The face, lips, ears, and scalp part line are disproportionately prone to sun damage and often under-protected compared to the rest of the body during a tanning session.
Why the face needs its own approach
Facial skin is thinner and gets more cumulative lifetime UV exposure than most body skin — a dedicated facial SPF (often higher and more cosmetically formulated than body sunscreen) applied and reapplied carefully matters specifically here.
Lips are commonly missed entirely
Lips have very thin skin and no melanin-based protection of their own, yet are frequently skipped during sunscreen application — an SPF lip balm, reapplied as often as any other exposed area, closes this common gap.
Ears and the scalp part line
Both are easy to forget and easy to burn — the tops of ears and any exposed scalp along a hair part deserve the same deliberate SPF attention as more obvious areas like shoulders and arms.
Is regular body sunscreen fine to use on the face?
It can work in a pinch, but dedicated facial sunscreens are often formulated to be lighter and less pore-clogging — worth using a facial-specific product for regular use, especially for acne-prone or sensitive skin.