Please Do Not Try This Terrible TikTok Sunscreen Contouring "Hack"

    You're better off using makeup if you want that "snatched" look.

    Marie Lodi
    by Marie Lodi

    BuzzFeed Contributor

    A new day, a new TikTok beauty trend. While the app can be a great way to discover new makeup and skincare products and get helpful tips, sometimes these trends can be questionable. Case in point: this “sunscreen contouring" hack.

    As PopSugar reports, model Eli Withrow posted a TikTok video where she has sunscreen applied on different parts of her face. “Haters will say it doesn’t work. I’m convinced that if you put a base sunscreen of SPF 30 on, and an SPF 90 on all the spots that you would put highlighter on, the sun will contour your face where you’d put bronzer, and you’ll be natural snatched all summer,” she says in the clip.

    @stopiteli

    Pseudo sunscreen contour results ☀️

    ♬ original sound - Eli Withrow
    The video was originally posted in June 2020. It's been making its way around again, most likely due to summer being right around the corner.

    Interestingly, Withrow isn’t the first person to come up with this “hack.” Beyoncé’s makeup artist, Sir John, is also a proponent of this unusual way of contouring. As he told the Fat Mascara podcast in 2017, John applies a 15 or 20 SPF on his face, then adds a 50 SPF to 80 SPF “underneath the eyes, around the eyes, a thin line down the center of the nose, maybe touch a bit on your chin, or anywhere you naturally use your highlighter to contour and highlight.”

    @rruthb

    Natural Contour, a scam? Should I have done it for an hour instead?? Maybe use a stronger sunscreen?LMK

    ♬ original sound - rruthb

    So what do the experts say? “The sunscreen contouring trend is basically using tan lines on your face to create contouring,” explains Dr. Hadley King, a board-certified dermatologist based in New York City. “Contouring with sunscreen is a bad idea because you need properly applied SPF protection for all of the skin.”

    In regards to using sunscreens with different levels of SPFs, Dr. King says: "It's ok to use different SPFs, but keep in mind that improvement over SPF 30 is marginal, and be sure to avoid any skipped areas. If they overlap, the resulting SPF is the higher one at best — it's not a sum of the two, and it's possible that one may dilute the other, resulting in an SPF lower than the higher one."

    She says that it's also important to realize that both UVA and UVB rays cause skin cancer, but the SPF actually only tells you about the product's ability to block UVB rays, not UVA rays.

    When it comes to sunscreen, a lot of us have actually been doing it wrong. “Most people only apply 25% to 50% of the recommended amount of sunscreen,” says Dr. King. “The guidelines are to apply one ounce — that's enough to fill a shot glass — to the exposed areas of the face and body, a nickel-sized dollop to the face alone.” If you're using a spray, Dr. King says to apply it until an even sheen appears on the skin.

    If you want that contoured look, the best and safest thing to do is grab your favorite palette. “Contour with makeup, and protect your skin from damaging UV rays with sunscreen,” says Dr. King. You can use one like Colleen Rothschild Beauty's Triple Defense Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 40, which is a vegan, mineral sunscreen made with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.

    Tube of Colleen Rothschild Beauty triple defense sunscreen
    Courtesy of Colleen Rothschild Beauty

    “Remember that there is no such thing as a healthy tan,” adds Dr. King. “A tan is a defense mechanism that kicks in when your DNA is getting damaged.”

    IDK about you, but I'll be sticking to my Huda Beauty contour...