Hello!
It’s the official start of summer in my book (aka the Love Island USA premiere at 9pm EST!!!) which means it’s time for a little Summer Skin School refresher!
Summer Skin School was last year’s monthlong series of educational content, interviews and recommendations to help you and your skin thrive as the days get hotter. Obviously a lot of sun protection, but also body care and other summer-related skin concerns. The main event was the SPF Club Handbook—a 3 part series attempting to explain everything you could possibly want to know about sunscreen. Each volume has a Big Idea, which will help you make sense of all of the nitty-gritty little ideas.
Below you can find recaps of each volume and the other Summer Skin School content should you want to refresh your mind or your medicine cabinet (vitamin D + the sun! bug repellant body stone! lotion that basically disappears!) PLUS my giant document of recommendations.
See ya later islanders!
SPF Club Handbook: Volume 1
Understanding this big idea will help you understand what sunscreen is actually protecting against, the effects of UVA vs. UVB radiation and what that means in terms of the protection you see on a bottle of sunscreen.
Example topics covered: types of radiation, blue light, SPF 30 vs. 50, broad spectrum, water resistance
SPF Club Handbook: Volume 2
Understanding this big idea will help you understand what the actual differences are between types of sunscreen, why everyone says that the U.S. has worse sunscreen and how to properly interpret all of the scary things you hear about sunscreen.
Example topics covered: chemical vs. mineral, specific sunscreen ingredients, common myths & misconceptions (vitamin D, reef safe, endocrine disruption etc.)
SPF Club Handbook: Volume 3
Understanding this big idea will help you understand how much sunscreen to use, what your sunscreen options are and how to think about your risk when deciding to apply/reapply.
Example topics covered: how much to use, makeup with sunscreen, kids & babies, logic for reapplying, powders/sticks/sprays, UPF clothing
SPF Club Handbook: The Recommendations
In this document, you can find a comprehensive list of recommendations & reviews—face, body, makeup, international, kids, UPF clothes and tons more. Feel free to share far and wide!
Use the Table of Contents to navigate or click “ctrl + F” to search for keywords like acne-safe, dry skin, water-resistant etc.
***FYI: I am actively refreshing this resource for 2026 to fix broken links, update retailers, improve keywords and add even more recs. But it is still ready for you to use and peruse! If you see any glaring issues before I get to them, reply to this post or email hi@joldef.com
More Summer Skin School Reading
Bananas, The Sun and Vitamins 101: A doctor (my best friend) answers your questions about vitamins, minerals, the sun + vit d, supplements and how it all relates to the skin.
On the Line with ABI AMÉ: an interview with the founder who builds products with her customers, both of which are incredible for summer (one is literally called Summer Skin)
On the Line with Kate McLeod: an interview with the pastry chef turned founder ft. a bug repellant unlike any you’ve seen and a truly incredible origin story
On the Line with Fur: an interview with the founders of the barrier breaking body care company. A must read if you do any sort of hair removal.
Self Tanner: a Speed Dial primer on the options available and application tips.
Join us for Office Hours on Sunday! This exclusive weekly opportunity is available to paying subscribers.
Every Sunday around 5pm EST, I’ll begin a new thread for the week in Substack Chat, where you can ask me anything. Every Monday from 8-9pm EST, I’ll be in that chat live, answering questions for the hour. That way, if you can’t make it, you can submit any time after 5pm Sunday and still get an answer. If you can make it live, join in! You can ask questions in real time and (hopefully) interact with others in class ;)
Have a great week!
xx,
Jolie
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