A Guide To SPF

Hi there. I'm Abi Cleeve from Ultrasun. I've been in the sun care industry for 13 years, really helping people to make the right decisions on their sun care choices.

Today, I'm going to try and do the same for you. SPF stands for sun protection factor and it's a phrase we hear banded about a lot, but what does it really mean? The SPF is the amount of your own protection that that product affords you. So for example, if you were able to stay out in the sun for 4 minutes without burning, an SPF of 10 would afford you 40 minutes.

If you were using an SPF of 30, that would be 120 minutes or 2 hours. So, it's really escalating the amount of time you can stay out in the sun and stay protected. The SPF only refers to your protection from the UVB rays.

So, in conjunction with a high SPF, you must look for UVA protection as well. The SPF rulings have changed recently because the EU have recognized that we weren't adequately protecting our skin from the sun. As a result of this, they have changed the terms that we use when referring to SPF.

You may also see on products low protection, medium, high protection and very high. It's essential to be in the right bracket. High protection actually starts at a level of 30.

So, a product with an SPF of 30 is deemed as a high protection. I would advise everybody never to go below this level. Very high protection starts over 50.

So, you have an area of 30 to 50 deemed as high protection, 50 and above is seen as very high. I'm afraid anything under 20 now is deemed low protection and I would never advise using that and certainly not for children or people with vulnerable fair skin. 20 to 30 is known as medium but again there's no need to be using this level of protection.

Step up and really protect your skin. So remember, SPF stands for sun protection factor and that number you see is the amount of time of your own natural protection that that product will give you. Always choose a high or very high SPF and always look for UVA protection as well. .