Last year, Aron and I went on an epic sunscreen sampling spree. I wrote all about it here: basically, I felt like I was being endlessly disappointed by the lotions I was using; they either rated low on the Environmental Working Group’s safety ratings, left me too chalky and white, or were too expensive.
My conclusion was that I’d need to find one less-expensive, higher volume sunscreen to slather on our bodies, and allow for something a bit more special for the face. Someone asked me about an update so, a year later, here’s what I’ve kept coming back to…
For the face:
I still love the SuperGoop City Serum, but a new favorite is Aesop’s Sage & Zinc Hydrating Cream. It’s a lower SPF (15 instead of 30), but it’s the only zinc-based sunscreen I’ve ever used that blends in perfectly. Plus, I think it smells good. I love it! I’ll also sometimes finish up with this mineral-powder sunscreen that my dermatologist suggested.
For the kids, beach days, and other more water-intense days:
We found Nature’s Gate (best for blending and price per ounce) and Badger (smells and it eventually rubs in with effort) to be great options for mineral-based sunscreens. But a few months after the initial testing, we discovered these Babyganics SPF 50 mineral-based spray-lotions and started to use them all the time. Don’t worry: the spray isn’t aerosolized. Instead, it’s more like using a pump that is portioned out more appropriately. I either put it directly in my hand or add a few squirts to their legs or arms and then rub in, but it’s still a lot easier than distributing a dollop from the tube so I’m more likely to use it before school.
Other favorite sun-protection solutions? Rash guards for women, Surf suits for kids, and wide-brimmed hats. (And more consistent practices.)
What sunscreens do you like to use? Any new favorites?
P.S. There are some really good suggestions in the comments on the original post. Elta was a leading recommendation.
The other morning during breakfast, Hudson looked up from his plate to spontaneously say, “I love you, Skyler.” She responded with an aggressively tender hug, only to be met with “you’re in my bubble” and a hand gesture to demarcate the imaginary line between their two chairs. It didn’t deter her.
I watch and wonder what it will be like for them to grow up together, to perhaps grow apart, but to—I hope—always share a special bond. As an only child, I can only imagine. I asked Sarah Ann Noel, a mother to two sisters, a sister herself, to talk a bit about her experience of this sibling relationship—and would love to hear from others as well.
On Being a Sister by Sarah Ann Noel
My sister and I are like pictures of night and day.
She is lean and long-limbed; my curves only make me look shorter than my already small frame. She is dark-headed, clothed in olive skin; my hair bleaches nearly blonde in the sun, and my skin is always slightly pink. Her features are sharp and exotic, showing off our Mediterranean heritage; my round, blue eyes could only be called all-American. To be honest, our personalities are equally stark contrasts, and so we somehow dodged the classic understanding of what sisters are like.
But. When we were in college, we both worked at our local Hollister at different times. She worked there for a summer and a few months during the school year while I was abroad. When I came back to the States, she was heading back to photography school in Santa Barbara, so I took over her position, grateful to not have to look too hard for a job that would accommodate my class schedule. We never worked there together, never met our co-workers together. I think only our manager knew we were related, and sometimes he had to be reminded. One evening, as I was folding t-shirts with ridiculously phrased screen-print tees, one of my colleagues came up to me.
“With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models.”
“When they go low, we go high.”
I was listening to that one candidate (who, like Voldemort, shall not be named lest he be legitimized) in the car a few months ago. He was getting mad (as usual) at a reporter from The Washington Post who had questioned his claims of donations to Veteran groups, and he started calling the reporter names.
Hudson and Skyler were in the car with me and Hudson immediately asked me about the word “sleazy.”
I have to turn down the radio a lot in the car these days—too many stories about violence around the world that they don’t need to hear yet—but I found myself stunned to think how I would now need to turn the radio when a would-be political candidate spoke. I can’t imagine a world in which I have to censor the president’s speeches.
What a contrast to Michelle’s moving, articulate, powerful speech a few nights ago. Here’s the whole thing. It’s worth watching if you haven’t seen it.
In the meantime, we’ll be talking to our kids about name-calling.
