A Few More Sun Products

Monday, July 22, 2019

Much as I hate to come to grips with it, summer is halfway over. I've tried six more sun protection products (seven if you count my longsleeve shirt with UPF50!) since my last sunscreen roundup at the start of the season. All mineral sunscreens and half of them made in the US.

Australian Gold Botanical Sunscreen Kids SPF 50, $16.99

I like the finish on this one a lot but you should know that it will need to rub quite vigorously and that it has quite the white cast. Once the sunscreen sets (couple of minutes) it won't rub in any further and on top of that, becomes quite difficult to remove with anything other than a cleansing oil. The drawback about the rubbing requirements is that it can make products pill that normally don't ball up, all that friction from the hand will push products that usually sit together nicely. There's been a few incidences where I noticed hours too late that I had a white patch on my ear or side of my neck that I missed, so for that reason I think I prefer the tinted version even though the finish of the Kids Botanical SPF 50 feels a little nicer to me.

5 oz tube.

Australian Gold Tinted Mineral SPF 30, $14.99

Overall nice sunscreen. Good price point, great for oily skin. It's a little peachy compared to my skin color and has a tendency to make my face look a little white-pink, but for a mineral sunscreen it's really rather minimal. It's only noticeable when I wear it by itself so I pair this sunscreen with something that has at least a little bit of coverage like pressed powder foundation. The only true draw back for this sunscreen is that I need to wear a lot of moisturizer under it around my cheeks and mouth or else it'll dry those areas out spectacularly.

3 oz tube.

Left: Australian Gold Botanical Kids, center: Australian Gold Tinted, right: Paula's Choice On-the-Go Shielding Powder

Same order, blended in.

Paula's Choice On-the-Go Shielding Powder Broad Spectrum SPF 30, $29

This is my first sunscreen in loose powder form. It comes in plastic tube (2.51g of product) with a clear end housing the powder, and a really soft synthetic brush. That was a big concern of mine, scratchy brushes are a non starter and several other powder sunscreens on the Dermstore website mentioned rough brush heads. I also really like how with this brush head I can take the bristles off to wash - just extend out the brush side and tug on the bristles, it's attached via a magnet.

It's hard to dispense a lot of this product, I only get the faintest dusting. I don't count on this as my main sunscreen but I think it's suitable for touch ups when my skin gets a little oily on low sun exposure days. The powder is translucent and disappears on my NC20-25 skin, with a satin finish.

Sun Bum Mineral SPF 30 Spray Sunscreen, $17.99

I like the feel of this sunscreen, but I don't care for the scent. It has a soft, velvety matte feel to it once it's rubbed all over the skin. The scent is a brown sugar and vanilla type of perfume. My spouse really likes how it smells on me but I'm just not crazy about vanilla. It has a white cast but it rubs into the skin pretty easily.

Each bottle contains 6 oz of product.

COOLA Mineral Sunscreen SPF 30, $42

Another spray SPF. This one has matte finish once it's rubbed in and it has set. I think it's hilarious that Sephora's website calls it sheer because I've seen white spray paint that was more sheer than this stark white spray! The feel of this is slightly waxy, the matte feel is borderline drying. I think this one would be suitable for people with oilier skin on their bodies - while my face is combo, my body is on the very dry side so it wasn't a superb match for me. Of all the sunscreens I've tried, this is one of the most water resistant. The white cast is pretty strong and needs a lot of rubbing to blend in.

Each bottle contains 8 oz of product.

Left: Coola, right: Sun Bum

Same order after they've been rubbed in.

Sun Bum Mineral SPF 30 Lip Balm, $3.99

Most lip balms with SPF have chemical sunscreen in the US, but the most common chemical sunscreens give me really big cysts. I've been looking for a mineral one for a while, and found Sun Bum's version. Unfortunately it has a strong scent. It's not quite the same as the smell of the spray sunscreen, it's more coconut. I also dislike how it feels on my lips - chalky, waxy and it bunches up in the lines of the lip. Gross.

This spread of SPF taught me a few things. I tried out canister spray sunscreens and I can't say I like them very much. If I have to spread it around and rub it in with my hands anyways, it might as well come out of a smaller container. I do like how thin spray sunscreens are in texture, but I lose a lot to overspray and the bulky canisters aren't airplane-trip friendly. My spouse found out he loves sprays though, and I'm down for anything that encourages him to use suncreen all the time.

I also reaffirmed that I'm as scent-picky as ever, that hasn't faded over the years!

What's your current SPF of choice?

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