A Few Easy, Well-Sourced Sun-Care Reminders from Someone Who Spends Her Days 
Formulating Soap and Skincare—not Sunscreen.

A couple of years ago, I noticed a small spot on my forehead. It wasn’t painful, it wasn’t dramatic, and honestly, I almost let it go. But something told me to get it checked, and that small decision led to Mohs surgery, a procedure where a surgeon removes a skin growth layer by layer until it’s completely gone.

Sitting in the procedure room, waiting while layers were removed and tested, I had a lot of time to think about sun exposure: the decades of it, the days I didn’t think twice about, the moments I assumed didn’t count. Walks outside. Gardening. Driving with the Jeep top down. Nothing dramatic. But skin damage doesn’t happen all at once; it adds up quietly, year after year, until it doesn’t.

As the founder and formulator behind Ollie Skincare, I spend my days thinking about goat milk, oils, waxes and butters. I’m not a dermatologist, and I’m definitely not a sunscreen formulator. But I’ve come to think of skincare as three things: cleanse, moisturize and protect. At Ollie, we focus on the first two. After my experience with skin cancer, I started thinking the third one might be the most important.

Sun damage is quiet. It doesn’t announce itself … until one day, it does.

What follows isn’t my opinion. It’s a handful of habits from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) and the Skin Cancer Foundation, the way I wish someone had told me years ago: simply, personally, and without the lecture.

A Milwaukee Reality Check

Here in Wisconsin, it’s easy to think of sun protection as a beach-vacation thing or something for tropical climates, not our four-season backyard. But Milwaukee’s UV index regularly climbs into the “very high” range during June, July and August, with some summer afternoons reaching a UV index of 7 to 10 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. That’s prime time for the farmers markets, lake walks, garden beds and porch coffee that make Wisconsin summers so good.

You don’t need to stay inside. You just need a few habits, and they’re easier than you’d think.

A Few Easy Habits Worth Building

Make it part of your morning, not an afterthought. I keep sunscreen right next to my everyday skincare so it’s the last step before I walk out the door—rain, clouds or sunshine. Cleanse, moisturize, SPF. That’s it. The AAD recommends a broad-spectrum sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher every day, regardless of season or weather.

Use more than you think you need. The Skin Cancer Foundation points out that most people apply only 25 to 50 percent of the recommended amount, which means they’re not getting anywhere near the SPF on the label. A generous amount, reapplied through the day, matters more than the number on the bottle. The AAD recommends reapplying at least every two hours, or right after swimming or sweating.

Don’t forget the spots you can’t easily see. Ears, eyelids, lips, the scalp, hairline, neck, the backs of your hands and feet. These are the areas where people miss the most. 

Don’t skip cloudy days. This one surprised me. Up to 80 percent of UV rays can still get through cloud cover, according to dermatology guidance. If I’m outside, I wear sunscreen, gray sky or not.

More SPF isn’t a free pass. SPF 30 already blocks about 97 percent of UVB rays, and going higher only adds a little more. The AAD is clear that a high number doesn’t mean you can skip reapplying.

Cover Up. Slap on a hat, a shirt and wrap-on sunglasses to protect your eyes and sensitive skin around them, as recommended by the American Cancer Society.

It’s for every age and every skin tone. This one matters to me. Sun protection isn’t just for fair skin or beach days. It’s for everyone, every age, all year.

Where Ollie Skincare Fits In

We don’t make sunscreen, and we’re not trying to. At Ollie, we focus on cleansing and moisturizing—products that support healthy skin day to day. But no cleanser or moisturizer replaces sun protection. Cleanse, moisturize, SPF. Our products handle the first two. Sunscreen handles the third, and it’s protecting you from damage that might not show up for years.

I’m not writing this as an expert. I’m writing it as someone who learned, almost the hard way, that sun protection is worth those extra few seconds.

If reading this makes you think twice about your own routine, or finally book that skin check you’ve been putting off, or toss a tube of sunscreen in your bag before the next farmers market, then it did its job.

Ollie Skincare products are available online and at local shops and markets throughout Southeast Wisconsin. For more information or to shop, visit OllieSkincare.com.