You should BUY this product
It may not have escaped your attention that I have little regard for Made in the USA sunscreen. Archaic US regulation makes it too easy to buy a SPF 30 or SPF 50 product that gives little or no protection against UVA radiation. And yes, the US FDA, who regulate sunscreen, agrees with me!
We want sunscreens to offer protection from over-exposure to UVB (that causes skin reddening, sunburn and skin cancer) as well as UVA (that causes tanning and photo-aging).
Drunk Elephant have produced a near perfect sunscreen. If there were a God of Sunscreen (e.g., Keanu Reeves), he would be using this product.
At £29 for 90ml, what could be so great about this product?
- The only UV filter is Zinc Oxide (“ZnO“) that forms 20% of the whole product.
- ZnO will protect against UVB and UVA rays. In fact, it offers superior UVA protection (see below), which very few filters so. Especially for Made in USA sunscreens, this is an exception.
- ZnO is one of the safest sunscreen ingredients to slap onto your skin: its not readily absorbed by your skin and even if tiny amounts are absorbed, it breaks down into Zinc and Oxygen ions. Both these ions are present in abundance in our bodies.
If you are lucky enough to live in a country where you can buy this, then definitely give this sunscreen a shot.
What follows is the Skincare Nerd Edit. Please drop me a line if you have any questions email@happyskindays.com Until next time, au revoir!
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Skincare Nerd Edit
This section is for those of you who are part of my tribe – that is, you want the nitty gritty technical read of this product.
I am following the guidelines I published in this post How To Buy Sunscreen: The UVA Cut
Q1) Are there any harmful chemicals in this product?
No. The harmful chemicals I am looking for are Parabens, BHT, TEA-Salicylate, Benzophenone-3 (or Oxybenzone) and 4-Aminobenzoic Acid (or PABA).
Q2) Is the SPF of the product 30 and above?
Yes.
Q3) What are the UVA, UVA/UVB filters?
Damage caused by over-exposure to UV radiation.
“Filters” protect against damage caused by UV radiation. The effects of over-exposure to UVA and UVB are cumulative and are shown above. Note that UVB also causes photoaging, but by far its main damaging effect is skin cancer.
The product contains 20% Zinc Oxide by composition. Zinc Oxide is by far, my first choice when it comes to broadspectrum filters and what follows is the shameless promotion of Zinc Oxide.
Zinc Oxide provides protection against UVB, UVA2 and UVA1. As can be seen from the diagram below ALL three – UVB and the 2 UVAs – cause PHOTOAGING.
Zinc Oxide is extremely photostable. It does not penetrate into or through human skin to any great extent and, to the extent any de minimis penetration occurs, does not result in adverse health effects, because the tiny amount of Zinc Oxide particles that achieve transdermal absorption, if any, would dissociate into Zinc and Oxygen ions, both of which are naturally occurring elements in the human body.
Sources and uses: All the information about the product has been obtained from the cultbeauty online store. Retail price: GBP 29 for 90ml (INR 2,560 for 90ml). Ingredients: Active ingredients: zinc oxide 20%. A full ingredient list is available if you click this link