Sunblocks and Suncare Products I Use

When I posted a few weeks ago about sunscreens, sunblocks, and sun safety a few people reached out to me to ask for recommendations on suncare products and what I used. Additionally, the lovely folks at Goddess Garden contacted me to see if I would like to review one of their products (little did they know that I had a small army of their products already lurking in my home. They're my preferred sunblock brand!)

The regular use pile from my vanity. That trigger-spray Goddess Garden sunblock is the one they sent for review; you can tell it's new to the family because it doesn't have a yellow expiration date sticker dot on it yet. The poor Mustela is lingering for another few months from winter, so its sticker is on the back.

Small reviews, explanations, and general rambling after the jump:

Do you have an expiration routine?

Quick post - as I was going through and replacing my toothbrush and Clarisonic heads, I wondered: do all of you have a routine to keep track of when you should be tossing things?

For instance, on the first of each month, I switch my razor blades (even if they "don't need it,") toss anything that has reached the open-for-too-long point, and try and clean out my makeup area.

At the first of each quarter, I change toothbrush and Clarisonic heads, toss any open mascara, and sanitize anything that hasn't been taken care of (I set stuff aside to be sanitized as it is used. You know that one wash-by-hand dish that sits next to your sink? Like that.)

At the new year and half year, I check medications, sunscreen, and other expiration dates. Of course, I label everything and toss as I go if I encounter a passed expiration date but this helps me stay ahead of the panic that I suddenly don't have eye cream or one of the three types of sunscreen I keep in my cabinet.

Do you have a routine? Do you prefer a more relaxed approach?

Sunscreen vs Sunblock: How often? What's reef-safe? It expires?!

I went to high school in an era of tan-chic. I got a lot of general grief about living in a beach town and being very pale but I'll always be happy with the decision. When I was a preschooler, my mother's father had to have his entire ear removed because he developed a cancerous spot on it after a lifetime of sun exposure without protection. A few years later, when I was still in elementary school, my father had to have a growth removed from his arm. By the time I was a teenager, at a time that everyone was running for bottles of Sun-In and laying out with tips from popular teen and fashion magazines to get the perfect bronze, I was looking for wide-brimmed hats and lightweight long-sleeve clothes.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States with more than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people diagnosed annually. Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon.

Let me assure you, sun protection has come a long way even in the last few years. There are more non-greasy, decent-smelling options than I used to dream of being available. We're coming up on most stores yearly sales on sun protection products and Sephora's annual Sun Protection kit. However, there's a million terms floating around and how do you know what's best for you? What's the difference between sunblock and sunscreen? What does SPF signify? How often should you be reapplying these? Reef-safe? "All-natural?" Wait, sunscreen and sunblock expire?!

This post has the possibility of getting lengthy, so grab an iced tea and settle in for a little sun-talk after the jump.