Moisturizer with Physical Sunscreen

Once again, Paula's Choice to the rescue. Try her Hydralight Shine-Free Mineral Complex SPF 30 with 6% zinc oxide and 2.32% titanium dioxide. Dryer skins there's Skin Recovery with almost 4% titanium dioxide and 3% zinc oxide. I'm not sure what you consider a high percent of zinc oxide, but both of them have the Skin Cancer Foundations stamp of approval. I use these because I have rosacea, and need physical sunscreen (I'm assuming you don't want a chemical sunscreen either), and I've combined the two to get the consistency I want. Skin Recovery is just a mite too greasy for me except in the dead of Winter. The only caveat is it makes your skin white, so I mix mine with just a touch of some kind of foundation/bronzer without sunscreen if I'm just wearing it alone, if I don't put on a foundation over it.

To follow up on the previous poster, PC makes a physical sunscreen with a good percentage of zinc. It does have a tint that disappears but masks any whiteness. It's in the Resist line.

Lots of people love PC's product -- many raves here.

But I want more than 6% zinc since I read where a dermatologist recommended at LEAST 10%.

Only the Supergoop CC has the zinc -- the untinted sunscreens are chemical. The Supergoop has 20% zinc.

The only Andalou product that isn't tinted that has the zinc is the oil free (the other two are chemical). I tried a squirt of this in Whole Foods but it was thick and white, and I wanted a moisturizing one, too. Andalou has 20% zinc, too.

Between the two, the Supergoop is heavier coverage and more matte/satin finish, the Andalou more sheer and shiny.

I think Suntegrity is an excellent product, highly rated on EWG, but costly and pretty shiny. I'm on the hunt for a less pricy alternative. I've got some Devita en route from eBay (at the recommendation of others here) and we'll see how that goes. The Devita is 19% zinc.

I read about another product the other day and I was just frantically trying to remember what it was, but no luck.

The top story on ABC news tonight was about the alarming increase in skin cancer in the U.S. The FDA lets us down by not educating us and only rating UVB protection. It's up to us to research the best UVA/UVB protection, and after looking into this since the late 80's, I'm convinced without a doubt our best bet is zinc -- and for me, the higher percentage the better.

And a hat :-)

PS -- I think they throw titanium into every product because it's less expensive than zinc. It's a good UVB sunscreen (thereby allowing a higher SPF rating), but only addresses 2 of the 3 UVA wavelengths. Zinc covers the entire UVA and UVB spectrum.

The PC Resist product I was referring to has 13 percent zinc --Resist Super-Light Wrinkle Defense SPF 30.

I really like Paula's choice but since you want untinted and higher zinc, MDSolarSciences Mineral Creme Broad Spectrum SPF 50 is a nice one as is Elta MD PURE SPF 47 and BurnOut Ocean Tested Physical Sunscreen 30 SPF (this one has alot of nice moisturizing skincare ingredients).

Thank you all for your suggestions!

Yes, MarenSeattle, I'm looking for closer to that 20% zinc oxide. It seems the "moisturizers" have very low % of zinc while the "sunscreens" are too drying. I was looking into the Devita products then saw they had a low rating on Paula's site, not that this would stop me from trying them. I think we're both looking for the holy grail.

Yup, the skin cancer story seemed to top all of the national papers today. I can't believe how many have the "it won't happen to me" attitude. I really believe it's time for a huge push with skin cancer similar to the breast cancer campaigns!

On 7/29/2014 HappyDaze said:

I really like Paula's choice but since you want untinted and higher zinc, MDSolarSciences Mineral Creme Broad Spectrum SPF 50 is a nice one as is Elta MD PURE SPF 47 and BurnOut Ocean Tested Physical Sunscreen 30 SPF.

HD, have you tried the MDSolarSciences? If so, how is the finish/feel? Shiny? Thanks.

On 7/29/2014 suzyQ3 said:

The PC Resist product I was referring to has 13 percent zinc --Resist Super-Light Wrinkle Defense SPF 30.

I'm irrational when it comes to zinc, sQ3. I'm sure the 13% is more than enough, but just not enough for me. I've gone off the deep end. :-)

On 7/29/2014 F1wild said:

Thank you all for your suggestions!

Yes, MarenSeattle, I'm looking for closer to that 20% zinc oxide. It seems the "moisturizers" have very low % of zinc while the "sunscreens" are too drying. I was looking into the Devita products then saw they had a low rating on Paula's site, not that this would stop me from trying them. I think we're both looking for the holy grail.

Yup, the skin cancer story seemed to top all of the national papers today. I can't believe how many have the "it won't happen to me" attitude. I really believe it's time for a huge push with skin cancer similar to the breast cancer campaigns!

You can get little sample tubes of Suntegrity for a couple of bucks -- suntegrityskincare.com. It is NOT drying, believe me. :-) I just prefer something less shiny (and cheaper would be great, too) although under my Supergoop it's just fine. You might just love it -- lots of people do.