Non invasive filling of the tear trough - natural filling substances

Today I've got for you post that took me over six months to complete.
Since always I had problems with me eyes' area - dark circles, under eye bags, wrinkles. Dark circles don't bother me anymore, coz they are nothing else but blood vessels being close to the skin surface and giving it purplish cast. Wrinkles - just getting older I suppose. The biggest problem are my under eye bags, which during past year got much worse. Colleagues at work kept asking me if I feel alright, I was looking very tired and down even when I slept 10 hours and felt great. Becoming fed up with my tired face I tried different tricks - some moves from Tanaka face massage, massaging face with ice cubes, face yoga exercises. Unfortunately none of this methods were working, I kept looking like an underdog. Eventually, completely frustrated I stood in front of the mirror for good half an hours, touching and examining skin around my eyes and I came to sudden realisation why none of the under eye bags tricks worked - it wasn't the bags that were my problem, it was so called tear through (also known as tear valley).

What is tear through?
Tear through is a lack of adipose tissue under the skin, running obliquely from inner corner of the eye toward the cheek, along the eye socket edge. It may be caused by sudden weight loss or ageing - as we age the tissue and skin loosens and slides down toward the cheek, leaving "valley" behind.

Under eye bags or tear through?
Bags under the eyes are opposite of the tear through - it's puffiness under the eyes caused by accumulation of lymph and/or adipose tissue, which may be reduced by lymphatic drainage or injection lipolysis. But even though this two problems are completely different they are easy to mix up - the tear through creates optical illusion of under eye bag, the subsidence on the eye socket edge makes skin between lash line and eye socket look puffy. The easiest way to determine if you deal with bags or tear through is to examine your eye area with your fingers. Do you feel tissue under the skin, is the eye socket edge easy to feel? This is how I recognised my tear through - skin under my eyes was very thin, the eye socket so easy to feel that I was afraid to put any pressure when touching my eye area, scared that I would bruise myself.

Filling the tear through
The most popular way of tear through rejuvenation is filling with hyaluronic acid injections. Unfortunately the treatment is quite expensive (the cheapest I managed to find was £250 for single course, but sometimes you need more than one) and it doesn't last - have to be repeated every 12-18 months.
What you can do then if you are afraid of needles or can't afford spending couple of hundreds every year?
Thanks to one Polish beauty bloger I found out about lipophilic substances, natural filling ingredients for topical use. In June 2014 I bought my first topical filler - Sidmool Pueararia Anemarrhena Elastic Essence. Essence contains extract of Pueraria Mirificia and Anemarrhena Asphodeloides. Pueraria contains isoflavones and fitoestrogen and causes the filling effect by accumulating water and fat in the application spot. Asphodeloides is plant growth factor, which stimulates production of adipose tissue, also causing the filling effect. It's a great duo for tissue loss - one substance produces fat tissue, the other one "feeds" it.

Essence is a runny liquid, which makes application a pain. The pump applicator sucked, shooting liquid in uncontrollable way, so I changed it for pipette that I had after using up some other product. On the beginning I was pouring a little bit of liquid out on my palm and gently patted into eye area, but it took ages to get absorbed, so I gave up this method. Instead I started to make compress out of it - I cut cotton pad into strips which I soaked in liquid and kept on my tear troughs until dry (about 30-40 minutes).

Unfortunately I lost my first bottle of the essence in delegation just after a month of use, so I quickly had to buy another one. Turned out I did it just in time, as in Autumn Sidmool stopped production of this essence and brought instead essence containing 70% of Anemarrhena Asphodeloides.

