It's the summer of sun protection

Supplements, sleeves, and swimwear for sun safety

Teahouse is a newsletter about home, travel, and community. Here you’ll find renovation documentation and destination inspiration alongside a curation of things I’m creating, consuming, and coveting right now.

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This is my preferred brim width.

Is it just me, or is sun protection having a moment?

Earlier this month, the NYT declared that sunscreen is the only anti-aging product you need. Suddenly, it feels like there’s an influx of dermatologist influencers littering my feed. Even TIBAL is sporting the clear shield visor that was formerly an accessory exclusively seen on sun-paranoid Asian moms.

If sun protection turning trendy means chic driving gloves and comically oversized hats are in our future, then I am here for it. Up at the lake house, where the water reflects right into our windows at 8,000-ft. elevation, my face has gotten toasty from being indoors all day. Though I’ve pretty much worn sunscreen every day since I was 12, I realized I had to take it up a notch after my cheeks turned a little pink on a recent weekend.

Naturally, I went a little obsessive on hunting down all things sun care. Here’s what I’m loving for sun safety this summer:

1. 💊 Taking Heliocare supplements. I asked on IG what your favorite measures were for ultra-strong sun protection, and I got several recs for a new-to-me product: Heliocare supplements. If these were an influencer recommendation, I fully admit I’d be a little sus, but all three came from dermatologists or friends’ derms. Heliocare is a single-day supplement that affects the skin over your entire body, reducing the harmful effects of the sun (making you less likely to burn). Important to note that these aren’t a sunscreen replacement—just an additional layer of protection. We don’t take these every day, but we’re popping one on days that we’ll be out hiking or on the water for an extended period of time. 

2. ☀️ Checking the UV index for the day. A recent discovery—buried in your weather app is info on the day’s UV index forecast. The higher the index value, the greater the potential for sun damage. If the index is 5+, I think twice about going for a walk and/or cover up appropriately.

3. 🙆🏻‍♀️ Wearing all the sleeves! Speaking of covering up, it turns out that I am officially my mother. I used to find her driving sleeves absurd, but it’s me who’s been on the lookout for sleevey things lately. Luckily, brands are picking up on the need for sleeve: Mott50 and Cover are both making long-sleeved UPF swimwear look good. This Athleta quarter-zip is a super lightweight long-sleeve workout top, perfect for staying cool on a sunny day—it even has thumb holes to keep your hands out of the sun.

4. 👒 Getting full-face coverage with wide-brim sun hats. This extra wide-brimmed Eric Javits visor is my new go-to for morning dog walks. It’s an investment of a hat, but trust that this is truly buy-it-for-life headgear that’s actually packable (PSA: Janessa Leone’s “packable” is false advertising). It feels a little silly to wear a raffia hat around the neighborhood when you’re in activewear, but the visor shape makes it just athleisurely enough to work. Will it still turn heads? Probably yes. Will you have the least sunspots of anyone you know? ALSO YES. The brand gets the thumbs up from dermatologist Samantha Ellis, who enables us all by saying that a nice hat you love wearing costs a lot less than lasering your face. As someone who has tried to laser her face—facts.

5. 🧴 Layering up on the mineral/zinc sunscreen. I wear EltaMD UV Clear daily, but it’s proven to be no match for the sun reflecting up off the lake in the mountains. While I still apply EltaMD in the morning, if I’m getting ready to do any sort of outdoor activity I’ll layer on this Neutrogena Sheer Zinc face sunscreen, which a couple of derms also told me they personally use. Sheer Zinc does have a white cast at initial application, but it disappears pretty quickly.

6. 🚿 Washing the sunscreen off with oil-based cleanser. My least favorite thing about slathering myself with sunscreen and reapplying hourly is the thick white film all over my body by the end of the day. An oil cleanser is much more effective for getting the gunk off—we keep a liter bottle of this Bioderma cleansing oil in the shower at both houses. It’s meant for both face and body, so you can wash off easily from head to toe.

Have you tried driving gloves? Sparms? Cheek patches? Drop your best recs in the comments!