What do you use?

I love bullfrog, but end up mostly using this.



I'm headed to Cabo in less than a month and don't want to burn the crap out of myself while surfing, fishing, getting drunk by the pool.

I'm the same. Just get new cans each year. Learned that the hard way!

I like to use NO-AD. Their product doesn't make me feel greasy after putting it on.

This may not apply to you, but if you have an FSA (flex spending account) though your health insurance, you can use it to buy sunscreen. I always have a little bit left in my account at the end of the year, and we often use it to stock up on sunscreen.

Be sure you take enough sunscreen. If you have to buy it at your resort, you can arrange an easy payment plan.

We use Neutrogena sunscreen at our house because that's what the wife likes and it works well. FYI, we're both pretty light complected as well.

When beaching/fishing the first application before leaving the house/condo/hotel is cream based like no-ad or whatever the GF has packed. After that all other applications are aerosol spray on.

I think we usually end up with that same brand of sunscreen from the OP for most of our outside activities. When you fly do you put it in your checked bags? We went to Turks & Caicos for 7 days with our 3 kids last summer and we wanted to take plenty of sunscreen, but we were not checking any bags. Everybody just carried a backpack and each pack had a small bottle of sunscreen in it. I forget what size they were but they were the exact size mentioned on the TSA website for liquids. When we went through the security line at DFW the TSA guy said they were too big. I told him they were the right size according to their website and he said that they had new guidance on liquid sizes that weren't on their website yet. So we ended up leaving 5 bottles of sunscreen in the trash at the checkpoint and buying sunscreen at the resort. What I didn't point out to the guy was that he forgot to confiscate a bottle of shampoo that was in my wife's bag that was at least 4x the size of our sunscreen.

I am a burner. I love copper tone sport. I don't trust anything else.

I'm also a burner badly. I end up using a combo of wearing shirts and wide brim hat, but also use Bullfrog. I won't use anything but it. I have a hard time finding it sometimes, so when I do, i usually buy the whole place out of it.

I'll put a base layer of the gel stuff down first thing in the morning, then touch up with the spray stuff about every hour. At lunch i'll put another layer of gel down and touch up the rest of the afternoon with the spray.

FSGuide said:

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I think we usually end up with that same brand of sunscreen from the OP for most of our outside activities. When you fly do you put it in your checked bags? We went to Turks & Caicos for 7 days with our 3 kids last summer and we wanted to take plenty of sunscreen, but we were not checking any bags. Everybody just carried a backpack and each pack had a small bottle of sunscreen in it. I forget what size they were but they were the exact size mentioned on the TSA website for liquids. When we went through the security line at DFW the TSA guy said they were too big. I told him they were the right size according to their website and he said that they had new guidance on liquid sizes that weren't on their website yet. So we ended up leaving 5 bottles of sunscreen in the trash at the checkpoint and buying sunscreen at the resort. What I didn't point out to the guy was that he forgot to confiscate a bottle of shampoo that was in my wife's bag that was at least 4x the size of our sunscreen.

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If you have a medical provider that likes you, get them to write a prescription for your sunscreens. Prescriptions are exempt from the liquid rules. The Rx label must be clearly written, and attached to the bottle itself, and not the box it came in.

It would also probably help if you get your prescription from a smaller non-chain pharmacy, as those types of places are more likely to be helpful in getting this type of thing done.

I avoid spray whenever possible and it's not allowed on my boat (most guides will not allow it either) as it messes up your gel-coat.

I've used Bullfrog Gel recently but found some better stuff and prefer the stick stuff on my face.

Try either one of these or both:
http://www.solsunguard.com/products.html

https://www.neutrogena.com/sun/sun-adult/sun-adult-sticks

Bullfrog Mosquito Coast for me.

Blue Lizard

Whatever the bundle pack is at Costco. I think what OP has pictured or close to it. Works well.

I don't trust spray on, so that will never be a problem for me.

+1 for Coppertone Sport

I prefer the stick versions as well. I didn't know about the gel coat issue, but the spray gets on everything and with the soft rubber handles on the newer Curados it becomes a mess.

I like neutrogena sport because it's not greasy. Prefer the stick but it's not very compact so I use the lotion while traveling.

Tip for the stick - keep it in the ice chest so it doesn't melt and is nice and cool when you reapply.

