You remember those days, the days of wearing those inferior sunscreens? The ones that turned your face into an oil slick? Yeah, they worked at protecting you, but at a price.
You would spend the day at the beach thinking “Wicked cool, going to be tanned to impress the angels out tonight!”
Little did you know that the grease content in those creams(Such as Everysun Aquasport) would have you breaking out like Lindsay Lohan in rehab. You would go out and notice that your face resembled a 14 year old who lives on a diet of McDonalds and Coca Cola. Chicks would not dig it and you would definitely not come right.
The girls would be asking “So you use protection?”
“Yeah can’t you see the Saudi Arabian oil slick on my face?” You would reply, all geeky and goofy.
As you got older you heard of these creams that were not like this. The “expensive” ones. However “expensive” should not be used here, because you can’t put a price on healthy skin that does not look like a teenagers. You also heard of the words “non comedogenic” which means that these creams won’t clog your skin up.
I mean, obviously the guys reading this have heard these words? Don’t we all read Cosmopolitan? Come on don’t lie! I know you read your sisters or girlfriends Cosmopolitans!
Well I do anyway…
Right! Anyhoo…
So when I heard I was going to Misverstand, I knew that the heat was going to be sort of in comparison to the sun, and so went out and spent some good cash on a quality cream. I went to that surf shop in Cavendish Square, called Billabong, opposite Stuttafords, near the entrance to Primi Piatti. That one.
Well I walked in there and was looking at all the creams, when I settled on the SPF15. The guy working there was on the ball and said I should go for the SPF30, which was wise. Usually I find that shop assistants get in my way, but this guy was clever. He obviously noticed by my body language and general character that I was about to go to Misverstand. Or like everyone else he read my article and recognised me when I walked in. He obviously did some prior research and found out that on the day of my arrival in Misverstand, the mercury would be fishing in the mid 40’s. So he recommended a good product for me. Well done buddy, you saved my life. Seriously you did. Give the man a raise.
Aloe Up- Yes yes yes!
So the cream in question is made by Aloe Up and is called Pro SPF 30 Sport Lotion. Being the budding sportsman that I am, it suited me perfectly. I quickly scanned the tube to see what it had to offer me for R140.( 140 ZAR) This is what it had to say:
Aloe based dry lotion
Sweat resistant
Non-greasy
Biodegradable
Brilliant! It was actually sounding too good to be true. I then turned the tube around and it startled me even more. Goodness gracious! This is what it had to say:
PABA free( No idea what that means)
Alcohol free (Sigh…)
Mineral oil free
Fragrance free
And then unlike products where it says “With aloe!” and then you read the label and it has extracts of aloe amountung to about 0.5% of the actual products, Aloe Up contains a whopping 35% aloe vera gel! Wooooooow!
You remember that time you went to Sandy Bay and burnt your chap, and your girlfriend told you to put aloe gel on it? Exactly, if the girlfriend says it, it must be good. Aloe has been used for ages to treat skin conditions and especially sun burn. Now you get to wear after sun ingredients, in the sun, genius!
On a side note I actually have a bottle of pure aloe gel in my fridge. Two tablespoons every day, in my mouth, down down down, into this temple of a body! What, you think I keep this temple out of the ruins by not feeding it the right stuff? Ha!
Enough of what the bottle says. How did it work in real life? All I can say is AWESOME!
I would put it on in the morning, it would go on dry, and had a nice natural fragrance to it(It is fragrance free, but the ingredients obviously have some sort of a natural fragrance to them). Best of all, no one got burnt! The 45 degree celsius heat is hectic, and the Aloe Up lasted us through all the wakeboarding and mucking about in the water for hours on end. I did reapply it often, but just to be safe. You never know when you have been wearing life jackets if it might rub off. But it seems to stick, and everyone survived the sun safely!
Damn I’m impressed. What impresses me even more is the fact that no one seems to know about Aloe Up! I love finding new things, to treat all of you. Like the time I found the worlds best deodorant, Naturally Fresh Deodorant Spray(Click HERE for that deodorant) Anyway, no one seems to know about Aloe Up, and it’s not easily available, but surf stores seem to be the ticket. I was at a surf store in Somerset Mall in Somerset West the other day, and they had it there.
Also, our Billabong boys and girls in Cavendish Square stock it. Seriously, ask for Aloe Up by name.
You would be a fool to use anything else. And when you try pull into that model at La Med on Sunday, and I barge in and pull her, know that is has nothing to do with my natural charm(I actually have none), but rather the fact that you look like an oil rig, and I look tanned and non greasy.
Don’t blame me. I’m not the one who went all cheap on the sunscreen.
Drop the R140, slam on the cream, throw yourself on Llandudno and laugh at the people swimming in grease.
Then hit La Med and impress.
Click ALOE UP for the Aloe Up website. Seriously, have a good look at that site. Be impressed. Thank me on Llandudno. No problem…
Sean Lloyd
Editor
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