Dr Pickart:
What options for sunscreen use are better for people of color? Non micronized physical blocks that contain zinc and titanium do not work even for those of us who are not very dark. I feel that I am not making as much progress because during the summer, I do not use sunscreen and my face gets too much sun. In the winter I can see the sun damage from the previous summer and as i get older, it seems to be getting worse.

I can see the difference between the skin on my face and hands vs the skin on the parts of my body which get no sun exposure. Since I often feel cold, even in the summer I wear long sleeves and pants. For my body, I do nothing except cleanse with a body wash; I do not use even body lotion yet the skin is very firm,smooth, even toned and shows no signs of aging yet.

Even with the use of retin A and copper products, my face is still showing the signs of aging. I have been using retin-a most of my life and I do not use a sunblock and I think that has contributed to accelerated aging of my facial skin compared to the rest of my body.

My mother and i are about the same color, she is 30 years older than I and use nothing on her face yet her skin has a much younger appearance than mine. People often guess her age to be 20 years younger. She has some sagging but no wrinkles at all. I have wrinkles on my forehead which surfaced after I started using rolling and copper peptides to get rid of bumps. Also, the skin on my forehead is getting loose, a problem which my mom does not have.

I am the only one in my family who was treated for breakouts and I am also the only one in my family who does not look at least 10 years younger than actual age. I believe that is because my skin absorbed too much sun because of retin-a use. When I was much younger, my dermatologists told me that I did not need sun protection even though i was using the strongest of retin-A and accutane to control my blemishes. I tried to find suitable sunblocks in spite of their bad advice, but the chemical blocks made my breakouts worse and the physical blocks were visible on my skin, so i ended up using nothing.

Is the potential damage to the skin from micronized sunblocks greater than the damage from the sun? If I stop using retin-a and hydroxy acids, my breakouts will return and may cause scarring. I am currently using needling, supercop and hydroxy acids to remove old scars so i don't want any new ones. But my facial skin is rapidly aging from the sun and i don't think i will want to look into a mirror two years from now if I keep going without sun protection.

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Dear nicekitty123:

Dr. Pickart will probably add in his thoughts here as well.

The copper-peptide product: Day Cover which is fortified with UV reflector titanium dioxide, works well on all skin colors without casting a dull/ashy tone. You may want to try using it.

Besides having a balanced view of sun exposure, there may be sunscreens that you can use very lightly that blend in better.

Be sure to try using the "Find" function on this forum to search for similar questions posted on our board.

Best Wishes,
-Skin Biology

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SkinBiologyWebmaster,