A Peek Inside Jolie's SPF Club

we have it all: recaps, giveaways, sun advisories, vitamin C intel & more

Well hello there!

Hope you all had a great week. Santa Fe was absolutely incredible. 100/10 recommend for a trip of any kind, but especially one with your best friends. Everything we ate was the best thing I had ever eaten, the hot springs were a thrill and we all just kept staring into the distance and exclaiming “the vistas!” because, well…the vistas! 

Beyond what Santa Fe itself had to offer, my sister and my friends absolutely killed it with the planning. The theme, as per our matching sweatshirts, was Jolie’s SPF Club. Despite the UV index, the dry heat made the temperature somewhat bearable and no one got too much of a burn. I was and still am the palest person the state of New Mexico has ever seen.

As the President of the SPF club, I obviously had to stick to the dress code:

• Isntree on my face, neck and ears.

• Colorescience on my face, once the Isntree set after 15 minutes. The tint helped even my skin tone and iron oxides in tinted products can add additional protection against visible light to prevent hyperpigmentation. This is also water resistant. 

• Soleil Toujours Mineral SPF 30 Eye Cream for extra protection and color correction under eyes. I often use this in lieu of concealer.

• Shiseido Sun Stick to reapply throughout the day, especially pre and post-pool. 

• Colorescience Blush and Lip Gloss in Rose or Champagne.

• Evy Technology Kids SPF 50 Mousse on my body. This proprietary Swedish sunscreen has extreme water-resistance and long-lasting protection, up to 8 hours from a single application, as long as you apply enough. I’ve worn it to outdoor music festivals and a friend used it to hike Kilimanjaro. It’s a pain to purchase and a little annoying to apply but IMO very, very worth it. You’ll need to watch the videos, but it’s a mousse that looks like shaving cream. It completely disappears and after you let it dry down for 15-20 minutes, not sticky at all. They do make a face version, but I’m very acne prone and it unfortunately breaks me out. You can also use the non-kids version, I just had that one for some reason. 

• Obviously, this hat. 

On the last night of Jolie’s SPF Club’s inaugural summit, my friends surprised me with Italian Night. They all dressed up as Sopranos characters, got me a cameo from Johnny Sack himself (IYKYK), we played pin the eyebrows on Michael Imperioli, painted portraits, ate pasta & I held a fake cigar that puffed smoke all night. God, I love my friends so much. 

Oh, one more thing. My friends reached out to all of my favorite brands who generously sent swag for us. And we have one extra swag bag, which I want to give to one of you! To enter the giveaway, like this post. For an extra entry, leave a comment!

You’ll be getting treats from Sachi, Experiment, The Ordinary, Sofie Pavitt Face & Glossier in a cute lil Baggu! No sweatshirt or sunglasses but if you’re lucky I’ll throw in a temporary tattoo of me and Alex at senior prom.

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REMINDER: Guest Posts

Write a guest post for Hotline Skin while I’m off getting married and getting ready to get married! These posts will be published during the last weeks of August and first weeks of September. 

I’m so excited by the pitches so far! I am extending the deadline to THIS MONDAY, JUNE 17th. If accepted, I’ll reach out later in the week with next steps. To pitch a guest post, email hi@joldef.com with the subject line: Hotline Skin Guest Post Pitch. In your pitch, briefly introduce yourself and your idea.

• The only real requirement is that they are somehow related to skincare/beauty. Personal essays, researched articles, interviews, product odes or whatever else you come up with are fair game. 

• Aim for at least 500 words, but no more than 2000, unless they’re really good. 

• I cannot pay you, but if I publish your post, I’ll send you some skincare and your words will go out to all subscribers, no paywall. You can (and I encourage you to) link to your social media, website, or whatever else you want to promote. 

• If I accept your pitch, I’ll give you a deadline and help you out along the way. (Remember, I teach a class on newsletter/blog writing!) I will offer feedback and edits to your drafts, try to connect you with people if needed, share resources etc. 

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Two weeks ago, I opened up Office Hours to all subscribers and got some great questions. Interestingly, many of them touched on themes of sunscreen, travel and breakouts. This leads me to believe many of you have similar questions, so I decided to publish some of my answers (which I’ve edited a bit for clarity or thoroughness). 

Still having trouble finding a sunscreen that won’t break me out - any advice?

My forever go-to is the Isntree Watery Sun Gel, have you tried it? I'm extremely acne-prone and it's never been a problem for me. It's quite dewy, which I like, but if you don't want as much then I'd check out the Purito Daily Soft Touch or Neutrogena Invisible Daily Defense Serum. Mineral/tinted SPF wise, check out Colorescience or Tizo. 

