The beauty content that appears on social media is as frequent as it is erroneous in many cases. And it seems that everyone is capable of recommending, advising or evaluating certain products and formulas without any kind of professional training or criteria.
This often leads to some cosmetics intended to maintain skin health in good condition being used incorrectly, reducing their efficacy. And one of the best examples is the tendency to mix sunscreen with any other product.
On Instagram and TikTok you can find a countless number of posts recommending adding a few tanning drops to your facial sunscreen or to your foundation, or combine your foundation with a bit of SPF. It is also quite common to resort to formulas in which a traditional sunscreen is mixed with a tinted one to increase its efficacy or to add those pigments to even out the tone of the face.
But far from it. An expert has confirmed that this is one of the most erroneous techniques in the world of beauty, especially if you want to maximize the efficacy of your SPF.
“Mixing colorless sunscreen with other products, such as foundations, tanning drops or even tinted photoprotective sunscreens, can alter its formula and compromise sun protection,” confirms Ana Santamarina, expert in dermocosmetics and founder of Santamarina Cosmetics.
This expert talks about the problem of mixing both cosmetics in the hand or directly on the skin. She notes that the texture of the formula is altered, the filters break down, and the uniform layer that the product needs to work is broken.
The result is an SPF 50+ on the skin that can behave like an SPF 15 or lower, warns Santamarina. This happens because the uniform film of filters that is needed to protect against UV radiation is broken. And it is then that such a mixture can reduce the actual SPF and turn it into something much lower than the one indicated on the packaging.
Ana therefore recommends turning to products that already integrate both functions, such as a moisturizer with SPF or a foundation with sunscreen protection. But she warns that, to achieve full effectiveness, it is important to use the correct amount, which is 2 milligrams per square centimeter of skin, which amounts to about two generous finger-widths of product.
It’s fine to reduce steps and want to simplify beauty, but if you don’t have time and want to do it as quickly as possible, the ideal would be to cleanse the skin and add sunscreen. However, speaking of the correct order, Ana Santamarina assures that after cleansing you should moisturize, letting it fully absorb, then add your sunscreen and finally the makeup. “Sun protection is not diluted, not mixed, and not improvised,” concludes the dermocosmetics expert.
