. What about SPF?

A sunscreen’s SPF rating is incredibly important, but it is not the only guide when you are buying sunscreens. All the SPF number lets you know is how long you can stay in the sun without burning while wearing that product. For example, let’s say you’re like me and you can stay in the sun for about 15 minutes before your skin starts to turn pink. Applying a sunscreen rated SPF 15 will allow you to stay in the sun 15 times longer (three and three-quarters hours: 15 times 15 minutes) without getting pink. In other words, the SPF number, 15 in this case, multiplied by the amount of time you can normally stay in the sun without getting pink, is how long you can stay in the sun after you’ve applied the sunscreen. If you normally can stay in the sun 25 minutes without getting pink, applying an SPF 15 sunscreen would let you stay in the sun six and one-quarter hours (15 times 25 equals 375 minutes) without burning.