I don’t want to be vulnerable to the sun, and I absolutely don’t want to be flying too close to UVA and UVB rays like Icarus. I’ll dutifully apply sunscreen at least 15 minutes before sun exposure, no matter the time of the year it is, but it’s reapplication that can be my Achilles’ heel. To help reapply sunscreen on my face, I use a sunscreen stick. Before this summer, Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protector — which has our Best in Class blue ribbon — was my favorite. But when I noticed it was making my oilier skin shinier than a bird in a Butterball turkey spread in June, I knew I needed something new.
When I saw Eadem’s Sunsuede, an SPF-primer hybrid stick, it took me all of five minutes to decide to buy it. I usually treat recommended products on Sephora’s home page with a healthy dose of skepticism, but I’ve yet to try a bad Eadem product. Not Cloud Cushion (the best moisturizer), Mami Wata (for redness), Smooth Slate (for ingrown hairs), or Le Chouchou (a lip balm that even impressed senior editor Crystal Martin, who helms our Beauty Brief newsletter). The Sunsuede was an easy sell, admittedly: a broad-spectrum, SPF 50+ formula that was marketed as simultaneously weightless and undetectable. When I first tried it and realized it took just a few swipes — if only Tinder were like this — for it to apply invisibly, I knew I met the sunscreen stick I was looking for.
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[Editor’s note: It’s currently sold out on Sephora — you can sign up to be emailed when it’s available — but you can buy it directly from Eadem’s website in the meantime.]
I hate the feeling of “wearing sunscreen” — and Sunsuede doesn’t feel like wearing sunscreen. It has a natural cast that’s in no way tacky. Other sunscreens resemble the texture of the custard filling of a Boston cream doughnut, whereas Sunsuede is lighter than a slice of angel-food cake. The ingredients are the usual suspects in chemical sunscreens — filters avobenzone, octocrylene, homosalate, and octisalate — plus the antioxidant resveratrol. Thanks to the formula’s shine-controlling kaolin and humectant zinc PCA, its priming capabilities are impressive, too. It helps keep tinted moisturizer smoother-looking, and it doesn’t move concealer, either. In fact, fellow senior writers Lauren Ro and Emma Wartzman complimented my middle-of-the-day, Sunsuede-laden face on a day I came into the New York offices recently.
As members of our beauty team repeatedly say, a sunscreen stick should be a layer rather than your primary defense. No matter if it’s layered after Hawaiian Tropic, Vacation, or EltaMD, Sunsuede goes right into the skin. The ultimate test came in July with my ten-day vacation to the Dominican Republic. I followed instructions for reapplying every two hours, and after 40 minutes of swimming and/or perspirating on my face and neck (plus other areas a rashguard and towel didn’t cover — the backs of my hands, some collarbone, etc.), the logistical nightmare of facial reapplication — rubbing spurts of Beach Defense into my cheeks — was gone. I believe it’s the reason I didn’t come back with the patches of sunburn as my relatives on the trip did. I can’t imagine going outside without the palm-size Sunsuede now. No more would’ve, could’ve, or should’ve about sun protection. I’ll be Sunsuede-ing year-round.
More sunscreens we recommend
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Our new — and improved — best overall face sunscreen.
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It "contains ceramides and hyaluronic acid, so it’s moisturizing and has a nice slip to it.”
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This didn’t get into writer Arielle Avila’s eyes on a sweaty run.
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