Old formula INCI: Pueraria Mirifica Root Extract, Water, Anemarrhena Asphodeloides Root Extract, Sodium Hyauronate, Glycerin, Fructan, Althea Rosea Root Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Zanthoxylum Piperitum Fruit Extract, Usnea Barbata (Lichen) Extract, Xanthan Gum

New formula INCI:  Anemarrhena Asphodeloides Root Extract, Water, Sodium Hyaluronate, Glycerin, Fructan, Althaea Rosea Root Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Zanthoxylum Piperitum Fruit Extract, Pulsatilla Koreana Extract, Usnea Barbata (Lichen) Extract, Xanthan Gum

I haven't use the new product yet, but there is not much change - they gave up on Pueararia extract and instead put more Anemarrhena in it.
You can buy Sidmool Anemarrhena Elasticity Essence on Tester Korea for 15300 KRW which equals about £9. I have paid for my essences about £30 each, as I didn't know Tester Korea back then and I bought it from bloger thanks to who I heard about them.

My next non invasive filling product was Aida Wonder Eye Volume Filler. I came across it accidentally, browsing sale section on Memebox website. Product was featured in one of the boxes, but I don't know which one as I wasn't much of a Memebox fan. I can't remember exactly how much I have paid for it, but I think it was around £15-17.

Wonder Eye is a product designed to achieve "ulzzang eyes" - a little fold underneath lower lash line that is considered cute in Asia. Product contains 10% Volufiline, French patent filling substance. I thought that Volufiline is some kind of synthetic ingredient, but it turns out that it's already mentioned Anemarrhena Asphodeloides with addition of Hydrogenated Polyisobutene. 

INCI: Purified Water, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Jimo Extract, Butylene Glycol, PEG-32, Glycerin, Glyceryl Acrylate/Acrylic Acid Copolymer, 1, 2-Hexanediol, Niacinamide, Macadamia Seed Oil, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer,C12-14 Pareth-12, Sodium Hyaluronate, PEG-5 Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-8 Stearate, PEG-20 Stearate, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Portulaca Oleracea Extract, Carbomer, Arginine, Xanthan gum, Adenosine, Disodium EDTA, Pomegranate extract, Ascrobic Acid

 
Thanks to pointy applicator product is easy to use and precise. It works like pen, by pressing button on one end it will pop out a bit of cream on the other end. The effects were noticeable quickly, much quicker than with Sidmool essence. I'm not sure if it's combination of this two (when I started Wonder Eye I still had some Sidmool, so I used one in the morning and the other at night) or just Wonder Eye, but my tear through has finally began to get shallower. 

Unfortunately is seems like my fillers are jinxed - I found this product only on Gmarket, but from quite along time now it's out of stock. I am not sure if it still even manufactured. As an act of despair you can try Avecko, website that offers "buying service" - you need to tell them what Korean product you are looking for, if they find it, they will buy it, add some commission and send it to you.

So far I didn't have to turn to Avecko, because I found a Polish website offering cosmetic ingredients to make your own formula and they have a product called Voluplus. This one, for a change, doesn't contain Pueraria nor Anemarrhena, but Macelignan, a substance obtained from nutmeg, that expands adipose tissue and stimulates production of new fat cells. The products comes in a plastic bottle with dropper like nose or eye drops.

INCI: Macadamia Ternifolia Seed Oil 95-96 %, Macelignan 3-5 %, Tocopherol 0,2-0,3%

Macadamia seed oil in this formulation is a carrier/solvent for Macelignan, it also offer moisturisation and softening effects.
 
Voluplus is designed to be used with other products, recommended concentration is 2-5%. Macelignan, as a lipophilic substance, likes oils so it's recommended to be added to some facial oil. I can tolearte oils on my face only in cleansing version, so I decided to go for a cream. I bought regenerating and nutritious Dr Organic Moroccan Argan Oil Day Cream, which contains various oils: argan oil, cannabis oil, clove oil, cinnamon oil, rosewood oil etc. I mixed 50ml of cream with 5ml of Voluplus, achieving 10% concentration.

mixing cream with Voluplus

Voluplus didn't change cream's texture or smell. Cream itself has quite strong smell, which makes undereye application slightly unpleasant, but well, that's what happens when you buy cream without checking first... Cream is slightly greasy, so I use it only at night time - after cleansing my face I apply it on my tear throughs and nasalobial folds, give it some time to absorb and top up with my usual eye cream and night cream. Voluplus maintained great results that I achieved with Wonder Eye, currently I look better tired than what I looked like 6 month ago after 10 hours sleep :)

The results
The part that everyone have been looking forward to ;) here are the results after 7 months with natural fillers:

The difference is not smashing, but there is visible improvement, the tear through is more shallow and shorter. The biggest difference is the skin structure, when I touch my skin under the eyes it's no longer thin like a paper, I can feel tissue between skin and eye socket edge. I can now easily put creams under my eyes and apply some massage without worrying that I will bruise myself.

