Good SPF

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The weather in New York is very “sprummer” right now, a portmanteau I recently overheard on my way to SoHo’s Cafe Gitane, where my friends and I were later caught in a sudden downpour. I felt the rain on my skin and… felt it wash away the very last of the Piz Buin hydro-infusion sun gel (SPF 30) I picked up in Lisbon (sad!). Maybe I shouldn’t have continued to apply daily SPF during the hazy week of Blade Runner weather that swept through the Northeast. Admittedly, I was quite annoyed at how little summer mileage I got out of my Portuguese sunblock; I didn’t want to greet the summer solstice with melted, year-old Supergoop! on my already oily cheeks. At this crucial “sprummer” juncture, I tapped into the trusty Dirt network to get some vetted recommendations on sunscreen. —Terry Nguyen

Sophie Kemp, fiction writer and Dirt contributor

I’m a most unfortunate EltaMD SPF 46 convert. I started wearing it because I was watching a Vogue Beauty Secrets video with Sydney Sweeney and she was like: everything makes me break out except for this sunscreen. Which has basically been my experience? Fuck Supergoop!, sorry babe. I have oily combo skin and still get hormonal acne, because of my youth. EltaMD is the first sunscreen I’ve ever worn that does not turn my face into a pepperoni war zone. It is perfect and lightweight, like wiping your face with a silk scarf. It’s NOT cheap (honestly $43 for sunscreen feels like a dumb amount of money, what the fuck) but totally worth it, for me at least. I buy the tinted version, which is lovely as a base layer for make up, year round.

Bella Negri, esthetician at Joanna Czech Studios

As an esthetician I’ve tried a hundred SPFs, read too many articles, entered many debates on the topic of chemical vs. physical sunscreens, and I’m tired of it all. I really wasn’t thrilled about any product until last year when I worked at Credo Beauty for a hot second and got a bottle of the Pipette Mineral Broad Spectrum 50 for free. I’ve been using that ever since. The brand is literally made for babies so it’s very simple and there are no controversial chemicals. The formula is fully zinc and has no clogging ingredients (I break out very easily), and it leaves a nice dewiness. It’s only $15 for a 4 oz. bottle. The downside is: It’s sold out everywhere right now. I have to guess it has already blown up on TikTok or there are a bunch of new babies out there buying it???

Jocelyn Silver, Dirt contributing editor

I am very pale, but I was raised in sunny San Diego, where I accrued a significant amount of sun damage before the age of 18. While examining my skin once a few years ago, a fancy Upper East Side dermatologist asked if I was from California or Florida. "People like you," she said, "aren't supposed to live in California." I always thought freckles were cute, but according to my traumatizing experiences with the dermatological community, they're just little neon signs loudly announcing my UV damage to the world.

And so I am now paranoid about SPF, though not paranoid enough to put it on my arms and legs every day, which is stupid and I should start. I keep various tubes of sunscreen in my bathroom, purses, and car, so that I can reapply whenever I get a vision of liver-spotted hands and crepey cleavage. Sunscreen produced outside of the United States is simply better, with filters and formulas the FDA has yet to approve. If lucky enough to be in Europe, I stock up on pharmacy goodies, like La Roche-Posay. In New York, I like to go to the beauty store oo35mm on Mott Street in Chinatown, where they have amazing sunscreens from brands like Innisfree. I also like this one from iUNIK, with calming centella (great for pimples).

According to some sources (like the Dewy Dudes), anything below SPF 50 is bullshit. I believe this! But before I knew that, I spent too much money on Kate Somerville mineral face sunscreen. It's only SPF 40, but I love it—the formula feels light on my skin, and it's amazing for hot days or exercise (aka if I sweat, it doesn't feel like my eyes are under an acid attack). It doesn't feel quite as nice on my face, but Neutrogena Sheer Zinc Oxide (SPF 50!) is a great drugstore option. I sometimes wear Supergoop! Glowscreen, also a pathetic SPF 40, as a form of light makeup; the glow is very nice, but I reserve it for my cheeks and collarbone so as to look dewy, not greasy.

Iva Dixit, editor and skincare guru 

For Body: When I go to the beach I have a whole ritual whereby I embalm myself in sticky sunscreen spray from EVY and then the thicker lotion on top courtesy of La Roche-Posay.

For Face: Switching to Rohto Skin Aqua UV Super Moisture Gel Gold SPF 50+ from the other same sticky white sunscreen I’d been using since I was 23 felt like how I imagine wives do when they leave the husbands that have receded into being background furniture of their lives. That’s how revelatory it felt using this … wait, I don’t have to spackle my face with white wall slime everyday?

Jessica DeFino, writer of The Unpublishable

The beauty industry’s stance on sunscreen is one of extremism. Get absolutely no sun. If you don’t wear SPF, don’t bother taking care of your skin at all. Personally, I find this POV to be conservative-bordering-on-fascist and more fearmongering than a goopy anti-oxybenzone guide. It’s also silly! The skincare experts sermonizing about SPF usually exfoliate multiple times a week, use retinoids, and/or subject their barriers to twice-daily, seven-step skincare routines too — thus increasing sun sensitivity, depleting the skin’s built-in “SPF,” compromising the microbiome’s ability to prevent and heal UV damage, and rendering topical sunblock less effective. (It’s almost like they’d rather purchase proof of their own moral goodness in product form than actually protect themselves from the sun or something!!)

Anyway. There were times in my life when my epidermis was so damaged from Topical Steroid Withdrawal that it couldn’t handle sunscreen, and it was fine, because I could still follow the American Cancer Society’s top two tips for avoiding excess UV exposure: Seek shade and wear protective clothing. Now that my skin is healed, I can and do apply SPF — which lands at number three on the ACS list, as sunscreen is a fallible product made by fallible humans and “should not be thought of as your first line of defense,” by the way — whenever I’m outdoors. Le Prunier Plumscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 31 is my go-to. I recommend it, but not in a shame-y, you-deserve-to-be-blamed-for-your-future-cancer-diagnosis way.

Colleen Kelsey, Dirt contributor

I’m particular about skincare and fanatical about sun protection. Once I read that Julianne Moore always walks on the shady side of the street and I have been following that advice since…all through a series of meh-ish SPF products. But the Caudalie Vinosun Protect SPF 50 succeeds where all others have failed: mineral formula, lightweight, superblendable, non greasy, no white cast. And most importantly, it doesn’t pill—even over heavy moisturizer. Some people think it smells weird, but I’m so Biologique Recherche-pilled that doesn’t bother me. I also credit it as the gateway to the entire Caudalie sun line, which has become my go-to—especially the body sunscreen oil. They don’t sell it in the US, but like the Santa Maria Novella oil, it’s worth the extra sourcing work.

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