Stocking up on sunscreen is one of those rites of summer.

But selecting the most effective type seems to get more complicated every year.

As a sunburn-prone redhead, sunscreen buys me a ticket to vacation fun. Without slathering on a thick coating of SPF 45 I would be unable to leave the hotel room in a tropical locale for even one minute. I sometimes wonder what life would be like without sunscreen (would I be forced to trade my beach holidays for winter ski vacations?) and I also wonder if my trusted SPF is the solar panacea that it claims to be.