The difference is more noticable when you add some effects to photos:

Increased saturation - you can admire gorgous purplishness around my eyes :P

Black and white, no other effects

Negative - here the difference is the most obivious

So as you can see the natural filling substances work, but if you want to give them a try you need to be patient. I noticed that effects are better when you apply along the whole bottom line of eyesocket, from inner corner of the eye in semi-circle across the cheek, not only on the tear through.

Where to apply

The costs
Sidmool Pueararia Anemarrhena Elastic Essence x2 = £60
Wonder Eye - approx. £17
Voluplus - 20PLN, approx £4
Dr Organic Argan Oil Day Cream (to mix with Voluplus) - £7 (regular price is £9, but I bought it on offer)
Together approx. £88, but it didn't feel as so much, as it wasn't one off spending. My treatment isn't over yet, I still got over half a jar of cream with Voluplus, which should last good couple of months, so this £88 may be treated as a cost of year long therapy. Much cheaper then hyaluronic acid injections, but takes much longer to see the results.

I would recommend natural filling methods for peoplo who:
+ are patient and systematic
+ want to fight first signs of ageing
+ are afraid of needles and injections
+ can't afford hyaluronic acid injections
+ enjoy experiments :)

Natural fillers are NOT for people who:
- need results quickly
- have very deep tear through - the results may be unsatisfactory
- are impatient and unsystematic

Other filling products
Extracts of Pueraria or Anemarrhena can be found in many various creams designed to enlarge and firm bust. Just put "volufiline" into e-Bay search engine and many results would pop out, however if you want to use them on your face you sholud be cautious.

When it comes to filling products from trusted companies you can buy Sidmool Volufiline Ampoule on Gmarket, sometimes it shows up on e-Bay as well. Product is worth consideration because of it's very pure ingredients:
INCI: Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Anemarrhena Asphodeloides Root Extract
it's 100% volufiline!

Also well known to fans of Korean beauty products Missha has it's own firming cream with Pueararia extract, designed to be used on bust and neck. It's available on Missha's official websites (unfortunately there is no UK website) and e-Bay, for approx. £15.

Terminology
Just to clarify:
Pueraria Mirificia = Kwao Krua Kao
Anemarrhena Asphodeloides = Jimo = Zhi Mu
Volufiline = Hydrogenated Polyisobutene + Anemarrhena Asphodeloide

If you struggle with tear throughs, nasalobial folds or loss of firmness I would like to encourage you to look for your own fillers. If you now any other products containing filling ingredients, please let me know! :)

Korean skincare routine: Layering

When you first start to browse for some Asian brands skincare products you may notice that each line has quite wide choice of products. In Europe we stick to approx. 3-5 step routine, ie. cleanser, toner, eye cream, day/night cream + eventually make up, in Asia skin care routine can take even 10 steps. It's called "layering" and the main idea is to go from the most light and absorbing into skin ingredients, to ones that stay on the top of skin creating protective layer.

Missha Stem Cell Line: Toner -> Serum -> Eye Cream -> Emulsion -> Defending Cream/Recovery Cream

