Yes, it is the middle of winter in New England. Yes, this is a product review for sunscreen. Let’s get started!
The sun’s harmful rays can reflect off of snow and penetrate heavy cloud cover, so even in the midst of a Nor’easter you should not only be protecting your skin from the harsh cold, but from UV too. This product however, is not your average smelly, gross-feeling, pore-clogging, reef-bleaching sunscreen. No, this is REN’s Clean Screen– a mattifying mineral sunscreen that doesn’t leave you greasy or with a white cast all over your face. This stuff smells amazing (without being overwhelming) and nothing like sunscreen due to one of the major ingredients of the product: yellow passion fruit seed extract (an awesome antioxidant!). A note before moving forward: I have ridiculously dry skin, and this does not dry me out when I use this on top of my daily moisturizer. Don’t let the mattifying part scare you! It just keeps you from looking greasy like most sunscreens will do.
This product is great- it has Sephora’s Clean stamp of approval, meaning it has to not have any harmful ingredients (including sulfates, parabens, phthalates, etc) featured on the Clean at Sephora’s exclusion list. According to REN on Sephora:
“REN does not use skin unfriendly ingredients, all products are free from synthetic fragrance, pore-blocking petrochemicals, sulfate detergents, silicones, synthetic colors, animal ingredients and parabens.”
(here is my favorite part)
“ In addition, REN products do not contain potential irritants including: glycols and diglycols (such as propylene glycol), PEG’s, PPGs, urea, D.E.A, T.E.A, PABA, and other synthetic sunscreens, aliphatic alcohols/hydrocarbons, phthalates, fumarates, amines, alkanolamines, synthetic AHAs/BHAs, polyacrylamide, metacrylate, elastomer, poloxamer, styrene, vinyl, polyquaternium, synthetic chelating agents, nylon, nitriles, nitrates, nitrosamine releasers, bromates, fluor, aluminum, and alumina.”
Not only do they exclude irritating ingredients, but potential ones too. They are really looking out for not only your skin, but your environment!
In regards to the environment, this sunscreen is reef safe, meaning the ingredients that protect you from UV rays won’t harm our already endangered reefs and marine life/ecosystems. The product itself if vegan, the brand does not test on animals, and the packaging is recycled– so this is a purchase you can feel good about making. So, not many brands that claim to be “clean” actually get as clean as REN does! They truly live up to their motto: Clean to skin, clean to planet”.
I 100% recommend this to anyone looking to take better care of their skin. It is important to use a real sunscreen like this one and not just rely on a cosmetic’s content of sunscreen because products like foundations and tinted moisturizers, although claiming to contain SPF, are not held to the same industry standards as stand alone sunscreens. There is no way to guarantee a person is applying what a foundation claims to be SPF 30 because it could be interacting with the cosmetic contents in a deactivating way or just not be applied in a way that would give someone SPF 30 protection. With a sunscreen, the application and ingredients are meant to work by multiple methods of application and amounts.
So, if you’re looking to pick up a new step in your routine or get a sunscreen that is more eco friendly, check out REN’s Clean Screen Mattifying Face Sunscreen! Available for purchase here!
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