Today I wish to share with you my tips for keeping your skin safe from the sun. We are now officially into fall but that doesn’t mean the sun is any safer for you. Speaking from personal experience, I hope you will protect yourself from skin cancer.

Several years ago I had my FIRST skin cancer diagnosis. I am passionate about spreading the word to protect yourself. So here is my story and I hope it will help you.

As a kid growing up in the Chicago suburbs, winters were long and summers were savored. Summer meant no school, lots of freedom, sunshine, long pool days, eyes stinging from chlorine, vacations at the lake, weeks at girl scout camps, being outside as much as we could and we had ZERO SUNCSCREEN! It hadn’t been invented yet. I had so many BAD sunburns. Mine always were the kind that blistered. HUGE freckles are on my back from all that sun. We just put a tee shirt on over the burnt skin and continued to jump in the lake or pool. In high school coming back from spring break with a great tan was a badge of honor. Can you believe I even had a sun lamp from Sears that I used on my face! I know, horrible!

In my twenties I got into skin care in a major way. Women who took care of their skin looked so much better than those who didn’t. Sunscreen became a daily application for me. The one tip everyone shared about skin care was to wear sunscreen, so I did. Little did I know then, it was too late. The damage that was done in my early years would come back as basal cell carcinoma.

I check my skin ALL the time and go to the doctor immediately whenever I have a concern. Several things were burned and removed and it always came back ok. Until it didn’t. I got the call and I wasn’t shocked or even surprised. As a kid, I had white hair, blue eyes, fair skin, bad sunburns, I was the perfect candidate to get it. But even if you don’t fit those criteria you are still at risk.

Removal was not fun and it went pretty deep. It was on my face and I had six stitches. I have a scar but it blends in as another wrinkle so I am very very lucky. Since then I have had several more little cancers and go to the dermatologists religiously to check things out. My doctor feels this is all due to when I was a child. If something looks or feels different, borders changing, feels rough or scaly or I just don’t like how something looks, I get in asap!

Here are my tips to keeping your skin safer in the sun!

Wear protective clothing. Now there is clothing with protection such as this darling dress from cabana life SPF 50+

Make sunglasses and hats your new best friends!

Avoid outside activities between 10 AM and 4 PM

Use Sunscreen and use it correctly, 20 minutes before exposure and reapply reapply reapply. Sprays do not work for me as the wind carries much of the mist away. I slather it on and my skin loves it! On the daily I use Clinique sunblock, you can find it linked below. It’s the perfect base for makeup, don’t forget your hands and in between your fingers (especially if you use a lamp at the nail salon!)

Say NO to tanning beds. ZERO excuses here people. The facts are in and tanning beds CAUSE skin cancer. Instead try the self tanners I linked above. The mitt makes the difference!

And lastly get to know your skin. If anything looks or feels weird go in immediately, do not google or web MD it, go in and see your dermatologist.

With todays new sunscreens, self tanners and information I hope we will stop seeing a rise in skin cancer.

As always, thank you for stopping by.

XOXO, Kim