It’s not a new product, but it’s a good – no great! – product. California Baby Sunscreen 30+ SPF works like no other sunscreen. Well, that could be an overstatement because as soon as I started using it I stopped using all other brands. Here’s why we here at Smart Mom Picks are hooked on California Baby Sunscreen.
First off, California Baby Sunscreen is chemical-free and fragrance-free – always a plus in my book when rubbing something all over my little one’s body. It goes on a bit thick, to be sure, but it does rub in and leaves no residue. Be careful, though, not to over apply as you will be rubbing it in for a long time. No one likes that.
It protects against UVA and UVB broad spectrum rays. Now, many sunscreens make this claim and it’s hard to know if it is actually true. I will say that after spending one whole week at the beach (the hot hot beach of the Gulf Coast, luckily oil spill free), this sunscreen did NOT sweat off on the 100+ degree temperatures and it did NOT come off in the multiple dips (or splashes or dunkings) in the pool.
My 2 1/2 year old really put the sunscreen to the test – rubbing sand all over herself, getting extremely wet and generally just acting like a two-year-old at the beach. She absolutely did not get sun burned. That’s saying something since she flat out refused to wear her sun hat. I’m talking ALL day, ALL week exposure to the sun and no sunburn.
As for our littlest one (6 months). She, too, was slathered like a greased piggy. The sunscreen withstood lots of eye rubbing, lots of flailing about in the sand and water. Granted, she was kept under a shade as much as possible, but even still, there was sun exposure – it’s the beach after all. I’m happy to report that even she had no trace of a sunburn. That’s some delicate skin it protected and boy did it protect it.
Now, because it was easier (and I’m all for making my life easier), I, too, used the sunscreen even though doctors say that only babies 6 months and younger need specially formulated baby sunscreen. My skin is extremely sensitive and I hate to get my face in the sun, so I used the sunscreen even though I wore a hat the whole time. But, it being the beach and all, sun rays bounce around and I wanted my face to be protected.
While I got a little color on my cheeks, I didn’t have a trace of a burn. And, my face loved the sunscreen so much so that I didn’t have any eczema flair-ups. California Baby Sunscreen is very thick, however, and it feels like a coating on your face. In fact, it IS a coating – it forms a barrier that the sun cannot get through. If you don’t like feeling like your face has a heavy lotion on, then you’ll probably not like the way this feels. That said, what price beauty, right?
So, thumbs up from our camp on this sunscreen. As with all other California Baby products we’ve tried, California Baby Sunscreen is excellent!