Here is an example of steps with short explanation of each step:
1. Cleansing - in Asian way of beauty this is almost the most important part of a skin care routine, often extended to a "double cleansing" - first we are supposed to remove make up, sebum etc. with cleansing oil/cream/milk/butter and then follow with cleansing gel/foam/soap, we can also add some peeling gel. Remember - the cleaner you face is, the tighter pores are, as usually they are widen as a result of sebum/dirt stuck in them.
2. Toner - in Europe most of toners are astringents, supposed to make sure there is nothing left on our skin after cleansing, in Asia toners are usually more caring, moisturising and packed with goodness. Sometimes it has thicker consistency than a typical water-like toner. Some of them are containing alcohol, but they still aren't as harsh as some of European ones.
3. Essence - it's moisturising product, but with very watery consistence, sometimes as watery as toner. It's supposed to absorb completely into skin without leaving any residue. In some lines it may be recommended to use despite of toner.
4. Serum - Korean serums differ from what we know as a serum in Europe. When in Europe serums are often richer than creams and can be an alternative to cream in Korea they are rather light, non-greasy, supposed to absorb completely into skin. In some lines it may be used despite of essence.
5. Emulsion - it's another light moisturiser. It absorbs quite well and as I noticed from careful lecture of different reviews, some people like to apply a few layers of it. It may have milky or gel texture. In some lines it's supposed to be used straight after the toner, especially if line doesn't contain essence, in some lines it goes before serum, in some after serum.
6. Cream/Gel Cream - in some lines gel cream is supposed to be used first and then to be followed by cream, when in others they are substitutes of each other, so we can choose according to which one we like more. Both of them are supposed to leave a protective shield on the top of our skin, to prevent water loss etc. BUT it's not very common that creams would contain SPF.
7. Sun screen - sun protection is extremely important in Asian beauty care (read why [HERE]).
8. BB Cream/CC Cream/Foundation - as a last step of skin care and first step of make-up at the same time, BB Creams are also containing SPF; BB Creams offers some care + medium coverage, CC Creams are more caring, but with only light coverage.

Mizon Snail Line: All in One Cream -> Ampoule -> Eye Cream -> Recovery Gel -> BB with SPF -> Face mist

There is also a few steps that are either optional or depending on line, are supposed to be used in different order:
- eye cream - in some lines they are recommended to use after essence and before emulsion, some before cream, some don't specify.
- lotion - another type of fully absorbing light moisturiser, in some lines it's watery and used as a substitute of essence or toner, in some it's supposed to be used after essence or serum.
- mask sheet - it's a piece of material cut into a face shape soaked in product, which we put on face for some time. Depending on line, it's supposed to be used before or after toner or just whenever you like. There are also small "moustache" shaped masks specifically for nasolabial fold.
- patches - many variants of gel shapes or foil "stickers" designed to target certain skin concern - the most popular are acne patches and eye patches.
- ampoule - usually appears as a substitute to serum.
- primer/make up base - may be used as a make up product or instead of sunscreen if contains SPF.
- pact/powder - to mattify and/or add SPF.
- facial mist - usually there are two types: moisturising one, which can be used as a essence and during the day, whenever we feel we may need some refreshment and moisture or finishing one, working as make-up fixer.

Secret Key Snail Line: Face Soap & Face foam -> mask sheet -> Toner -> Essence -> Eye Cream -> Emulsion -> Gel Cream/Cream -> BB with SPF

As you can see order can be a bit different according to particular line, so it's always worth checking with particular product. You are also welcome to create your own routine, using product from different lines. The only time when I was actually using products layering was when I was testing out Skin Food Royal Honey Gift Set. The only problem with using so many of steps is that you can't see exactly what influence each product has to your skin, so I prefer to try only one/two moisturising product at once, to see how they work and be able to create my own perfect skin care routine one day.

5 things you should know about BB Creams

I am absolutely obsessed with BB Creams - since I discovered them I banned foundations. But what makes BB Cream so phenomenal? I would like to tell you about 5 things that makes it different.

1. It cares

BB stands for "Beauty Balm" or "Blemish Balm". The very first BB Creams were invented in Germany for people after operations, to help skin heal and conceal the scars at the same time. Then idea was catched by Asian beauty companies and BB cream was released to market as a make up product. Few years ago BB Creams were mostly Asian products, some time ago they emerged to European cosmetic market and now almost every Western company has own BB Cream: Avon, Oriflame, Olay, Garnier, Maybelline...
So the first phenomenon of BB Cream is that it's skincare and make up at the same time. If you never used BB Cream before you can think about it as a tinted moisturiser, however it offers better coverage than tinted cream. BB Creams contain different substances, that are supposed to care for our skin - plant extracts, vitamins, or even novelties like snail muscus. And as a skincare product, different BBs are targeting different skin needs. For example BRTC Jasmine Water BB does moisturising wonder for dry skin, when Skin79 Hot Pink BB does good job on sebum control for oily skin.
Also the majority of BB Creams (if not all of them) contains SPF to protect your skin from harmful UV rays.

