The BEST advise I can give you?...

...Sunblock!

Everywhere you look today, you've got someone preaching about sunblock, and how bad the sun is for your skin - that's because, it's true!

I remember in my school days, there was this track on one of my old cassette tapes called Everybody's free, and of all the advise that old guy had to give, one thing he said stuck, "Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99 

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be 

it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by 

scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable 

than my own meandering"

Listen to the track here, this guy had a hell of a lot of good advise to give. I think this is a track we should all have on our ipods and mp3 players, so that we could listen to it every morning before work.

 Back to the sunblock. Tonight I bring you Vichy's sunscreen and repair cream. 

About my skin

Now believe it or not, I come from Natal (Empangeni) and I'm the whitest kind of white person you can get! When I expose my skin, my victims get arc eyes! So I buy a moisturiser that over time gives the skin a bit of a tint, so as to minimise making enemies (I'll review it for my other super white readers some time soon). 

Growing up in the north coast, the only sunblock I ever used was the colourful stuff the surfers used, and only to draw pictures on our bodies that would over time, tan into our skin for a few weeks. I never burnt, I was a nice golden brown colour, and my hair went white from all the sun. We finally moved to the Vaal, and since the water on this side of the world is so cold, stopped swimming and going out into the sun as much. With all this sun deprivation, I've become the potential lead actor for the remake of the 1995 film, Powder!

But I remember my golden brown days, and somehow believe that I can get that lovely skin colour back. 

My mistake?

So every flipping time we go to the coast, I go out onto the beach with nothing more than a bikini on, planning on catching a tan. My hubby will offer me sunblock, but I'll refuse, because my skin needs LOTS of sun to get colour again. Ja ne. And so, every flipping time we go to the coast, I burn to smithereens. I end up in so much pain that if my husband so much as even looks in my direction I wince. And never mind that, for 2 solid days I'm the target of every moth on the flipping planet!

What did I do right this time?

So my husband and I have been on holiday this past week; We get to our hotel at about 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. The sun is still blistering hot out there, and even though there's a nice cool air in the suite from the aircon that's obviously been on all day, we can't wait to get out there and feel the sand between our toes! We stop on the way out the door, and apply some sunblock. 

This time I decided that I wasn't going to try tanning. It never works, I always end up in a world of pain, and you know what, I'm not the only white GP body on the beach! I made sure I applied Vichy's sunscreen every day. On one  particular day, I forgot to apply any to the back of my legs. By that evening, the back of my legs were red, and in some pain. It then dawned on me how well the sunblock works, as the rest of my body was just fine. I then used some of Vichy's after-sun cream. I got immediate relief, and the next day there was no evidence of any kind of burn at all. I didn't even peel!

So is it worth it?

Hell yeah! Not only did I not burn, but I now have a nice light brown tan! By not burning on my first outdoor excursion, I was able to go out everyday, and slowly but surely build up a tan, through the sunblock and all! No burn, no pain, brown skin at the end of my holiday, hell yeah it's worth it :-D

Tip

Ha ha, you guessed it, always use sunblock, you'll be glad for it when you're older and friends your age look like leather!

Night night everyone, and remember, beauty sleep ;-)