My toxic relationship with sunscreen has been a lifelong thing. I hate it. I hate feeling sticky. I hate accidentally putting it on streaky and ending up with some weird tan lines. And more than anything, I f*cking hate that sunscreen smell. My aversion to the disgusting texture and scent of sunscreen made me not use it for all my teenage years, even though I lived in a beach town. Because of this, I have just accepted my inevitable death via skin cancer. However, now I’m old and more responsible, and I’m also mostly terrified of burning my vampire-white skin and ending up wrinkled. And thankfully, the beauty market has finally caught up and now we have more sunscreen options. They’re light, go on like lotion, and even smell incredible. Here’s a few of the best smelling sunscreens you should buy so you never have to smell like a dirty teenage lifeguard again.
1. Coola
This is my holy grail of sunscreen. Whether you buy a face moisturizer or a body spray, Coola’s sunscreen is light, absorbs quickly, and smells so good. I have the face sunscreen in White Tea (which is my all-time favorite) and the body spray in Guava Mango, and both are amazing. Their SPF ranges from 30-50, and also has other scents including piña colada, cucumber, and coconut. I bought this little travel set for a trip to Hawaii last year for a friend’s wedding and did not burn my porcelain skin, nor did I smell like a baby prostitute.
COOLA Classic Sport Organic Suncare Travel Set
2. Supergoop!
Supergoop! is also an awesome sunscreen brand, with all their products around SPF 50, and all smelling awesome. You can find their formula as a serum, moisturizer, or spray, but my absolute favorite product of theirs in the makeup setting spray, which is also SPF 50. It smells like a super refreshing rosemary and mint and ensures your makeup won’t melt down your face. Plus, you can reapply as much as you want without redoing your makeup, and it’s even a mattefier so you don’t look oily.
SUPERGOOP! Defense Refresh Setting Mist Broad Spectrum SPF 50
3. Tarte
I like a lot of Tarte’s beauty products, but I got a mini sample from Sephora of this Tarte sunscreen recently, and tbh, I really loved it. Numnber one, the bottle is pretty. Number two, it’s SPF 30. Number three, it smells like lilies and no hint of sunscreen smell. And finally, number four, it’s non-greasy, absorbs quickly, and is super moisturizing, which is super helpful if you’re destroying your skin out in sun day after day.
TARTE Tarteguard 30 Vegan Sunscreen Lotion Broad Spectrum SPF 30
4. Sun Bum
For my babes on a budget, Sun Bum is a drugstore find that gets the job done and will make you smell like a Hawaiian beach goddess. It’s also non-greasy, non-comedogenic (meaning it doesn’t clog pores), and has an SPF range of 15-70. Its scent is tropical, with coconut and banana. They also have a full line including spray sunscreen, stick sunscreen, SPF lip balm, and after-sun moisturizer.
Sun Bum Original Moisturizing Sunscreen Lotion
5. Hawaiian Tropic
Hawaiian Tropic is a classic, but thankfully they’ve updated their formula so that it goes on just like regular lotion and is super moisturizing. But most importantly, it smells like a refreshing coconut and not nasty sunscreen smell. This is the cheapest one in the bunch. It is long lasting, water-resistant, and perfect for your beach vacation where you’ll be using the entire bottle in a week. Or like, if you’re like me and going no where fun this summer, you can put it on and smell like you’re on an amazing beach vacation, while you drink your poorly made Piña Colada in your sad apartment pool that only gets sunlight for 45 minutes a day at 10am.
Hawaiian Tropic Sheer Touch, Lotion Sunscreen Ultra Radiance SPF 30
Images: Ryan Christodoulou / Unsplash; Sephora (3); Amazon (2)
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