BB Cream with Sail secretion filtrate and it's benefits.

  2. It's dewy

When in Europe we are still opting for rather matte finish of our make-up and eventually just highlight it when needed, Asian market prefers "glow effect". As far as I noticed from reading hundredths of products descriptions and reviews, the idea of perfect skin in Asia is clear and dewy complexion, skin glowing from within. Most of Asian BB Creams will give you slightly shiny finish - some just a little bit, some giving skin almost a wet look. A great example of classic, healthy glow effect is Missha M Perfect Cover BB. There are some mattifying BB Creams available as well (Lioele Dollish or Skin Food Peach Green Tea), but they are still nor as matte as some mattifying foundations. A few times I read negative reviews about some mattifying products, because they were "too mattifying" 0o clearly a strong matte skin is considered as "flat" and "lifeless".  I must admit, since I started using BB creams on regular basis I like a bit of glow, especially on my cheeks and eye area. I matte only my super oily T-zone.

Etude House's BB promo - notice how dewy the model's face is.

3. It looks and feels natural

BB Cream as a skin care and make-up in one, may not offer you as strong coverage as some foundations would. It is supposed to perfect our skin up by blending with it, not by completely covering it. I must say I really like it - I have uneven skin tone (pink cheeks vs white temples), shadowy eyes (my veins are close to the surface - not much I can do about it) and a lot of acne scars. Even the best make up is not able to completely cover my scars - once I had make up done by professional with all the bases, foundations, powders and concealers... it covered up most of my scares, but they were still visible. Not mentioning that all these layers of make-up felt super-heavy on my oily face... and BB cream? It manages to cover my blackheads and evens out my skin tone. My scars are still visible, but a little toned and make up feels very light. Somehow I feel like foundation doesn't allow my skin to breathe - after the whole day with foundation on my acne would be irritated, more red and sore. BB Cream doesn't make my skin angry, sometimes even soothes it.

4. Less is more

Another thing that differs BB Creams from foundations is a way of application. It took me really long time to learn how to use BB Cream in the right way - and because I keep testing different ones, with different consistency I still make mistakes sometimes. The thing with BB Cream is that the less you use, the better it will look. Have you ever put too much moisturiser on your face and made it feel greasy? BB Cream may do the same if overdosed. It's also much more likely to roll up in wrinkles. In general I would say that a pea size or less is an optimal amount. I noticed that I tend to overuse when I put BB cream straight from the packaging onto my face, so what I do now is dispense a pea size on the top of my left palm and apply it from palm to face with my right palm. Pea size turns out to be well enough for the whole face, sometimes even too much. I first apply it overall ant then I put second layer on areas that need more concealing - my acne scars and eye areas. Using the right amount of BB Cream makes it look very natural and weightless. In general BB cream should be rather patted than rubbed into face - if you have problem with patting, try make up sponge first - dab it into cream and then "staple" your face.

5. It contains silicone

BB creams are well known from their ability of smoothen skin out. It's because most of them contain silicons - a substance which divided beauty experts - some says it's good, the others that it should be avoided. The biggest advantage of silicone are immediate effects - they smoothen out skin, make hair soft and shiny. The problem is that some silicons can build up and create a layer stopping other ingredients from reaching our skin. That's why it's extremely important to make sure you cleanse your skin properly if you use any products (BB Creams, primers, foundations) containing silicons. One of the best ways is using cleansing oil.
As a several acne suferer I can assure you that silicons in BB Creams I tested out so far, are not irritating my skin or causing acne to get worse. I also didn't notice any pore clogging. Of course every skin is different, so you may react differently, but I think that as long as you cleanse your skin properly you should be fine.

