On Sunscreen, and Learning to Love the Sun Differently

On Sunscreen, and Learning to Love the Sun Differently

There is a season of life that changes the way you think about your body — what it needs, what it deserves, what you owe it in terms of care and attention and small daily acts of tenderness. I am in that season, and one of the quietest shifts it has brought me is this: I have stopped trying to tan.

Loving the sun.

Which is worth saying clearly, because I live in California, and I am moving to Florida, and every place I have ever chosen to live has been chosen in part because of how the light falls there, (with the exception of school). I am a person who genuinely needs sunshine — who is happier in it, more herself in it, more alive in it. The warmth of a long afternoon, the way light changes a room, the particular gold of late evening in a place where the sun stays generous — these things are not small to me. And there is real goodness in the sun beyond how it makes you feel. It lifts mood and supports the body's natural production of vitamin D. It regulates sleep and circadian rhythm. It is one of the most quietly medicinal things in the world, and I think we do not say that enough in conversations that are too quick to make the sun the enemy.

On the difference between living in the sun and chasing a color.

Being outside — walking, sitting on a porch, gardening, swimming, simply existing in warm light — is something the body was made for. A natural tan that comes from a life lived outdoors, with good sunscreen on, is simply what happens when you are a person who goes outside. That is completely different from lying still for the specific purpose of darkening your skin, which asks your body to sustain UV damage deliberately and repeatedly. One is living. The other is something else. And I have quietly, gently let the second one go.

What France taught me about sunscreen.

I knew in a general way that European sunscreens were better than what we have access to in the United States — but until I started reading about why, I did not understand the gap. The FDA has not approved a new sunscreen filter since the late 1990s, because it classifies sunscreen as an over-the-counter drug rather than a cosmetic, which means any new ingredient must survive the same lengthy approval process as a pharmaceutical. The EU currently approves 34 UV filters, while the US approves only 16, and the FDA has not cleared a new sunscreen filter in over 20 years. EWG Some of the most advanced broad-spectrum filters available in European sunscreens — ingredients like bemotrizinol, which has been used safely in Europe and Asia for decades and protects more completely across the UV spectrum Axios — still cannot be found in anything made for the American market. A 2017 study found that while nearly all sunscreens tested met US requirements, only about half met the stricter European standard for UVA protection. EWG UVA rays are the ones that do not burn you — they just quietly age you, and quietly raise your cancer risk, and quietly do their work without any visible signal that something is happening.

Why I came home from France with Caudalie.

So when I was in France, I went to the pharmacy, and I did not leave empty handed. The Caudalie Vinosun Protect is a French SPF 50+ that I genuinely love. It contains next-generation UV filters including Tinosorb S and Uvinul A Plus — broad-spectrum ingredients not available in US-made sunscreens due to FDA regulations InciDecoder, which means it covers both UVA and UVB rays more completely than almost anything I can walk into a drugstore and buy at home. Caudalie is born in Bordeaux and built on antioxidant-rich grape-derived ingredients Sephora, and the formula also contains niacinamide and their signature viniferine — a vine sap extract that works to brighten and even skin tone while the SPF protects it. It feels like nothing on the skin. No white cast, no heaviness, no reason to skip it. It has become the step I actually look forward to.

It was never about avoiding the sun.

I am not anti-sun. I am deeply, genuinely pro-sun. I am simply pro-protection too, and I have learned that those two things are not in conflict with each other at all. Sunshine through a window in the morning. A long walk in the afternoon. An evening outside where the light stays warm until it finally lets go. All of it, with good SPF on, and none of the guilt about not being darker than I naturally am.

In a season of simply learning to be more kind and consistent and gentle with my body, and skin.