I like to think of myself as a fairly diligent SPF-wearer. I put it on every morning, rain or shine, and re-apply pretty much every hour on the hour when I’m at the beach. But recently, I discovered an area of my face that I (and TBH a lot of other people, according to scientific studies) have been totally overlooking—no pun intended—when it comes to sun care: my eyelids.
Not only can your eyelids get burnt the same way the rest of your body can, but to make matters even worse, wearing eyeshadow can make them even more sensitive (because bits of metallic in eyeshadows can amplify the sun’s rays and make them more susceptible to sun damage). Yikes.
“The skin around the eye area is thinner, making the eyelids more vulnerable to sun damage and skin cancers. This is also why we often see the first signs of aging around the eyes,” explains Deirdre Hooper, MD of Audubon Dermatology. “It’s very important to wear sunscreen on your face every day to protect your skin from sun damage, skin cancer, and aging. The skin on the eyelids is no different, but people tend to avoid it altogether as they feel other sunscreens will irritate their eyes.”
To combat this very, very common problem, Supergoop has released a sunscreen specifically meant for your eyelids—only it’s more likely to be mistaken for something that comes out of your makeup bag than your beach bag. The brand’s latest launch, called “Shimmershades” are literally just really pretty eyeshadows that happen to have with SPF in them.
Meant to take the place of whatever shimmery palette you usually use for your daytime discos, Supergoop Shimmershades ($24) are formulated with sun-protective actives to keep your eyes from getting burned. “The actives deliver on strong clinical testing to support not only the UVB burning rays, but also protect against broad spectrum UVA rays that enter the skin’s surface even deeper and are the major culprits in skin cancer,” says Dr. Hooper. They come in three shades—fawn, gold, and bronze—each with a subtle shimmer, and are made with a blend of zinc oxide and octisalate to offer physical protection of SPF 30.
The collection drops today on Supergoop.com and tomorrow at Sephora, which gives you just enough time to figure out all the different #looks2try with them before summer officially hits.
Summer may still be a few months away, but you should still be wearing sunscreen every day—here’s exactly how much you should be putting on your face each AM. And to make it as easy as possible to add it into your routine, here are our favorite moisturizers with SPF in them.
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