Sunscreen is an incredibly important part of your skincare routine… not just to prevent sunburn, but to block other types of damage UV rays can cause.
How else do UV rays damage your skin? Well, UV damage can slow down your collagen and elastin production (something that already happens naturally as we age), which leads to fine lines, wrinkles, crepey, and slack skin.
UV rays also damage your skin barrier, which can make your skin dry, red, irritated, and extra reactive to anything you put on it. A damaged skin barrier allows moisture to escape the skin and for bacteria that can cause acne to get in. Plus, UV damage can cause dark spots, hyperpigmentation, and an uneven skin tone.
It’s not just UV rays that damage your skin in this way, but they’re one of the biggest culprits. Other factors like pollution, diet, stress, sleep, hormones, and exercise (just to name a few) all have an impact.
UV damage can slow down your collagen and elastin production (something that already happens naturally as we age), which leads to fine lines, wrinkles, crepey, and slack skin.
But the good news is that sunscreen and a good skincare routine can do a lot of the heavy lifting—as long as you’re making an effort to care for the other factors that affect not just your skin but your overall health.
So if there’s a way to use skincare to boost, supplement, and complement the hard work your sunscreen is doing to protect your skin, as well as add some additional protection of their own, then it’s worth it to incorporate them into your summer health and skincare habits.
Want protective pairings to your sunscreen? Here’s 3 products we love as sunscreen sidekicks.
Moon Boost Serum
Moon Boost can both complement your sunscreen by providing another form of skin protection and boost the efficacy of your sunscreen.
How Moon Boost complements your sunscreen
Moon Boost is full of antioxidants, which protect skin from free radical damage. Antioxidants are a core part of any good skincare routine because of their incredible protective ability.
When your skin is exposed to environmental factors like those I listed above—everything from stress to sun—free radicals are formed in the body. These unstable molecules lead to oxidative stress, which shows up in the skin as fine lines, wrinkles, hyperpigmentation, and more.
There’s a popular apple analogy that can give you a better idea of what free radicals can do to your skin. Antioxidants in your skincare are able to neutralize free radicals, stopping them from causing damage to your skin. In that way, they’re similar to sunscreen, in that antioxidants are used as a preventative form of skincare.
Antioxidants help your skin barrier be more resilient to skin concerns like dryness, redness, rough patches, and even acne.
Antioxidants also help your skin barrier be more resilient to skin concerns like dryness, redness, rough patches, and even acne because they contribute to the healthy structure of your skin.
Moon Boost is a multivitamin serum, the vitamins A, C, and E in the formula are known to have great antioxidant ability. Vitamin C in particular—Moon Boost uses a gentler, stabler, oil-soluble form of vitamin C called THD—is what you could call a “super antioxidant.” It has a high level of effectiveness at neutralizing free radicals because of THD’s oil-soluble nature, making it able to penetrate the skin deeply, especially in serum form.
Many of the powerful antioxidants in Moon Boost also encourage collagen and elastin production (two things slowed down by UV damage) and promote increased cell turnover. These include the THD, carrot, and shiitake in Moon Boost, which all help brighten and firm the skin too.
How Moon Boost increases the protective qualities of your sunscreen
Moon Boost’s antioxidant qualities make it a great pairing for sunscreen, but there’s actually one particular ingredient in Moon Boost—Palmless™ Torula Oil, a bio-designed oil created using a precision fermentation process—that can boost an SPF’s performance.
C16 Biosciences, the creators of Torula Oil, tested SPF products that were made up of 20% Torula Oil and found the oil boosted UVB protection by 20% and UVA by 16.4%!
Though Moon Boost doesn’t contain 20% Torula Oil, and it’s not an SPF product, this study is a great sign that Moon Boost makes an incredible complement to your daily sunscreen.
This is especially good to know when you compare Moon Boost to other skincare products like retinols or exfoliants that actually can make your skin more photosensitive and susceptible to UV damage. Though these types of products are great additions to skincare routines, they require you to be extra vigilant with your SPF after using them.
Why Moon Boost is great even on it’s own
Beyond being a complementary product to your SPF, this serum has a ton of great benefits on its own.
One reviewer shared: "It is like a miracle. Feels very good when applying and my skin is softer and brighter looking." —Sylvia B.
Moon Boost:
- Brightens the look of uneven pigmentation
- Boosts skin firmness and elasticity
- Moisturizes skin without feeling heavy
- Contains vitamins A, C, D, E, F, and K
- Is formulated for sensitive skin
Face Glow Illuminating Moisturizer
Face Glow is an illuminating moisturizer that gives skin a radiant finish. Not only does it leave your skin with a healthy glow, it also offers some additional support to your sunscreen.
