Testing mineral sunscreens makes you feel a bit like Goldilocks, except instead of a house in the woods, you’ve wandered into the skin-care section of Sephora. Going through the options, you find this one’s too thick. That one’s too chalky. This one smells like loose change. This one definitely won’t play nicely with your favorite new foundation.
The thing is, dermatologists love mineral sunscreen, especially if you find chemical-based formulas irritating, which is a whopping “25 percent of all people,” board-certified dermatologist Corey L. Hartman, founder of Skin Wellness Dermatology in Birmingham, Alabama, previously told Allure. That’s why the folks over at EltaMD have been hard at work formulating an all-mineral option that’s as lightweight, transparent, and efficacious as the brand’s best-selling UV Clear Broad Spectrum SPF 46, which contains zinc oxide as well as octinoxate, a chemical UV filter. Nearly 10 years of research later, and the brand has done it with the EltaMD UV Skin Recovery SPF 50 Red Color Correcting Sunscreen, a green-tinted, zinc oxide-based formula that looks and feels like a chemical sunscreen but is suitable for the most skin types, including sensitive. In fact, it claims to treat the root of your sensitivity and redness with a slew of barrier-repairing ingredients.
The UV Skin Recovery SPF 50 Sunscreen is one of the “top five products of my career,” says Lia Arvanitidou, PhD, the executive vice president of R&D in skin health at Colgate Palmolive, which is EltaMD’s parent company. She and her team have been working on the formula since Colgate Palmolive acquired EltaMD in 2017. But this mighty claim isn’t the reason we’ve named it our One to Watch honoree this month. It’s because after getting a sneak peek and testing it on a variety of different skin types, myself and the Allure team agree it’s an exceptional mineral formula that checks all the boxes for even the pickiest sunscreen shopper. Below, learn more about the EltaMD UV Skin Recovery SPF 50 Red Color Correcting Sunscreen and why it’s more than just right in our books.
Meet the Experts:
- Lia S. Arvanitidou, PhD, is executive vice president of R&D in skin health, personal and home care at Colgate-Palmolive.
- Amanda Lam is a cosmetic chemist in Los Angeles.
- Hadley King, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist in New York City.
Overview
EltaMD has made a name for itself making really good sunscreens that are loved by dermatologists and recommended by the Skin Cancer Foundation. And while all of its formulas are fragrance- and paraben-free, making them supremely gentle, the brand saw white space in the market for people with very sensitive skin. “We wanted to take it a step further with an all-mineral formulation that addresses sensitive, redness-prone skin by repairing the skin barrier,” says Arvanitidou. As a reminder, the skin barrier is the outermost layer of the skin (also known as the epidermis) that guards against external stressors. When the barrier is not properly protected, it can begin to crack, leaving the skin vulnerable to damage. “It all starts with the skin barrier,” explains Aravnitidou. “If the skin barrier is not strong and is inflamed, redness will show up.”
The EltaMD team was also responding to a request from customers and dermatologists for an SPF that could address redness in the skin. “People weren’t specifically asking for a color-correcting sunscreen, but they were asking for immediate redness reduction,” adds Arvanitidiou. “I immediately thought of color theory and green’s ability to neutralize red, and that’s what started this whole development.” Thus, the UV Skin Recovery SPF 50 Red Color Correcting Sunscreen was born, combining color-correcting pigments typically used in cosmetics with mineral sun-blockers and proprietary skin-barrier repair technology (more on that in a second).