This is one of the biggest acne myths around. Regardless of your skin colour, type or age, sun exposure will dry, damage and age your skin. Proection is essential.

It is understandable however why this myth continues; on exposure to the sun, skin dries and ages. When acne skin dries up, the bacteria have less to feed on so the acne lessens.

This short term improvement however is ineveitably followed by an onslaught of much worse acne... Dry skin means dead skin cells. Dry acne-prone skin means a sudden burst of oil as your skin tries to rehydrate. These two factors combined provide a perfect scenario for another acne outbreak.

When you have acne, your skin is not at its most healthy. It is fighting bacteria attacking it while trying to regenerate as fast as it can to get rid of the acne and guard against scarring. The last thing it needs is to have the sun drying it out and creating more scaly dead skin cells sitting on top of your pores to block them and encourage your acne.

With less dead skin cells sitting on your skin to clog your pores, you also have less dead skin cells to protect your skin from the sun's harmful rays. With a battle going on inside your pores, your skin is too preoccupied to effectively fight off sun damage as well.

The bottom line is that you must protect your skin. Sun exposure is damaging for normal skin but for acne skin it is even more incredibly harmful.

How do I protect my skin?

If your moisturiser contains both a UVA and a UVB sunscreen and has an SPF of at least 15, you can skip this. If not, you will need to apply a sunscreen to your face first thing every morning.

If your moisturiser does not contain adequate sunscreen or you want to make doubly sure by applying a separate sunscreen, the application process is very similar to applying your moisturiser.

1. Wait until your moisturiser has soaked in.
2. Wash your hands, rinse thoroughly and dry.
3. Apply your sunscreen to the palms of your hands.
4. Rub your palms together to warm up your sunscreen. This helps activate the emollients and humectants in the sunscreen so it is more likely to soak into your skin.
5. Pat your sunscreen gently onto your skin until it has soaked in. Try not to rub it in.

Protection top tips

- Sunscreens and sunblocks usually protect your skin from many types of pollution as well as sun damage. Wear it all the time unless you are in bed asleep.

- Apply your sunscreen even if you are planning to spend the day indoors, it is raining or you are going to be underground. The sun's rays can be travel through glass and are often magnified by bouncing off cloud cover.

- If you are going out in the evening after you have done your evening skincare routine make sure to apply your sunscreen too. You need to wear protection anytime you are outside and there is no damage to your skin in having sunscreen on overnight.

- If you cannot avoid going out in the direct sun, apply sunscreen every two hours, wear sun protective clothing, a hat and sunglasses. Especially avoid the sun between 10am and 4pm as this is when the risk of sun damage is highest.

Under no circumstances should you actively seek sun exposure, use tanning beds or purposefully sunbathe if you have acne. While you may see a short term gain, in the long term you are in fact encouraging your acne and making it worse.

Look after your skin and it will start to reward you by becoming healthier.