<p>While in Aruba several years ago my daughter and I fell in love with Australian Gold sunscreen. Love the smell, but it is for beach trips only. Even the fairish in the family did not burn with this brand!!</p>
<p>For day to day sunscreen, I like the Neutrogena UltraSheer Dry-Touch also.</p>
<p>Thanks
I will make a list and take it to the drugstore and see what I find. I did try the Neutrogena last summer in the metal spray can but felt it went all over and also felt it was expensive and the can didn’t last very long. The spray I used this weekend worked well but the smell just made me crazy. It is Ocean Potion Instant dry 30 mist made with Parsol. It smells like a 50-50 bar which might be fine for the ocean but doesn’t work with work attire.
We have a mix in our family of fair skin and those who tan. When we go on a weeklong beach vacation we go through about 5 bottles. I am paranoid.
My youngest has another question. She is fair but loves the outdoors. Surfs the whole summer long. She has gotten to the age where she doesn’t want to wear a rashguard and wants to sun and surf in a bikini. We spray her up pretty well and for the most part do okay preventing burns. What she notices is that after several days of sunscreen use she has little bumps all over her arms and back and sometimes upper legs. Is it the sunscreen or as some have told her it is an allergic reaction to the sun or the ocean water. Anyone else have this problem?</p>
<p>I used to get those bumps in high school, during the summers when we had marching band practice. My doctor said it was like an allergy to the sun. I got it at on the fronts of my thighs - we used the high step march. :)</p>
<p>My Neutrogena is in a plastic pump spray bottle, but I know I can’t always find it everywhere. But I have a different kind of Neutrogena in a tube that my dermatologist gave me for my face.</p>
<p>Interesting thread to me because I just read that applying sunscreen not often enough is WORSE than not applying it at all. Researchers have found that the active ingredient actually causes cell damage as it works its way deeper into the skin. So you need sunscreen to protect you from the sunscreen ingredients, basically. </p>
<p>So the moisturizer with SPF 15 that I have been faithfully applying each morning for years…is a bad idea. I think I’ll just stay indoors.</p>
<p>I could have told you that, this is why I keep stressing that you need to apply often, it is not like your shampoo that says rinse and repeat. You need to keep re-applying.</p>
<p>I liked the link to Skin Deep. Years ago was told by the dermatogist that one of the best face sunscreens is Clinique. So I pay the big bucks, and find it is really the only one I can use for biking and such. Everything else runs into my eyes and makes them irritated. I’ve also learned that zinc and titanium as the active ingredients are longest lasting and most effective. The Skin Deep site corraborated on this, and recommends those ingredients as well, though expected to be negative about them due to unknown effects of the nanotechnology involved. </p>
<p>My D has a sun allergy with first exposure in spring. Red dots, unsightly and itchy. As the season progresses, it is less of an issue. In my darkest thoughts, I imagine lupus, as that is one symptom. All tests have been negative thus far.</p>
<p>.is a bad idea. I think I’ll just stay indoors.</p>
<p>Don’t do that!