But if you're still having trouble, often times it's not actually the sunscreen itself breaking you out, but a cleansing issue–if you're not getting off all of the sunscreen, especially if you reapply, then overtime it stays on your skin and can clog pores/irritate your skin. It’s a good thing that sunscreen doesn’t come off super easily, so make sure you're doing a really thorough job cleansing at night. Try a double cleanse with an oil-based cleanser or micellar water/pads first or wash (maybe 2x) with a really good cleanser that breaks everything down, like this or this. 

Reccos for powder sunscreen or a good option for mid-day reapplication while in the office or on the move etc.

I’m a broken record at this point, but my forever top reapplication rec is the Shiseido SPF Stick! It's clear, mess-free, water-resistant, can go over makeup and couldn't be easier. I prefer sticks for reapplication because it's really hard (nearly impossible) with powders and sprays to get the right amount of product for proper coverage. 

I can't seem to find a vitamin c serum that works. I either see no results or my skin will breakout. Any suggestions?

Ah one of my favorite questions! Whenever I hear something like this, my first question is "what do you mean by works?" Identifying what you're hoping a product will do is really helpful when finding an alternative. In terms of vitamin C, there are a lot of things it may be able to do–provide antioxidant protection, stimulate collagen, brighten & even skin tone etc. The thing is, most vitamin C research to support those claims/benefits is done on L-ascorbic acid (pure vit c), which can be really irritating to a lot of people due to the low pH. The derivatives, which are gentler on the skin, don't have as much research and all of the benefits may not be as pronounced. 

Going backwards a little, the primary reason we use vitamin C is because it's a potent antioxidant. Antioxidants help to neutralize free radicals from the sun & pollution, protecting your healthy skin cells from a chain reaction of cell death and collagen degradation. So with antioxidants, they're crucial to have in your routine, but their impact isn't really something you're going to notice per se, as it's all prevention and protection. And vitamin C isn't the only antioxidant! Green tea, niacinamide, resveratrol, CoQ10, vitamin E, glutathione are all common antioxidants in skincare and there are hundreds of others. It’s more important that you have antioxidants in your routine rather than vitamin C specifically. Many ingredients and extracts also contain vitamin C, though they’re not advertised as a vitamin C serum.

In my experience, most people seek out a vitamin C serum thinking a) that they need one and b) it will help to brighten dark spots and even the skin tone, which most derivatives aren't all that great at doing. So you've probably been using either a derivative that isn't showing "results'' or pure vit c that's irritating and making you break out. 

If you're looking for a pigment-focused antioxidant solution, I highly recommend the antioxidant-filled Sachi Skin Triphala. If you want a super-potent, advanced, comprehensive, non-vitamin C antioxidant serum, try NIOD’s Survival 0 (it says nighttime, but you can use in AM too.) If you want to use a vitamin C derivative formulated with other powerhouse ingredients for antioxidant protection and brightening, try this serum or this moisturizer from Dr. Idriss.

What must-have skincare would you take on a sunny honeymoon? Don’t think I want to take my whole stack but would love ur thoughts!

Ah fun!! Congrats! Sunscreen, obviously. But depending on where you're going, it might be easier to stop at a drugstore or something at your destination to get some larger body sunscreen bottles. But I'd make sure I either have with me or have plans to get: a face sunscreen, a body sunscreen and a sunscreen stick, all broad-spectrum, SPF 50+ and water-resistant.

Other than sunscreen, here's what I'd take:

- a gel cleanser 

- an oil-based cleanser/balm or something with a little extra cleansing power to really breakdown sunscreen. If your gel sunscreen does the job, that's fine, but I'd still bring a little bottle of micellar water for extra thoroughness.

- an antioxidant serum for daytime

- a lightweight moisturizer

- a gentle exfoliant, like mandelic acid

- pimple patches and/or spot treatment

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Office Hours Reminder

Join us for Office Hours on Sunday! This exclusive weekly opportunity is available to paying subscribers.

Every Sunday at 5pm EST, I’ll begin a new thread for the week in Substack Chat, where you can ask me anything. Every Monday from 5-6pm EST, I’ll be in that chat live, answering questions for the hour. That way, if you can’t make it, you can submit any time after 5pm Sunday and still get an answer. If you can make it live, join in! You can ask questions in real time and (hopefully) interact with others in class ;)

Discount Codes

• Dermstore: JOLIE for 15% off (Bioeffect, Colorescience, One Love Organics, Soleil Toujours, Bioderma)

• Dr. Idriss: Freeshippingsw for free shipping

• Sachi Skin: JOLIE20 for 20% off (until it expires, otherwise JOLDEF15 for 15% off)

• Sofie Pavitt Face: JOLIE10 for 10% off

you can find all of my discount codes here

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Have a great week! If you have a question for Hotline Skin that’s not about sunscreen, submit it below! If you have a question for Hotline Skin that is about sunscreen, you can still submit it below, but I think we should have some variety in content, don’t you?

xx,

Jolie