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…

You know I have a thing for sunscreen lip balms. If it were up to me, all lip balms would contain sunscreen in them by default. What’s not to like? You get to moisturize your lips and protect them from harmful UV rays in one go. But it’s not always easy to find a sunscreen lip balm that gives you everything you’re looking for: the right color, the right moisturizing properties, the right SPF protection.

Out of all the products included in the Sephora Sun Safety Kit 2018, the one that perplexed me the most was Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare Alpha Beta Glow Pads. These self-tanning towelettes contain glycolic acid and lactic acid, two alpha-hydroxy acids (AHA), which increase your skin’s sensitivity to UV radiation. That sounds like the opposite of safety to me. I guess maybe Sephora assumes that you’ll use this product in conjunction with one of the other sunscreens included in the kit?…