My Families Facial Sunblock Arsenal

With all this talk about facial sunblock here, I thought I would tell my story on how my family gets prepare for a day at the lake.

I have 3 young children. A 6 year old son, 4 year old daughter, and 14 month old son. Each of them have different skin types, with my daughter having the most sensitive skin. It’s no wonder we use about 5 different lotions depending on what body part we are applying it to.

We use the Vanicream facial sunblock on my daughter since her face is very sensitive. My youngest also gets this although his skin is not that sensitive, and my oldest will usually get the same lotion as the rest of his body.

After we apply the lotion, they usually run around a bit so their skin absorbs the lotion. Don’t forget to use a liberal amount of facial sunblock when you apply, and about a shot glass full of addition lotion for the rest of their bodies. Adults should usually use about 2 shot glasses full of lotion on their bodies.

Once we’re at the lake, we usually re-apply after 2-3 hours using a spray type of lotion along with more facial sunblock.

So here’s part of the arsenal. The Vanicream facial sunblock, which again has worked great on my daughter’s sensitive face.



The Coppertone spray which we use to apply as a second coat. And we use it mainly because it very quick and easy to apply.



Towards the end of the season we started to use the Neutrogena on my daughter’s face. I’m not sure why, but her face got less sensitive so we were able to use this lotion.



Also, you’ll notice that my wife wrote the date on the front of the Vanicream facial sunblock. That’s because you should buy new sunblock and sunscreen lotions ever two years. The heat from the sun breaks down the chemical composition of the lotions and makes them less effective.

In the next picture, I just wanted to show you the active ingredients on the back of the Neutrogena lotion, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. If your lotion has these ingredients it’s usually sunblock not sunscreen.


The extent is from this site, http://dermatology.about.com/od/glossarys/g/sunblock.htm

“Definition: Sunblock is different than sunscreen. A sunblock physically blocks the sun's UV radiation of the skin, both UVA and UVB. Examples of sunblocks are clothing, umbrellas, and trees. Chemical sunblocks scatter, reflect, and physically block UV radiation. The most well-known chemical sunblock is zinc oxide. Other commonly used sunblocks are talc, titanium dioxide, and red vetenary petrolatum”