Oh my how gorgeous the weather been this week? It's been like living in another country and it's certainly helped ease some of my holiday blues. I had a lovely day in the park yesterday topping up my tan. With the weather being scorching I thought it would be great to share some of my favourite suncreams, after all it's so important to protect your skin. For the past couple of years, every time that I go away on holiday I always turn to Hawaiian Tropic, they are by far my favourite brand for sun care. Not only do the creams work amazingly, but I just adore the packaging and my eyes are always drawn to them on the shop shelves.
Although it's not a new release the Silk Hydration suncream was a new try for me this year and I was intrigued by the silk ribbons running though the lotion. I picked up factor 30 as my skin doesn't burn easily and tends to develop a tan pretty quickly; Factor 50 for me just takes too long for my skin to darken. I have to say this suncream is like no other I've ever tried and I'm seriously so impressed by it. Whenever I go away or my skin is exposed to a lot of sun, it tends to go red the first couple of days; It can take a little while for my skin to adjust, before it starts turning brown. I don't know how this suncream performed miracles, but I suffered no redness whatsoever whilst away on holiday. This suncream really allowed my skin to gradually tan perfectly without me looking like a lobster and I've never had that before, ever!
I can only put this down to the special silk hydration formula as the ribbons that you can see in the bottle provide hydration and moisture to your skin as well as protecting it. As you know the sun sucks all the moisture out of your skin, but I never felt like this was the case when using this sunscreen. Not only did it work amazingly, my skin just felt so soft, it was lovely. Another added bonus is that it's smells so incredible, it really is that holiday scent wrapped into a bottle.
Once my tan had developed a little more, I decided that it was time for take my tanning up to another level and this is where the oil came out. As I love Hawaiian Tropic so much it was an obvious choice for me to choose the protective dry spray oil. I wouldn't really say tanning oils are great for the skin as it literally cooks your skin and when looking for that perfect oil a lot of them seem to have such a low factor: Most of them being factor 2 or 5! I just think thats not going to provide my skin any protection whatsoever. But Hawaiian Tropic offer an oil which is Factor 15 which sits a little better with me. What I really like about this oil is that it doesn't feel to greasy on the skin. I've used other oils in the past and they can be so uncomfortable to wear, especially in 33 degree heat. However this one is very lightweight and I love that it comes in a spray bottle as it means I don't have to get my hands dirty. When I started to use this oil I really started to see my holiday tan develop. If you are looking to go that little bit darker on your holiday or at home, I really recommend giving this oil ago.
My favourite bit about sun care has to be the aftersun, these are my favourite things to buy when holiday shopping, and what a surprise the ones I picked are Hawaiian Tropic. Again not having tried the Silk Hydration aftersun before, I wanted to give it ago. I'll be honest, I smelt it in the shop and was completely won over, it smells delicious! Its fragrance is coconut and papaya infused together, these two scents really are that perfect holiday smell in a bottle. I had so many people tell me that I smelt lovely in the evenings, so it's a scent that really lingers well after its application. For me this was the perfect aftersun to use after a day exposed to the sun. I don't know how these silk ribbons work, but I think it makes a difference to you skin with providing it the hydration and moisture that it lacks. I love the fact the lotion isn't too heavy and I was surprised at how quickly my skin drank it up; My skin was just so soft after using it. Another great thing about this aftersun is that it contains aloe gel, which really is your skins best friend after a day of sunning. The aloe gel really helps to cool down your skin and although I didn't have and redness it did a great job at cooling the areas of skin that were glowing in the evening.
I'm also a sucker for a body butter and again I gravitated towards the Hawaiian Tropic exotic count one. For the past couple of years every time I've been away I've brought a tub of this because I love it so much. I even purchase it for at home to use as an everyday body butter because it's that good. Again the coconut smell is just that perfect summer scent for me and it's also another one that lingers around hours after use. As you would expect with a body butter, this one is really creamy, indulgent and its one that I find helps to prolong my tan, so I'm still using it now.
One other sun care product that I love which isn't Hawaiian Tropic has to be the Banana Boat Aloe Vera Gel. It's one of those products that I remember my mum and dad packing on holidays when I was younger, so I've been using it for years. Like I mentioned before Aloe Gel is great for cooling down the skin and in the past when I have accidentally burnt my skin this gel works wonders at patching things up; I wouldn't go away on holiday without it. I don't think the smell would be to everyones taste, but I really like it, probably because it reminds me of childhood holidays. The gel absorbs so quickly into your skin and I've always applied it before adding my other aftersun creams. I know it might seem like a bit more effort, but I promise you my skin thanks me for it every time that I use it.
I would love to know if you are obsessed with Hawaiian Tropic just as much as I am, I've not tried every product in their range so I would love to hear your recommendations. I'm also on the hunt for a really good face suncream as I've still not found my perfect one. Let me know in the comments below.
Lots of Love