What If I Phrase It As A Question?

decoding headlines, sunscreen drama, a little bragging

Hey how’s it going?

Lots to catch up on. Last Friday, I was named one of the best facialists in NYC in New York Magazine’s annual Best of New York Issue. I! Know! I can’t believe it. I’m beyond honored. I’ve never gotten an award like this before! I’ve read (and gotten endless recommendations from) these annual lists for years and years, so it’s pretty surreal to see my name on one. Thank you thank you thank you to all of my clients, but especially Roya for putting my hat in the ring and to all of my clients who took the time to talk to NYMag about me. 

Since publishing, my appointments have been filling up very quickly. If you’re available during the day on Tuesdays or Thursdays, you’ll have the most luck. Otherwise, add yourself to the waitlist! I’m also going to make a broadcast channel on Instagram to announce last-minute openings and other facial related updates. My books are open 3 months in advance, so right now you can book through early October. Again, please add yourself to the waitlist. Book a facial with me at Practise NYC.

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Yesterday morning, I tuned into Emily Sundberg’s FEED ME Live, as part of Substack’s live video beta-testing. They (Substack, not Emily) have some kinks to work out, but I think they have the potential to execute this well, especially if there’s a way to login on a desktop. Might I remind the good people of Substack that I was hosting Hotline Skin Live during the pandemic? Let Hotline Skin live up to its name as a hotline and let me be part of this test! I Ziiped while listening but you bet I can Ziip while chit-chatting. Alex snapped this picture, which was going to be a very funny accompaniment to my issue today about NuFace and Ziip, but while I was listening to Emily catch us up on business news and Hamptons gossip, I was notified about some sunscreen news and emerging gossip.

Emily always says showing your home is asking to get robbed.

 A few days ago, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority published a report comparing advertised and actual SPF values of 17 different sunscreens in Norway. One of those sunscreens was the Evy Technology Sunscreen Mousse SPF 50, which they claim only had an SPF value of 18.6 and subsequently pulled it from their markets. Yeah that doesn’t sound great, but keep reading and don’t panic. 

Evy, a Swedish brand, released a statement in response. You can scroll down to read the English translation, which is quite defensive (though not necessarily wrong) and throws some shade at Norway for not being in the EU (not necessary, but funny!) They discuss their own testing methods, along with results from Sweden’s equivalent agency, The Swedish Medical Products Agency, all of which pass with flying colors. 

I have been a huge proponent of Evy Sunscreen Mousse, a highly water-resistant and long-lasting SPF, for a few years now and recently talked it up during my bachelorette recap. I can say with absolute confidence that it has had a 100% success rate for me. If I do not wear sunscreen, I burn almost immediately. I’ve never, ever gotten any sort of color or burn when relying on it for extended periods of time in extreme sun. Same goes for many people I know who use it, as well as tons of people on the various Reddit threads dedicated to this controversy, who have been doing the lord’s work of translating and teaching about science literacy (linked above). Of course, there are also people commenting that they have gotten burned while wearing it. 

Obviously, it is very concerning to hear that a sunscreen was found to not have the advertised protection, but in addition to my own personal experience, there are a few things that make me (and Evy and many Redditors) want to take this Norwegian study with a grain of salt. 

1. We don’t know anything about the lab that conducted these tests or how things like this are regulated in Norway. The lab that conducted the testing may be super legit! But in the US, labs love to make sensationalist headlines about findings based on extremely poor testing methods.

2. Evy makes a bunch of different SPF 50 sunscreens and I don’t see which specific sunscreen was the one they tested.

3. Even more important, this could just be a batch variation! We don’t know if these findings were conducted on bottles from different batches or just one. Batch variation isn’t ideal, but it happens all the time. Perhaps the hottest months on record degraded the formula quickly.

4. The standard for sunscreen testing is 2mg/cm sq (i.e. for every square centimeter of skin, there needs to be 2mg of sunscreen to get the protection listed on the bottle). It’s a dose dependent drug! This is how we approximate the ¼ teaspoon or 2 finger length rule, which is possible with lotions and gels and difficult, though still possible, with sprays and sticks.
   Evy sunscreen is a mousse, a very uncommon formula that has different application instructions from most sunscreen and presumably, different testing requirements, as you can’t really dispense such precise amounts of foam from a can (it’s like whipped cream or shaving cream, if you’ve never seen it). Evy’s instructions say things like golf-ball sized amount per [insert body part] which to be fair, isn’t the clearest instruction, but still does imply that there is a specific amount you need to use.
   As Evy points out in their statement, foam is an unusual form of SPF to test, which not all labs may be equipped for. According to them, the lab degassed the product, which is something I had to Google, but essentially means that they removed dissolved gasses from the product… if this is true, then it’s the biggest red flag for me in this study. 
   Evy created a sunscreen and housed it in a specific aerosol container to keep it stable and conducted the necessary tests to determine an SPF value of 50. A lab took that sunscreen, altered the formula, presumably impacting the stability, and conducted their own tests which had wildly different results. How is that reliable? Again, I don’t know if this is true, or what degassing a mousse in an aerosol container actually does, but if this is what happened, more testing, under the right conditions, needs to be done. 

5. Related to the above, someone on Reddit pointed out that the application instructions on the bottle may not have been properly translated in Norwegian. If true, this is an oversight on Evy’s part, but easily could explain the testing discrepancies. If the lab didn’t apply the proper amount, gassed or degassed, the SPF value will be different.

TL;DR we don’t have enough information to make definitive conclusions here. Evy appears to be on it and I trust that they will be conducting more tests to confirm their SPF ratings and the reliability of their products. They’ve been innovators in the space for 20+ years, so it just seems unlikely to me that if this was an ongoing issue, it wouldn’t have been discovered before. My money is on (unintentional) user/lab error and or a single bad batch issue. I’m not throwing mine out. Will keep you posted if I hear anything new and have to eat my words! 

Here are some other body sunscreens I love and recommend: Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protector Lotion, La Roche-Posay Cooling Water Gel Lotion, Supergoop! Play (get the giant pump!)

Next week we’ll get into NuFace vs. Ziip, I promise. If you have specific questions, submit them above.

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Three Other Things

1. The New York Times seems to like writing about sun protection as much as I do. One recent headline “Do You Really Need to Wear Sunscreen Everyday?” made me so annoyed. I was going to write about it, but another esthetician & brand founder made a great post that you should read. The gist is, a headline that phrases something as a question, despite the answer not being up for debate and every expert cited saying the same thing (yes), stirs controversy, gets eyeballs and allows for more controversy and misinformation to spread. Good job!

2. I think we could all use a refresher on responsible media consumption.

3. Dermstore is having a secret 25% off sale that’s really good. You need to make an account by tonight to access it. Bioeffect is included! 25% off! Get this!!!

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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 ;)

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A request: has a favorite product of yours been discontinued in the past 18 months? Tell me about it. Email hi@joldef.com Subject: discontinued product

Have a great week!

xx,

Jolie