Love Sun Body Gets Bodies And Faces Beach-Ready With Mineral Sunscreens Carrying The EcoCert Cosmos Seal
As summer rolls around, sunscreen season is picking up in the beauty industry. New mineral sun protection brand Love Sun Body is hitting online and offline retailers, including Credo, Neiman Marcus, Beauty Collection, Amazon and Birchbox, now to take advantage of the peak period for its products, but it plans to convince customers not to stop slathering when the sunnier months pass.
“Ninety percent of skin aging comes from sun exposure, and the way to prevent that is to wear sunscreen all day long, every day,” says former banker Terry Zickerman, founder and CEO of Love Sun Body. “You can wear this in the morning and go to work during the day, and women can put makeup on top of it because it dries matte.”
He stresses the key differentiator of Love Sun Body’s sunscreens is they apply smoothly and fully absorb while sticking to natural formulas. All sunscreens, but mineral varieties in particular, have reputations for being chalky and generally unpleasant. It wasn’t easy for Love Sun Body to achieve the desired formula texture to appeal widely to consumers. Zickerman had to be patient to arrive at the right consistency. The idea for Love Sun Body was sparked in 2012 after a visit to Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., inspired an exploration of available sunscreens that he decided weren’t up to snuff, and Zickerman left his financial position in March of 2017 to concentrate on the brand full-time.
“We are able to keep the viscosity very, very low. When you look at a lot of other sunscreens with high mineral content, they are typically very thick. We tested and reformulated, and tested and reformulated,” he says. “Most companies formulate for between three months and six months. We formulated for over two years, testing and retesting ingredients in order to hold the minerals in suspension to make them very viscous. It rubs in very well, so the mineral content rubs in thoroughly with the SPF 30.”
“Most companies formulate for between three months and six months. We formulated for over two years, testing and retesting ingredients in order to hold the minerals in suspension to make them very viscous. It rubs in very well, so the mineral content rubs in thoroughly with the SPF 30.”
Love Sun Body’s SPF 30 and SPF 50 formulas are the first in the U.S. to adhere to EcoCert Cosmos standards or, in order words, they meet European standards for UVA and UVB protection that are stricter than American standards. Zickerman explains the EcoCert Cosmos certification process examines the entire life cycle of a product from its source to manufacturing to end packaging. The brand uses only plant-derived, non-GMO ingredients and houses them biodegradable containers.
“Some products call themselves natural, and it’s not really meaningful. What does natural on the bottle mean? Who judges that? Who says what the company should and should not say? With EcoCert and Cosmos, it’s a way for us to talk to the consumer and tell them, ‘An outsider has reviewed our manufacturing, labels and ingredients, and they said we can claim that we are 100% natural,’” explains Zickerman. “No other manufacturer can claim that, whatever they put on their label.”
The certification was attractive to Credo, where Love Sun Body has joined a sun-care selection featuring Suntegrity and Coola. Michelle Connelly, director of merchandising and planning at the clean beauty retailer, says, “It’s a great sunscreen for the whole family, and we love that every SKU also comes in a travel size.” Love Sun Body’s merchandise lineup consists of SPF 30 and SPF 50 sunscreens in fragrance-free and lightly-scented options in nearly .85-oz., 3.38-oz. and 6.76-oz. sizes. Prices run from $11 to $32.
“Some products call themselves natural, and it’s not really meaningful. What does natural on the bottle mean? Who judges that? Who says what the company should and should not say? With EcoCert and Cosmos, it’s a way for us to talk to the consumer and tell them, ‘An outsider has reviewed our manufacturing, labels and ingredients, and they said we can claim that we are 100% natural.'”
The SPF 30 has non-nano zinc oxide at 20.4%, and the SPF 50 incorporates non-nano zinc oxide at 21% and non-nano titanium dioxide at 7.2%. The sunscreens are packaged in flip-cap bottles that are white with blue and yellow brand logos, and blue or orange tops. The cheery, color-accented design is intended for the brand to not appear elitist. The letter ‘o’ in the word ‘Love’ in the logo is replaced with a yellow and blue heart that represents the sun rising or setting on the ocean, and the ‘o’ in Body in the logo is replaced with a yellow sun. Zickerman explains, “The packaging is about our love for the sun, and our customers’ passion for the outdoors.”
Love Sun Body’s packaging and formulation cost $1 million to develop. Zickerman projects that amount will be recouped within the brand’s initial year on the market. Next month, it’s sending out 50,000 samples to Birchbox subscribers. Next year, Love Sun Body expects to enter Europe and, in 2020, Asia is on the expansion docket. Zickerman says, “We feel we’re going to be one of the top five sunscreen manufacturers within the next five years.”
[Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on June 13, 2018. It has been reposted on July 4 for the ‘official’ start of summer.]
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