What you should be careful about when buying Asian skincare products on e-Bay?

Hello everyone!
You may wonder where do I get all my Asian (mostly Korean) cosmetics from, since I live in Europe. Well, I am notorious e-Bay customer. Even though there is a lot of websites specialising in Asian skincare, e-Bay always wins with prices and choice. However, if you want to buy foreign stuff on e-Bay, there is a few thing you should be careful about.

Country of origin

Most of the stuff I review here is Korean. If you're interested in any particular product, try to find out where the brand is from and then when you are looking for it on e-Bay make sure seller is from that particular country. It still may not give you 100% certainty that product is genuine, but I think that when you buy Korean product from China the risk of getting fake is much bigger.

Some time ago when I was looking for one particular item I noticed that one seller was selling it much cheaper than others. A moment later I realised that this seller was from Hong Kong and I asked myself a question - why Chinese seller would sell Korean product cheaper?

Feedback

When you click on seller's nick you will see a complete profile including information like: where are they from, how long are they e-Bay members and feedback statistics.

After clicking "See all feedback" we can read other users opinions about seller/buyer. Usually there is loads of positive ones, so I always focus on the most recent negative ones.

It's important to look closely into comment's content. Sometimes the person who wrote comment makes mistake, and for example posts positive comment as a negative. Also quite often you can see people giving negative opinion on product's effect - which in my opinion is unfair when we talk about cosmetics product - seller doesn't manufacture them, so can't be responsible for item's properties. Instead we should judge thing like product description, time and quality of postage etc.

Shipping

A great deal of sellers offers us free economy postage. From my experience, economy postage from Korea may take approx. 3-4 weeks. Standard shipping costs usually $2,50 - it offers us tracking number and arrives in approx. 1-2 weeks (my record order from f2plus1 took 5 days to arrive). There are also express services available, but they are quite pricey $20-$30. It's always worth checking if seller offers combined postage, so we pay fixed price for the postage, no matter how many things we order. I always order few things at the same time to make it worth waiting ;)

Caution: some time ago when I noticed that one seller had two auctions for one product with two different prices. The difference was the postage price - the product that was a few pound cheaper had postage priced at... $100. What's weird on the search results there was "free postage" next to product, after I went in auction page the $100 was shown. I think it was some kind of mistake (auction is not there any more), but I always double check the postage price since then.

Freebies

The last thing on my checklist, not very important, but if we can get something for free then why not? ;) The majority of sellers adds some freebies to our shopping as a "thank you" gift, but not all of them. Once I ordered quite a few things from one seller - five full size products - and I was super exited for my freebies (usually the more you order, the more freebies you get), but I didn't get a single one. Fair enough as seller didn't promise any in the auction - I just assumed I will get them, which was my mistake. Since then I always check if seller offer some free samples.

Freebies form seller f2plus1 added to order of three full size products.

Freebies from seller Sing-Sing-Girl added to order of one full size product and three sets of samples (three samples in each set).

That would be pretty much it, if anything else will come to my mind I will edit the post. If you have any questions feel free to ask :)

Why is it important to protect our skin from UV rays?

While in Europe we like to sunbathe, in Asia it's considered to be harmful. Why?

Sun parasols are very popular in Asia.

What are UV rays and what influence they have on our skin?
Sun rays have been divided into few ranges according to their influence on humans. Surface of the Earth is reached by ultraviolet rays in range from 280 to 400 nanometres. There are three kinds of UV rays:

• UVC - 200-280nm - this kind of rays is almost completely absorbed by ozone sphere, so it doesn't reach surface of the Earth. This kind of rays are highly harmful - they may be used in laboratories or hospitals to sterilise surfaces.
• UVB - 280-320nm - represents 5% of rays reaching surface of the Earth and can't penetrate throughout clouds and glass, however it penetrates epidermis. UVB rays are responsible for sunbathing effects and also for sunburns, allergic reactions and skin cancers.
• UVA - 320-400nm - represents 95% of rays reaching surface of the Earth and it's present all year round, including winter. There rays penetrate throughout clouds, glass and epidermis and they are very tricky, as they don't cause any pain (so we don't sunburn with them). UVA rays are responsible for creating free radicals, that in long terms can provoke changes in cells, like photoaging, sun intolerance, pigmentation or even skin cancers.

