Heavy duty sunblock advice wanted

August 28, 2004 5:40 PM

SolarFilter: I am a redhead and thus I use sunscreen and sunblock a lot. [mi]

I especially need to sunblock my face, but I have yet to find a product - cheap or expensive - that doesn't seep into my eyes after an hour or two and make them sting.

Any other heliophobes out there with suggestions for brands/ingredients to look for, or to avoid?

posted by zadcat to Health & Fitness (9 answers total)

Zadcat, I hear you -- as Woody Allen says in Play It Again, Sam, "I don't burn, I stroke." I use a sunblock that comes in a stick (it looks like a miniature solid deodorant, actually) by Hawaiian Tropic called Ozone (SPF-50!). It's oil-free and, in my experience, once you rub it in it doesn't budge.
posted by scody at 6:04 PM on August 28, 2004

On the advice of my dermo, I use Eucerin Facial. It's never made my eyes sting, and I live in AZ, so I sweat through my sunscreen a lot.
posted by gokart4xmas at 6:15 PM on August 28, 2004

I use the Coppertone Faces kind (it's SPF 45), never had a problem with it getting in my eyes.
posted by biscotti at 7:20 PM on August 28, 2004

Doh! I keep forgetting to mail you this transparent zinc oxide - and it's right on my desk. I'll do it soon (whatever that means)! It works great for me on bike rides. (Product is SkinCeuticals Sport UV Defense, SPF 45.)
posted by caitlinb at 8:35 PM on August 28, 2004

Try baby sunscreen, especially in stick form. Coppertone's Spectra, in the pink packaging, is a great drugstore brand. I am also a big fan of Mustela, which is nice if you want to spend a little money.

Neutrogena makes a terrific stick as well, which is really handy for keeping in your purse for random sunshiny occasions.
posted by padraigin at 2:36 PM on August 29, 2004

You almost certainly know this, but it helps a lot to apply it before you go out so it can soak in before you start sweating.

I've taken to wearing a hat during the mid-day hours of most of the year. Keeping one of these collapsible hats on hand helps. (They look all right in the website pictures but they will quickly get wrinkled and the brim will get wavy bends in it... fortunately, I don't care.) With a brimmed hat, I don't to worry much about sunblock over my eyes.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 3:24 PM on August 30, 2004

Hawaiian Tropic Ozone, SPF 70!!!

Kept me victorian pale durring 2 weeks of Burningman, has never once gotten into my eyes, nor is greasy. Also - has been tested on co-workers who are allerigic to everything and passed with flying colours.
posted by Lizc at 4:29 PM on August 30, 2004

almay makes a face lotion which is SPF 15, called Kinetin. very nonirritating.

origins also spikes most of their face creams with sunscreen and still sells titanium diozide sunblock for the face. their products are also very nonirritating.
posted by crush-onastick at 10:32 AM on August 31, 2004

Much later: thanks for all the suggestions!
posted by zadcat at 2:50 PM on September 2, 2004