The winter grace period is over. From September the sun starts climbing again — and it doesn't stop until autumn.
Here's the thing nobody tells you about living on this island: the UV index climbs back into the high range from September and stays punishing right through summer. Not "beach day" high. Ten-minutes-and-you're-pink high — and it goes straight through cloud cover, through car windows, through that shaded verandah where you take your tea.
Which is why the single most useful skincare purchase you'll make this month isn't a serum. It's the sunscreen you'll genuinely wear every morning — and "genuinely wear" is the whole trick. The best SPF in the world does nothing sitting in a drawer because it pilled under your makeup or left you looking like a mime.
So: four sunscreens, four different skins. Find yours.
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How to actually pick one
- SPF 50 and PA++++ (or PA+++). SPF handles the burning rays; the PA rating handles the ageing ones that cause dark spots and slack skin. Under our sun you want both maxed.
- Match the finish to your skin, not to the marketing. Oily skin is happiest with a matte gel; dry skin wants a dewy, hydrating one. If your skin also stings or flushes easily, lean gentler still — reactivity sits on top of your skin type rather than replacing it. Pick the finish you like and you'll stop skipping days.
- Chemical or mineral? Modern chemical filters are the ones that vanish into the skin with no cast — the reason Korean sunscreens developed such a following. Mineral filters sit on top, are lovely for reactive skin and small children, and can leave a faint white tint.
- Non-comedogenic if you break out. Half the people who say "sunscreen gives me pimples" were simply wearing the wrong texture.
The part everyone gets wrong
Two fingers' length of product for the face and neck. Most people use about a quarter of that, which quietly turns an SPF 50 into something closer to an SPF 15.
Then reapply — every two hours outdoors, and immediately after swimming or heavy sweating. If reapplying over makeup feels impossible, that's exactly what a stick, a light serum-texture SPF or a tinted formula is for. Keep one in the car and one in your bag; the sunscreen you have with you beats the perfect one at home.
Pair it like a pro
One last thing
Every brightening serum, every dark-spot treatment, every retinol you own is working against the sun. Without daily SPF you're paying for actives and then undoing them by lunchtime. Sunscreen isn't the boring last step of the routine — it's the step that makes the rest of it worth the money.
Get sorted before the heat: browse the full SUNCARE shelf, or see what's trending in our VIRAL 🔥 collection. Order online with island-wide delivery (free over at your door within 48 hours except Sundays) or free Click & Collect at our shops.
