The 1 Place You Should Apply Sunscreen Before Anywhere Else

Do you start at your feet and move up? Give it all a quick spray and move on? If you’ve fallen into a routine of using sunscreen each day, you may be surprised to hear that there’s a preferred method for how it should be applied.

Are you doing it the right way? Here’s what the experts say.

Top-down is the preferred method.

Face-first is always the way to go, experts said. “I recommend starting at the face and then working your way down the body to your feet, so that you don’t wind up with bacteria from your body on your face,” said dermatologist Dr. Corey Hartman .

Dermatologist Dr. Teresa Song agreed with this approach, and she explained why it’s a good idea. “Generally, skin care products used on the body are more occlusive, which means they can use heavy, greasy ingredients that create a physical barrier for the skin,” she said. “That heavier body skin care should be separated from products intended for face and neck, since they could potentially cause breakouts on the face.”

Globs or dabs?

“One way to apply your sunscreen is to focus on the cosmetic subunits of the face,” said dermatologist Dr. DiAnne Davis . “If you follow this method, the forehead gets one dot or glob of sunscreen. Each cheek gets another, then the chin area, around the mouth, the nose and finally around the eyes.”

But that’s not the only method. “Alternatively, you could take a glob of product and spread it into both hands by rubbing them together, followed by one large application to the entire face with both hands,” Davis said.

Before or after makeup?

“We always recommend layering products from thinnest to thickest,” said dermatologist Dr. Claire Wolinsky . “If you’re using chemical sunscreen, it should be as close to the skin as