Odylique Natural Sunscreen

After a particularly slow start to this summer the past few weeks have been particularly sunny and pretty damn hot and so sunscreen in one form or another has been an essential part of the daily routine for much of the summer. Now admittedly I have spent the majority of daylight hours of this summer in a darkened room filming, however I have had the opportunity (albeit one day a week) to road-test (on both myself and my family) some of the latest additions to the natural sunscreen market and this has been by far and away my favourite.

Launched in early June, Odylique Natural Sunscreen (£25.00) is an all natural sunscreen formulated to protect the most sensitive of skins and can be applied to both the face and the body.

The first sunscreen to be both certified organic and approved by the Fairtrade Foundation, this vegan friendly cream uses Zinc Oxide as apposed to synthetic ingredients to provide broad spectrum UVA and UVB protection to an SPF of 30. Alongside this are a fantastic blend of botanical ingredients which protect against free radicals whilst soothing and  calming sun damaged skin.

From the moment I first opened the tube I was hooked; the scent is divine! There is an overwhelming but delicate scent of chamomile which lingers on the skin long after application; unfortunately this does mean I have a tendency to keep smelling myself whilst wearing it…

The muted yellow cream is quite thick; thicker than most sunscreens I have used (natural or otherwise) and on occasion it can be tricky to extract from the tube – I have found this is overcome by warming up the tube a little prior to application. This aside, for such a thick cream I have found it remarkable easy to rub in in the skin and there is no stickiness and no obvious greasy looking sunscreen slick on the skin; just a gentle sheen. It dries quickly – resulting in very little sand being stuck to you when on the beach!

Like most kids my daughter generally hates having suncream applied however with this particular one we appear to have had less battles (for the moment). I am not sure whether it is the calming aroma of the chamomile, the colour or just that she is accepting of the fact it will be done but she seems to like this sunscreen more than any of the others we have used.

My only real criticism (actually I have two) is that like most other sunscreens, it seems to make my skin feel slightly dry by the end of the day; nothing that a good slathering of body oil doesn’t fix but a little more of a hydrating ingredient would be good. The second is down to my own idiocy more than anything else; it stains white clothing. I never wear white as I am ridiculously messy and constantly spill things down myself but the one top I do have was promptly stained yellow after application. Note to self there.

This will definitely be top of our shopping list for next summer!

What’s been your sunscreen of choice this year?

Ingredients:
(*Certified organic (76% of product) – 20% mineral; ✝ Ingredient complies with Fairtrade Standards, minimum 5% )
Pongamia Glabra Seed (Karanja) oil*, Zinc Oxide (non-nano), Butyrospermum Park (Raw Shea ) Butter*✝, Silica, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil*, Euphorbia candelilla Era (Candelilla wax)*, Simmondsia Chinensis Seed (Jojoba extracts) Oil, Copernican Cerifera (Carnauba wax)*, Hippophae Rhamnoides Extract*, Chamomilla Recutita (Chamomile) Extract*, Rosmarinus Officials (Rosemary) Extract*, Jojoba Esters (Sea Buckthorn), Polyhydroxystearic Acid (Natural stabilisers [from corn])

www.odylique.co.uk

Images: Laura Jane Sessions – Organic Make-up Artist