithm on Instagram is serving me nothing but SPF advice (as well as bathroom makeovers which I swear I’ve never looked at in my life) and it’s making me paranoid. There’s also a very vocal anti-SPF crew who insist that it’s the sunscreen giving you cancer, not the sun. So, for balance, I’ve researched UK skin cancer rates which are indeed on the rise. They’re especially high (up by about a third in a decade) because of our ageing population who weren’t particularly mindful about sun risks, the popularity (declining) of sunbeds and more awareness of what skin cancer actually looks like. We can expect them to lower as the older population goes to meet the great beach in the sky and the effects of sun education start to filter through.
I follow someone called @Charlotteparler on Instagram and what she doesn’t know about SPF and regulatory isn’t worth knowing. Isa Knox is one of her favourite brands so I was very easily influenced into trying it. I like Korean SPFs anyway but this one is a bit different than your regular super-lightweight sunscreen that the country is known for. The Isa Knox UV Sun Pro Sun Fluid SPF50 is designed for both face and body although at £17 I’ll be keeping it for my face and using a high street brand for my body. I feel that’s a very reasonable price but 70ml will disappear in no time if you’re using it on your body as well.
It’s got a slight yellow tone to it and when you apply it to your face, initially there is definitely a white cast and it’s a bit thicker than my usual SPFs. However, as you work it in that whiteness disappears completely and the fluid dries down to a non-greasy, velvety finish where you don’t look sweaty or shiny. I’ve tried several bases over the top of it and so far haven’t met anything that Isa Knox doesn’t agree with. I should point out that I don’t know how the cast – or lack of – works for deep toned skin which tends to show casting far more easily. As things stand, we do need to be mindful of the sun and use SPF daily but where things get confusing is the small print that advises you to reapply every two hours – you’re in the office, make up perfect, and yet before 10 o’clock coffee, you’re having to reapply SPF? If you take heed of the experts, the answer is yes. If you use your common sense and you’ve been stuck in a dark meeting room for hours, the answer is no. I advised on Instagram to keep your SPF next to your toothbrush so you never forget to apply it and got an angry comment about how the variable temperatures of a bathroom make it a very unsafe place to store SPF. Honestly, unless your bathroom is a literal swamp, you can keep it in there. My bathroom is more or less the same temperature as any other room in the house but that comment is a good example of SPF hysteria. Common sense works fine. Isa Knox is HERE.
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