[Health</a> | Does our lack of sun put your health in danger? | Seattle Times Newspaper](<a href=“http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004179538_vitamind13m.html]Health”>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/health/2004179538_vitamind13m.html)
[Lack</a> of vitamin D may increase heart disease risk](<a href=“American Heart Association | To be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives”>American Heart Association | To be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives)</p>
<p>I like the Banana Boat sport spray-on (I think it’s spf 30). It’s the one that comes in an orange bottle…</p>
<p>Bull Frog works for us. We’re more olive skin type but we can put that on early in the day, head for the lake or be outside and not burn at all. It’s a continuous spray or pump which makes it easy, no white stuff and it works. The dermatologist asked what we used and he thought it was great stuff.</p>
<p>I’ve used a variety-- Neutrogena 55 or 70 w/helioplex is very good. You just have to re-apply it a lot. I no longer use my sunscreen from the prior year-I was told that w/the recent developments in sun protecting chemicals, the newer formulations have a much shorter shelf life (we used to keep our Coopertone for years when I was a kid! I’d go to the closet & sniff a little to remind me of summers at the beach!).</p>
<p>Something I really love–Aveeno “Total Radiance” sunscreen/moisturizer w/soy, spf 30. I never thought moisturizer/sunscreen in the same product was sufficient for my fair, sun-avoiding skin but this stuff is great! It also really does even out skin tone, add a glow & block the rays.</p>
<p>D is a summer lifeguard. We all use Dura Screen. Pricey but wonderful. Have not been able to get it at chain stores, only our local pharmacy. Our dermatologist turned us on to it.</p>
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<p>Remember, if you choose something that’s hard to locate, order it on-line. Heck, even stuff that’s easy to find, I often order on-line and have it shipped to me. Especially those things that I remember I need late at night and know I won’t remember to put it on my list of things to get… like eye make-up remover that I only buy at Ulta.</p>
<p>Remember the lifeguards from the 1960s with the white zinc oxide on their noses? Is it still possible to buy that stuff anywhere? And if so, is that more of a true bock than the current sunscreens or do sunscreens now work just as effectively as the white goop from the old days?</p>
<p>I’ve seen lots of of fair-skinned people wearing the zinc oxide stuff, so it must still be available. I imagine, given the people who wear it, that it is also very (probably more than conventional sunscreen) effective.</p>
<p>I use Blue Lizard too - love it. My dermatologist sells it. I have had several spots of basal cell carcinoma removed so I am really careful. Blue Lizard is 10% zinc oxide and 5% titanium oxide so it uses barrier protection rather than chemical protection. Different experts seem to recommend different types of products. I haven’t found anything I like better than the Blue Lizard.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.ombrelle.ca/en/index.html]Ombrelle[/url”>http://www.ombrelle.ca/en/index.html]Ombrelle[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Ombrelle works so well, that if you use it regularly, you can suffer from vitamin D deficency.
As a redhead, I should wear it more, but I am still trying to find something that doesn’t irritate my eyes. I work outside and wipe my face with back of my hand and oww!</p>
<p>I bought it from BC but I think it is available in US now.</p>
<p>For lifeguard like zinc oxide white cream… use Desitin. (Also great for diaper rash)</p>
<p>Wear a hat, and sunglasses when you’re outside. Always. </p>
<p>I agree with the post above talking about how wonderful all these products are now. I can remember when Sunbloc (name???) first came out eons ago. I’m hoping that my slathering my children with various sunscreens will prevent them from having those obnoxious basal cell carcinomas… I have had 3 removed from my legs and 5 from my face over the past 7 years…and know I’ll have them for the rest of my life. Thanks to all those killer sunburns I got every summer. The last one was over my eyebrow, and I looked like I had been in a bar fight (and lost, badly) after the surgery to remove it. I found myself explaining that no, my husband had NOT beat me; it was skin cancer, but luckily it was “only” the flesh-eating kind, not the kind that would spread and kill me. </p>
<p>YAY for ANY kind of suncreen products! But don’t forget your hat. And sunglasses.</p>
<p>astrophysicsmom: Supposedly, basal cell carcinoma also has a strong genetic component (apparently something like 1/3 of tumors occur on non-sun-exposed areas of the body). Though I assume you and your family are probably already very careful about sun exposure given your history with BCC, the genetic predisposition is always one to think about.</p>
<p>I’m extremely fair and my dermatologist recommends Blue Lizard. It has been harder to find lately and it’s no longer carried by our local Harmon Cosmetics. I don’t like the fact that it has that “zinc” look and even the Baby variety tends to sting my eyes after a while. I have avoided the sun for decades but now have developed a sun allergy, making thing worse. I wear a Coolibar shirt, special sunglasses AND a hat while in our pool. I look like an old lady but have no choice!</p>