How to Prevent Sun Damage

Summertime is pretty much here and along with everyone is looking forward to adding some colour to their skin that has been paled out by winter. But before you jump into your bikini and hit the beach for a major tanning session, it's important to protect your most important asset-your skin. We've often heard of the health benefits attached to cooking with extra virgin olive oil but there's another major benefit of this amazing oil--prevention of skin cancer. Across many cultures and countries, olive oil is known to be a miracle food. Popular for its endless healing powers (my sister just recently had a baby and the midwife recommended to massage her with olive oil as a solution to her peeling skin), olive oil is a staple in organic beauty and should be available in every natural beauties' house. As we head into summertime with lots of sun exposure, it's so important to protect your skin now against the long term damages of UV rays and to keep your skin beautiful and youthful in the future. As well all know, too much sun exposure can lead to unattractive results--premature wrinkles, unattractive sun spots and can even be fatal with cancer. Although we all like a little glow to our skin (I'll admit I'm guilty of tanning at times too!), the following recipe can lessen the harm that the sun causes to your most important beauty tool--your skin!

Homemade and Organic Beauty Secret-How to Prevent Sun Damage

Apply extra virgin olive oil to your skin before and after exposure to the sun. The type of olive oil you decide to use is up to you. I have a friend who grew up in Greece and swears by the Costco Melle/Kirkland brand of olive oil which is a good econ option for about $14+. If you're looking for a more luxe brand, I'd recommend Silver Leaf which is about $21 for a large bottle (and can be purchased at The Big Carrot located at 348 Danforth Avenue in Toronto). I usually oil myself up and dry up as much as possible before I slather on my sunblock (and yes, there is a difference between suntanning oil and sunblock, make sure you use sunblock with minimum SPF of 30). Also, I find it a lot easier to put the olive oil in a mister spray bottle (often used to spray cooking pans with to minimize the oil usage) instead of tugging along a glass bottle of the oil to the beach for application after sun exposure. These handy bottles can be purchased from any kitchen/cooking store such as Kitchen Stuff Plus for about $12. Remember, if you're unable to put on sunblock, the least you should be doing is applying olive oil in order to prevent some serious sun damage to that beautiful skin.