Summer SPF time - from Clinique and Clarins

Okay, so the weather has turned a wee bit rubbish today after a gorgeous  Easter Bank Holiday weekend, but summer is coming. Trust me. It will be here. I know this because it’s that time of the beauty calendar year again when all my email subjects have ‘SPF’ or ‘UVA/UVB’ in them somewhere!

First up this week was Clinique’s new Even Better Dark Spot Defense SPF45, which is formulated with 100% non-chemical sunscreen, providing high-level UBA/UBV protection, whilst appearing pretty much invisible on the skin.

The science bit says that this ‘Invisible Screen™’ technology:  “uses a medical-grade film barrier former that is sprayed onto the finely milled titanium dioxide. This slow-speed process promotes adhesion of the film to the UV, thus yielding a breathable, light-as-air mesh that glides onto skin for a virtually invisible protective shield against harmful UVA / UVB rays”.

Wow. Did you get that? It does feel completely, well, not there, and you can wear it alone, or under makeup. I do like sunscreen specifically for the face, and you can use this around the eye area as well, which is great. It does have a sheer  tint to it, but it adapts to skintones, and really doesn’t give any colour-coverage.

Obviously this product has been created to target hyperpigmentation and dark spots that can come with the sun, and is technically an anti-ageing product, I guess . I have suffered from pigmentation a lot in the past, so look forward to using this in the summer.

The next suncare product in my inbox this week was Clarins’ new Sun Care Oil Spray UVA/UVB 30 which is a high protection dry oil you can use on your body and your hair.

Beach multi-taskers are brilliant, and this combines the power of plants with sun filterss, and lets you protect your skin from the harmful rays, and your hair from becoming dry and damaged from the sun and sea salt.

I love the idea of this, as my hair needs all the help it can get on holiday!

It contains Nyamplung fruit, Senna, Plane Tree extract and aloe vera, and it smells gorgeous! It has a fruit-based scent of mandarin, kiwi, mango, jasmine, sandalwood and amber.

More than anything I love the idea of a high protection factor oil. Sun oils are traditionally something that are a no-no in the sun, but this is a new and brilliant innovation from Clarins.

Clinique Even Better Dark Spot Defense SPF45, £26, clinique.co.uk, and Clarins Sun Care Oil Spray UVA/UVB 30, £18, clarins.co.uk, from May