How Face Glow complements your sunscreen
Face Glow gives you a blurred, illuminated complexion—it can fill in texture and pores and leave the skin looking luminous. For that reason, many Face Glow lovers either use it as a primer, mix it in with their foundation or tint, or even swap makeup for Face Glow entirely!
“I use it in my daily routine as a foundation/bb cream. I strongly recommend it!” —Irina M.
“I honestly don’t have to wear anything else but this on my face, love the product!” —Janet C.
“Love it. Covers everything I need it to cover and gives my face a clear smooth look. Never using foundation again.” —Cheryl P.
Having Face Glow to simplify your makeup routine makes it easier for you to reapply SPF down the road. How many times have you stopped yourself from reapplying because you didn’t want to mess up your makeup? I know I’ve done that a few times and came home at the end of the day with pink skin on my cheeks and nose.
On top of using Face Glow as a makeup swap, it also has soothing ingredients that can help keep inflammation down during those times when you do have a bit of sunburn or redness. The aloe vera juice and zinc-rich pumpkin seed oil in Face Glow are particularly good at this.
And of course, Face Glow is full of antioxidants, which I just shared the importance of above! The raspberry, sea buckthorn, spirulina, and more in Face Glow all have strong antioxidant properties.
How Face Glow boosts the protective qualities of your sunscreen
Face Glow features non-nano zinc (aka non-nano zinc oxide) in its formula. If you’re familiar with mineral sunscreens, you probably know that zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are by far the most common mineral UV protectors. That means the non-nano zinc in Face Glow can help shield and protect the skin from the elements!
However, it’s important to note that Face Glow doesn’t have an SPF rating. So while you can’t replace your sunscreen with Face Glow, it does have a layer of mineral protection that pairs well with SPF.
Face glow also has different types of zinc from pumpkin seed oil and smithsonite, which helps with inflammation, acne, excess oil production, and free radical damage.
Why Face Glow is great even on its own
Like I said before, Face Glow makes a perfect addition (or even substitution) to your makeup routine. Alongside that, Face Glow actually brightens your skin with raspberry and minimizes the appearance of dark circles and spots with nutrient-rich spirulina.
It’s gentle, soothing, and hydrating, leaving the skin calm and rejuvenated.
Face Food Facial Mist
Face Food is protective, soothing, and cooling—a perfect pairing to sunscreen on hot days. Plus, while sunscreen protects from UV damage, Face Food can help with other environmental stressors like pollution.
How Face Food complements your sunscreen
By using sunscreen, we’re trying to prevent sunburn and the damage and inflammation that comes along with it. In fact, reducing inflammation is one of the core ways we at Graydon Skincare believe we can encourage and protect our skin’s longevity.
Minerals offer great protective and soothing benefits to the skin.
That’s where Face Food comes in! Face Food is incredibly calming thanks to the blend of minerals in this facial mist. Minerals, in general, offer great protective and soothing benefits to the skin. The magnesium in Face Food, for example, helps to soothe any redness or irritation, while also helping skin maintain its hydration level. Magnesium protects the skin barrier—something that can become compromised by UV damage.
Alongside magnesium, zinc, malachite, and copper also help with inflammation. All these minerals in combination create a defensive “shield” over the face that protects you from pollution, free radicals, and oxidative damage caused by free radicals.
Malachite in particular is a powerful anti-pollution ingredient because it's an antioxidant (due to its high copper content) that detoxifies your skin without irritation.
Why Face Food is great even on its own
Alongside Face Food being protective and soothing, it has a few other great benefits. The white tea leaf extract and zinc in Face Food, for example, help mattify your skin and regulate your sebum production, which is especially helpful in the summer months when your skin starts to produce more oil.
"I LOVE to have in my purse on those hot summer days when my face needs a little fresh pick me up." —Trista Z.
It’s also one of our most eco-friendly products according to the third party sustainability reporting we include on Face Food’s product page, which lists Face Food’s waste impact score as well below the industry average. Plus, Face Food comes in refill sizes (convenient for you, better for the environment!).
Enjoy the Sun
It’s good to get out in the sunshine and make the most of every beautiful, sunny day. But that doesn’t mean you need to brave the UV rays without protection. While sunscreen is a necessity when it comes to sun protection, it doesn’t hurt to incorporate some sensitive skin friendly, antioxidant-rich, and anti-inflammatory skincare products into your routine. You can also rock a brimmed hat and some sunnies for some extra coverage! There's lots of ways to protect your precious skin.
See you in the sunshine! ☀️