Photo posted in New England Journal of Medicine showing negative effects of one-sided UV rays exposure after 30 years of driving truck.

So Asians are right hiding from sun ;) However we are not able to completely disable UV rays, how should we then protect our skin from it?

SPF and PA filters
SPF stand for "sun protection factor" and it's used to state protection level from UVB rays in suncare cosmetics. Factor is scaled from 2 to 50, however recently we may come across factors higher that 50. The SPF is calculated by comparing the amount of time needed to burn the skin that is protected to unprotected skin. For example: person who would normally get sunburned after 10 minutes of sunbathing, using SPF10 would get burned in ten times longer period of time, so after approx. 100hours if sunbathing with SPF (in constant UV). Cosmetics with SPF15 should stop 93% UVB, SPF30 - 97%. However we should remember that SPF filters are working only for two hours after application - after that time we should reapply them.

PA filters are protecting from UVA rays and have only very general, three levels scale: PA+, PA++ and PA+++. More pluses = more protection.
Filter protecting from UVA rays can be also marked with symbols IPD or PPD.

Unfortunately a lot of cosmetics still have only SPF filters, which don't offer our skin full protection. So far all the BB Creams I came across and tested had both filters.

Mineral and chemical filters 
Mineral filters, known also as a physical filters are compounds, that create physical barrier on our skin, reflecting or dispersing UV rays. Their molecules are big enough to not be able to penetrate epidermis, so they stay on the top of our skin, blocking UVB rays and some UVA rays. There are two compounds qualifying as a mineral filters: Titanium dioxide and Zinc oxide.

Pros of mineral filters:
+ well tolerated by skin, very rarely causing allergies
+ effective immediately after application
+ photostable - they don't loose their properties under influence of UV rays, oxidation or time
+ they don't accumulate in our system

Cons of mineral filters:
- on their own they are not able to provide us high protection against UV rays
- they may require often re-application (especially after swimming or activities causing intensive sweating)
- they may whiten skin or clog pores

Chemical filters are substances, that are penetrating epidermis, absorbing UV rays and converting them into harmless heat.

Pros of chemical filters:
+ highly effective
+ invisible on skin
+ non-greasy

Cons of chemical filters:
- less photostable than mineral filters
- may cause irritation
- not effective straight after application - we need to wait 20-30 minutes before they start working
- they may accumulate in our system

The less stabile filter, which is better to be avoided is oxybenozone (or Benzophenone - 3, Benzophenone - 4), trading names Eusolex 4360, Escalol 567, KAHSCREEN BZ-3.

In generall the most effective sun screens would be mixers of mineral and chemical filters, like Mexoryl SX, Mexoryl XL, Tinosorb S, Tinosorb M.
 
Stay safe
Even using the best filters we should still remember about rules of safe sunbathing. It's best to sunbathe in movement and reduce our exposition to sun between 12pm and 3pm. If you are on holiday and planing to sunbathe everyday it's best to divide it in steps, starting from just 10-15 minutes the first day and then extending the sunbathing time every next day. Also bear in mind that near water (and it the water) the sun is exposure is doubled up, as UV rays are reflected by water.

The most common mistake is using UV protection only in the summer - UV rays are dangerous to our skin through the whole year, regardless of the temperature and clouds. If you want healthy, young looking skin you should remember about UV filters all year round. If you can't be bothered with lotions/sprays with filters it worth looking for cosmetics you use everyday anyway with filters. In European market is very easy to find day cream with UV filter, on Asian market almost every BB cream contains SPF. Unfortunately, to provide our skin maximal protection we should reapply filter every 2-3 hours, so the easy and simple solutions are powders/pacts with SPF.

Skin Food's powder pact with high filters SPF50 PA+++.