Hold The Zinc Please

Remember when the idea of wearing sunscreen used to mean pasty white globs of thick creams on your nose? That was zinc oxide, which is why most people skipped the sunscreen in the early days.

Among the individual sunscreen ingredients approved by the FDA, there are chemical and physical sunscreens.  To be effective, chemical sunscreens need to be rubbed into the skin for about 20 minutes before sun exposure. They do a good job at blocking UV light, but they need to be reapplied every few hours to maintain adequate protection. Physical sunscreens, including zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, which are both minerals, actually sit on the surface of the skin and physically block both UVA and UVB light. Newer zinc oxide sunscreens contain tiny particles that are transparent and called micronized to avoid the thick, white properties of earlier products.

Dermatologist Dr. Zein Obagi set out to eliminate Zinc from his bestselling sunscreen formula – ZO Skin Health Sunscreen + Primer SPF30.

The efficacy and broad spectrum UVA/UVB protection of any reflective sunscreen – such as Titanium Dioxide or Zinc Oxide or a combination – is based on particle sizes. In his NEW formulation of ZO Skin Health Sunscreen + Primer SPF30, Dr. Obagi used an even more effectively optimized particle size of Titanium Dioxide.  Therefore he was able to achieve the same efficacy profile, as SPF and Broad Spectrum (Critical Wavelength) clinical testing proved, as in the previous formula which used a less optimized particle size version of Titanium Dioxide. In so doing, it reduced the need to also rely on Zinc Oxide for skin protection.

The key ingredients in the NEW ZO Skin Health Sunscreen + Primer SPF30 are Titanium Dioxide, along with hydrators, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, Fractionated Melanin, DNA Repair and Protect ingredients and more. What does that mean? Well, this version of our hero product is even more cosmetically elegant so it glides on beautifully like a luxury serum yet it protects your skin throughout the day from harmful UV rays and DNA damage.