I had never heard of this until I was in Grand Isle 2 weeks ago. I had heard of bug spray on your hands screwing up the inside of your truck or your camouflage gun but never the sunscreen thing.
Is it just the aerosol sprays, my wife uses one of the sun screens in the pump spray bottle.

If you're swimming in the ocean, and care about such things, then be careful with your sunscreen. Some of the common ones use chemicals that damage reefs.

http://www2.padi.com/blog/2013/06/27/coral-reef-safe-sunscreen-for-scuba-diving/

Quote:

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Always look at ingredient lists to make sure reef-damaging substances (such as oxybenzone, butylparaben, octinoxate and 4-methylbenzylidine camphor, all of which have been shown to cause coral bleaching even at low levels) aren't included

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They made a big deal out of this when I was in Hawaii last November, first I'd ever heard of it.

Banana Boat Sport SPF 30. Gives me the amount of protection I like while allowing me to brown to a nice White Hispanic tone.

AggieGunslinger said:

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I had never heard of this until I was in Grand Isle 2 weeks ago. I had heard of bug spray on your hands screwing up the inside of your truck or your camouflage gun but never the sunscreen thing.
Is it just the aerosol sprays, my wife uses one of the sun screens in the pump spray bottle.

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I really don't know if it's the aerosol sprays only or the pump spray too. But the aerosol sprays will leave orange stains on your gel-coat and any upholstery.

I don't know why it does. I just know it does.

GinMan said:

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Yep. This is the only stuff that I have found that isn't greasy.

+1 more for the Neutrogena dry-touch

I use this stuff... picked it up when we went to St Thomas... Also have learned that most sunscreens are bad for the bait when fishing on the bay...

Sunscreen

aTm2004 said:

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Banana Boat Sport SPF 30. Gives me the amount of protection I like while allowing me to brown to a nice White Hispanic tone.

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Banana Boat was recently in a class-action lawsuit for false advertising. They were claiming higher SPF levels than their products actually were.

We just got back from a 7 day cruise that took us to Barbados and all those other little island. We purchased coppertone sport 100 and it was fantastic, my wife burns and she would put it on before we left the boat at 8am. Spend all day outside and back to the boat around 4ish, not one day did she have to put any extra on or ever got burned. I would just put it on my face so I wouldn't get coon eyes, I'm part Mexican so I don't burn as much.

Banana Boat Kids is what we have settled on and I'm a big believer in it. Best we've tried and we've tried most. I'm talking about the lotion not the spray. It stays on and lasts like crazy even in the water.

Hawaiian Tropic Sport spf 30 lotion.

Salt of the water said:

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I like neutrogena sport because it's not greasy. Prefer the stick but it's not very compact so I use the lotion while traveling.

Tip for the stick - keep it in the ice chest so it doesn't melt and is nice and cool when you reapply.

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Neutrogena and it's not even close. Put on a nice layer about 30-45 before you go outside and start sweating to give it time to dry real well. Your good to go after that.

I look at pics of the sun and get sunburned. It is sort of like that movie where the Medusa head will turn everyone into stone if they look at her. I simply start getting dressed to go outside and immediately start turning red. Sadly, I'm only partially joking.

I've been using the Neutragena product that is pictured on here for a number of years. The Coppertone Sport also gets good marks. I haven't done so this year, but I usually research sunscreen products each year in case something changes or something new is out.

As far as Banana Boat goes, I wouldn't touch their sun screen but their aloe vera cream is pretty good. I used to have a big bottle of it with a pump dispenser going and I'd use it every time I got near a light bulb. Seriously, every time I went out in the sun for any length of time.

Funny story: went with my church youth group to Daytona Beach in the early '80s. Obviously, got roasted, but we got an aloe vera cream that I had never seen before. They weren't out or maybe just not popular in Texas at the time, so this was the first time I'd ever used it. I used half the bottle of that cream that week. So I get back and I'm sacking groceries a few months later. I'm taking groceries for a lady with a small kid out to her car and she asked me where I got my tan for someone with such fair skin! No one had ever accused me of having a tan before! Using the cream, I believe, had helped me retain some skin color from the summer. She was interested because her son had my same complexion and hair color. I told her the Florida story but to keep him out of the sun as much as possible.

Elta MD - prefer the spray

texrover91 said:

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Elta MD - prefer the spray

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This is what I use. My wife had melanoma and prefers sunblocks that contain physical barriers like zinc oxide or titanium dioxide.