The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends everyone should wear at least SPF 30. Nowadays, beauty lovers can find a ton of foundations, concealers, lipsticks, and even eye makeup products with SPF, however most of these products only go up to SPF 25, so do you still need to use sunscreen under your foundation or is an SPF 25 foundation sufficient?
Dermatologist Dr. Alicia Zalka says, “Many makeup products provide an excellent addition—not replacement—to the sunscreen armamentarium.” The issue with cosmetics SPF is that you would need a lot of makeup to equal the SPF that sunscreen could offer, and makeup SPF is less effective than sunscreen because it is mixed with other ingredients.
Dr. Zalka advises applying a mineral sunscreen as a base and topping it off with a foundation with SPF for the best level of protection because sunscreen is not additive and SPF 30 sunscreen plus SPF 30 foundation does not equal SPF 60. Additionally, she advises to reapply SPF with a powder or spray over your makeup so that you are further protected from the sun.