These are the areas most people miss when putting on sun cream

And it's actually pretty dangerous

From the editors of HelloGiggles

Words – Karen Fratti

We all know that we need to wear the best sun cream, but a new study shows that even if you are putting the recommended amount on every day, you’re probably doing it wrong.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool asked 57 participants to show them how they applied sun cream. They found that we all miss the same spots when we put on sun protection.

These areas are also the worst to be missing: around our eyes and mouth area, which is about 10 per cent of our face. Those are also the places where we tend to get wrinkles first and buy the very best anti-ageing wrinkle cream for.

It makes complete sense if you think about it, of course. No one wants to get sun screen in their eyes because it burns like no other. And have you ever tasted that stuff? (Not on purpose, obviously.)

But maybe it’s worth the risk to make sure our faces are totally protected with sunscreen.

Not that wrinkles or ageing are inherently bad, but we spend a lot of time, effort, and an extremely large sum of money on products to make our faces dewy and tight, and if we’d just put on sunscreen with a little more care, we could save ourselves a little bit of all those.

Of course, the researchers weren’t worried about wrinkles. They were worried about skin cancer.

They were pretty disappointed in us: 'It’s worrying that people find it so hard to sufficiently apply sunscreen to their face,' Dr. Kevin Hamill, one of the study’s researchers, said.

This is especially important because about 5 to 10 per cent of all skin cancers appear on the eyelids. Instead of irritating your eyes with sun cream, what you can do is wear some shades with UV protection (this is your excuse to make an investment purchase on some super stylish sunglasses).

'Most people consider the point of sunglasses is to protect the eyes, specifically corneas, from UV damage, and to make it easier to see in bright sunlight. However, they do more than that — they protect the highly cancer-prone eyelid skin as well,' Hamill said.

Doctor’s orders, everyone. Buy yourself a good primer with SPF and some protective sunglasses.