difference in sunscreen quantities used with or without applying to area covered by a mask/respirator
originally posted on cohost over 2023-2024
to begin with, this experiment came to mind due to a paper i had read before, which mentioned the UV blocking capabilities of kf94 masks: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35353391/
also because i had bought two tubes of physical filter(zinc oxide and titanium dioxide) sunscreens which left a heavy white cast on my face and i needed a reason to finish them up.
the experiment was simple: use the two tubes of sunscreens separately, one for covering the whole face in sunscreen, and the other for leaving the area covered by a mask/respirator blank. after each application, the tubes were weighed to figure out the quantities used for each application method and compare them to see if there is even a significant difference.
here is how the experiment went:
sunscreen used:
- 2 quantities of innisfree Intensive Long-lasting Sunscreen EX SPF50+ PA++++ 50ml
data collected:
masked sunscreen tube gram weights with the weight used on that particular application in round brackets:
initial weight: 70.5 grams
tube weights (quantity applied weights):
- 67.3 g (3.2 g)
- 63.1 g (4.2 g)
- 59.4 g (3.7 g)
- 56.6 g (2.8 g)
- 53.8 g (2.8 g)
- 51.4 g (2.4 g)
- 49.1 g (2.3 g)
- 46.8 g (2.3 g)
- 44.1 g (2.7 g)
- 41.5 g (2.6 g)
- 38.9 g (2.6 g)
- 36.1 g (2.8 g)
- 33.7 g (2.4 g)
- 30.1 g (3.6 g)
- 27.3 g (2.8 g)
- 25.2 g (2.1 g)
- 22.1 g (3.1 g)
- 18.0 g (4.1 g)
non-masked sunscreen tube gram weights with the weight used on that particular application in round brackets:
initial weight: 70.9 grams
tube weights (quantity applied weights):
- 64.4 g (6.5 g)
- 59.2 g (5.2 g)
- 55.3 g (3.9 g)
- 51.8 g (3.5 g)
- 48.5 g (3.3 g)
- 45.2 g (3.3 g)
- 42.3 g (2.9 g)
- 39.4 g (2.9 g)
- 36.7 g (2.7 g)
- 33.5 g (3.2 g)
- 30.7 g (2.8 g)
- 27.5 g (3.2 g)
- 24.7 g (2.8 g)
- 21.6 g (3.1 g)
- 18.7 g (2.9g)
observations:
- this data really only applies to my particular face and my particular suncscreen application preference.
- there is no real consistency in the amounts used daily, especially since the data was collected over the span of a year and in multiple different spurts. even regardless of the way the data was collected, the amount of suncreen applied on any given day was inconsistent.
- the applications where the masked area is left un-sunscreened were only 3 applications more than the applications where the whole face was sunscreened. the above mentioned inconsistency could be a reason why only 3 applications more observed.
- the sunscreen tube, when emptied weighs somewhere between 18.0 and 18.7 grams, meaning that the gram quantities of sunscreen in the masked tube was 52.5 grams and in the unmasked tube was 52.2 grams. im sure this would be interesting to someone
- this sunscreen made me look like a clowns ghost so i could only wear it on holidays which could have further contribited to the inconsistent quantities used.
- im finally free of doing this. thanks for reading. bye!