Sunscreen Review

Lets call this my first gear review.

Neutrogena, ~$7-9 on Amazon

I have used Neutrogena sunscreen for years. Apparently, it has chemicals in it that help darken your skin or allow you to get a tan better. I would call that a perk. I believe it works, and always reserved it for use on my face because I thought it would protect my face beautifully and protect my face from acne. After all, they have reputable skin care products for clearing up acne. I haven't actually seen any true results of good acne clearing from using their products, but I hope, and feel good trying them and believing that yes, this skin cleaning product is really scrubbing out the deep trenches of my pores. Could be wrong.

I have two complaints against Neutrogena sunscreens.

1) Now that I don't struggle with acne as much, I noticed that this sunscreen makes my face break out. I didn't notice before because acne has always been a part of my life and now its mostly not. What made it very obvious is my husband was also breaking out, and he hasn't had acne for years.

2) When I sweat in the heat of the day, it burns like heck when sunscreen infested sweat drips into my eyeball. I don't like that.

Badger with zinc oxide. ~$14 on Amazoon

Verdict: I believe it works, and does a good job, but I will not be using it on my face anymore. With David's hours of research we have been using Badger broad spectrum SPF 35 zinc oxide sunscreen cream on the face and Neutrogena for everywhere else. So far, my arms, legs and chest have not been breaking out. Badger goes on white and stays white until you really rub it in. I like it. I put it on way to close to hiking time the other day and probably wiped all of it off immediately when I started sweating so who really knows if it works. The thing about hiking on the AT and surrounding areas is that you probably don't really need sunscreen at all- you are blanketed by fully bloomed leafy trees this time a year and the sun hardly leaves an imprint on you anyway.