On a recent trip to Sephora, I picked up a small travel size of IT Cosmetics CC+ cream (yes, I’m a sucker for browsing through those little product bins while waiting in line). This product bills itself as “Your Skin But Better” (and it even trademarked that phrase). After taking a quick scan through the massive ingredient list, I saw that it contained physical sunscreen ingredients (a mix of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide), so it offered full protection against the full…

I just spent the past week in Vegas, and boy, did my skin feel like it was actually sizzling in that 100-degree heat. The sun feels much stronger out there—and indeed, the UV index was 9 in Vegas today, compared to 7 in NYC. You can look up the UV index for your city here on the EPA’s website. It definitely served as a catalyst for getting serious about finding a quality sunscreen that I could apply on my body every day (without going broke). And I think I found it: Alba Botanica…

If you’ve ever seen the package for an Asian sunscreen before, you may have noticed a lot of plus signs on the bottle. They aren’t just there to make you feel positive (get it? ha!)—they actually refer to the sunscreen’s level of UVA protection. SPF measures a sunscreen’s UVB protection. Europe and Asia actually have established UVA testing and labeling standards (hence the PA+++ on labels). However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t ask companies directly,…