By Amy Van Veen (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: May 8, 2013
The sun is shining and the mercury is rising – and yes, I’m aware of the fact that thermometres use red-dyed alcohol and not mercury; it’s a figure of speech.
And with these hotter temperatures and bluer skies come dozens of nagging warnings to use sunscreen. Research articles are written, campaigns are created and mothers everywhere are humiliating children with reapplication of the greasy summertime product.
It’s no wonder, then, when I put on the good old SPF that the scent brings me back to beach-side afternoons as a kid being forced to endure the torture of white, oil-based smear going from the top of my head to the tip of my toes. Even now, the need to use sunscreen to avoid rising diagnoses of melanoma becomes a battle of whether or not I want to put up with that greasy feeling and childlike smell of sunscreen.
Granted, there are now many products that try to disguise the smell and greasy feeling under layers of added fragrances and “dry touch” promises. You can get it in an aerosol spray – but it seems to only last two applications before quickly running out and begs the question of environmental harm. You can get it in a stick form – which seems to be more like an all-over deodorant. And now you can even get powder foundations and hair products that promise SPF protection.
Why do we need all this extra packaging and sophisticated marketing for something as basic as sunscreen?
Because it’s gross. Beauty companies know it’s gross. Marketers know it’s gross. And we certainly know it’s gross.
Sunscreen will always be a reminder of childhood humiliation.
When no one listens to our complaints of grossness, we question the very legitimacy of SPF, even as melanoma numbers rise and people think a good use of time and energy is sitting in tanning beds. But we still ask – is SPF preventing us from getting enough vitamin D? Are the numbers arbitrarily assigned for the sake of marketing? Is SPF 15 really any different from SPF 60?
We foolishly justify our darker skin that doesn’t feel greasy or smell weird. We sit outside and burn, telling ourselves it’s just a base tan. Freckles and moles pop up, but we ignore them hoping the one that has a similar shape to Florida is just a benign anomaly.
The alternative to this extreme is a daily application of SPF-riddled beauty products that feel a little icky and smell a little funky.
It’s almost too easy to take on the ignorance is bliss approach to sunny day skincare. The big C word happens to other people, after all. All I do is sit in the backyard in SPF-less hopes of achieving tan lines.
I mean, sure, there was that one questionable mole I had to have removed. And, yeah, it is a little embarrassing having my six-year-old nephew sternly tell me, “Sunscreen is not the enemy of your body. Sunburns are.” And old tan people look more like their leather purses than actual human beings.
I suppose sunscreen isn’t too bad.
And the greasy feeling doesn’t last forever.
And the smell usually fades.
Excuse me, I have to go to the drugstore and buy some Coppertone.
