Monday, July 22, 2013

Mom Advice - Store Brand Sunscreen

Before we went on vacation last month, hubs and I hit the local big box store (the one that starts with a W) to pick up necessities for the trip. Of course one of those necessities was lots of sunscreen. I typically buy the Banana Boat Kids but this one was a double pack and figuring we'd go through a ton while we were in Florida, two cans were better than one and I bought it.
Now I will say that it did have a nice spray pattern for even coverage and it did work at keeping us from turning into beat Red lobsters, especially the really pale and pasty adults, but there were 2 really major drawbacks of this brand that I want to warn you about.

The 1st con was that it was very sticky. I sprayed it on my hand to then apply to the kiddos' faces and no matter how much I washed after, my hands still had a sticky residue for most of the day.

The 2nd con was even more bothersome and long lasting. Once we got back to the hotel and changed the kids' clothes, we saw that all of the edges of their clothes that got a little over sprayed when it was applied, was deep Yellow. Both the collars and the sleeves of their shirts were stained.
What you see below is after I treated and washed both of the shirts. The stains are permanent. I know it is tough to see and thankfully it isn't as pronounced as it was prior to washing but still....2 shirts are now ruined from one day of using this sunscreen.

I was recently telling my co-worker about this as he has 2 young kids and uses a lot of sunscreen too and found out that he has had this same problem with this exact same product.
Needless to say that I will never buy this brand or any other store brand of sunscreen again. The few dollars of savings isn't worth it if the end result is clothing that is ruined for good.

7 of you added your own colorful comments:

beaquilter said...

oh oh, that stinks, we haven't used it in a long time, we just limit the exposure in the spring now I have two brown babies! my son especially has a beach body! drool, Sonja wears a hat

Unknown said...

With three little girls going to the pool several times a week, we go through a lot of spray. Thank you so much for the valuable info.

Carol said...

I was a Coppertone Water Babies fan. The pink bottle. Loved that stuff! My husband is a bike rider. He swears by the Coppertone Sport in the blue bottle. I won't let him use the spray though....he makes a mess in the bathroom. LOL.

mindingmomma said...

We used a namebrand spray and found out that it needed to be rubbed in to be useful. My daughter and I both got sunburnt in a zebra pattern from where the spray did not spread well and we looked ridiculous! I'm sticking with my Copperton Sport lotion from now on.
mindingmomma.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

Great advice. We looked at that stuff but ended up buying another BRAND (not store brand). There are reasons, sometimes, why it is less $$$ (not always, though)! Hugs.....

usagypsy said...

I bought a drugstore brand that was sold in the double pack. I wont mention names but the first letter is a W. This is a drugstore, not a superstore. I compared ingrediants, which was the same as the name brand. It sprays nice, smells nice and we have not burned badly under the hot, Nevada sun. Fortunately we haven't had the problem you did. When I buy store brand I compare labels. And I do rub the spray in too. Just makes more sense to me to do that. Sometimes if you write the company about what happened they will try to make it right. Right now we are waiting for a refund of two cases of water that had some really messed up bottles. My daughter actually wrote them. Guess I taught her well :)

Tina said...

FYI, Sister Dear, I ruined two white shirts using the same product while we were all in Florida. I tried everything I know to get the stains out of the collar but to no avail. The shirts are now banished to being cleaning clothes.