Keepin Cool' The bright new SUNSCREEN stars!

Last November I was diagnosed with a Melanoma. It was in the middle of my lower back and looked like a smear of Vegemite and not like any other mole or freckle on my whole body. It was one of the biggest shocks of my life. I've always worn sunscreen have hardly have been badly sun burnt, I never go 'tanning' and my skin is not freckly or pale. But I had a melanoma.

It was removed and tested and thankfully was all taken out with biopsy which meant no on going surgical treatment was needed. Skin cancers are very much thought of as a 'lower grade' or 'less harmful' form of cancer, this is not true at all. I am not sure how I developed a melanoma, maybe it was that time I was at the beach and I forgot to put sun screen on the one spot on my lower back, maybe it was that other time when I was 11 at school camp and I forgot my rash vest and went swimming in the lake. Who knows, but the one thing I am very confident in is that I never go in the sun without sunscreen ever again! So here are my favourite sunscreens which have been keeping me cool over the summer:

1. Neutrogena Beach Defence SPF 50+ Spray Sunscreen $16.99 available from www.priceline.com.au

This bottle is amazing! It is an aerosol can which allows you to spray the sunscreen on hard to reach places like your the back of your legs and the middle of your back, so you will never miss a spot again. The scent is non offensive and it does a great job at protecting you if you are going in and out of the water.

2. Dermalogica 50 Sport Protection SPF 50+ $45.00 available from www.dermalogica.com.au

If I am exercising or walking around in the middle of the day this is my favourite sunscreen, after applying it to my face and arms it wont budge for hours. It is 50+ and will not let you down.

3 Dermalogica Solar Defence Booster SPF 50+ $62.00 and Dermalogica Oil Free Matte SPF 30+ $62.00 both available from www.dermalogica.com.au

These two Dermalogica sunscreens are fantastic if you are needing to apply a sunscreen under makeup. They don't have any of the regular sunscreen stickyness or oil which is left sitting on the top of your skin, they prime your skin leaving an undetectable vail of sun protection.

4. Wot Not Natural Sunscreen SPF 30+ $26.95 available from www.nourishedlife.com.au

A friend recently told me she didn't wear sunscreen because of how toxic the ingredients were, so I went on a hunt to look for natural sunscreens on the market. After trying a few this WOT NOT sunscreen was the nicest I tried, it was easy to rub in and not too thick, it also wasn't heavily fragranced. People often complain that sunscreen breaks them out, it is actually not the sunscreen that is breaking you out but the fragrance which is masking the spf smell. If you have this problem then I highly recommend trying a natural sunscreen next.

5. Milk and Co Dry Touch Sunscreen SPF 30+ $12.95 available from www.milkandco.com.au

My beloved Milk sunscreen, I love you. This has kept my skin safe during many an afternoon paddle at Gordon's Bay. The texture of this sunscreen is lovely and the tea tree scent is so fresh. 

6. Mukti Tinted Moisturiser with Sunscreen SPF 15+ available from www.nourishedlife.com.au

This is a great product if you are looking for a natural tinted moisturiser with an added SPF. The coverage is very sheer so I apply a concealer over the top if I am wearing it as my base. The consistency leaves your skin feeling quite tight and matte feeling, so there is no element of oily slip that's going to happen when you apply makeup over the top.

I hope this post has been helpful for anyone out there curious about new sunscreens that are on the market or for those of you looking to up your sun protection game. On a last note I would like to say is that there is no such thing as a healthy tan and please think before you go out into the sun because you are risking your life.

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GOT MILK? Milk's new skin care for her and an Interview with Lindy Klim

Milk for her products from left to right: Beauty Wipes $9.95, Body Oil $12.95, Ultra Light Moisturiser $19.95, Face Cleanser $16.95, Rejuvenating Masque $19.95 and Body Scrub $14.95 for more information visit www.milkandco.com.au

Got Milk? Milk is a natural line of skin care created by the stunning Lindy and Michael Klim who is most well known for his work in the pool. If you have been reading Beauté Gazette for a while you would know that I am huge fan of Milk's Dry Touch Sunscreen (read here!) which is a summer beach bag staple for me. Since Milk's launch it has expanded from just Men's skin care and sunscreen to natural products for babies and children and now Milk for Her! I was so excited to have the opportunity to interview Lindy about Milk, she was incredibly graceful and talked me through the new line:

Beauté Gazette: I first fell in love with Milk's Dry Touch Sun Screen, it has an incredibly different texture, smell and absorbency to traditional sunscreens, what was your original idea when creating it?

Lindy: It was a new formulation from the company that develops our products that they were working with and it had never been used before. They asked me to come in and see if I liked it. Myself having a darker complexion regular sunscreens always gave a white cast to my skin because of the zinc. So with the dry touch formulation I fell in love with it straight away, it sinks into the skin so quickly without any work and is hardly noticeable. And then we added the Tea Tree which is  fantastic ingredient for Summer to keep away bugs.'

BG: I love Milk's packaging, it's so refreshing to see a brand on the larger market scale which isn't gaudy and highly branded, something which will look great in bathrooms for men and women....

Lindy: That's something that when we were designing the men's range we wanted, the original design was shaped to look like a whiskey bottle. I like beautiful things and at the time of developing it I didn't see why men couldn't use products that looked good in the bathroom as well as work on their skin, we wanted to keep the products natural and the design simple. 

BG: The whole range of Milk for her products are made up of 95% naturally derived ingredients, how important is that for you?

Lindy: It's really important for me, there are so many chemicals out there in the world, if you are using a natural product its going be in no way harmful to your skin for the majority of people. For me its not about how many products you use because the market is saturated. Its about bringing it back to basics, I use the Milk for Her Face Cleanser and Ultra Light Moisturiser during the day and mostly at night I use rose hip oil.

BG: Were you a skin care and beauty junkie before you designed the range, because it would be and beauty junkies idea of heaven to design their own range.....

Lindy: Yes, I was a big beauty junkie.... I still am. I love Mecca and buy so many products which just sit in my cupboard because I just love looking at them. And my daughter loves it too, we play makeup together all the time. Over time trying so many products with different ingredients and with seeing not much of a result or change in my skin- there were no miracles happening. That's when I thought I am going to try this myself and bring it back to basics when creating the line. Working with chemists to design the line I realised what was going to work in the products and what wasn't. It was so important for me that the products were available for the everyday time poor woman who doesn't have time to shop for skin care in department stores. It is available for her to pick up at her local Woolworths or Terry White chemist when she is doing her weekly shop and the price needed to be accessible for her too, she didn't need to feel guilty she was spending too much money on her skin.

BG: Coming into Summer what are your beauty tips and must have items?

Lindy: I live in Bali full-time but am constantly travelling back to Melbourne for the business so transitioning between hot and cold climates is a nightmare for my skin and there has been a water change in Bali at the moment which my skin has hated. But I would say the best thing to do for your skin would be to stay hydrated all the time. Especially with summer coming up, using the Milk Body Scrub with the Coconut and Rose hip oils which will exfoliate and hydrate your skin at the same time and then topping up with the body oil out of the shower. The Ultra Light Moisturiser is an amazing for your face, it sinks right in and you can feel it hydrating right away.

With the very beautiful and tall Lindy Klim at the Milk for Her press showings.

p.s I would just like to Thank Lindy for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to do this interview, it was amazing to meet you!

xxx Nella

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MILKING IT! Milk Dry Touch SPF 30+ Sunscreen

Milk Dry Touch SPF 30+ Sunscreen available in 150ml $17.95 and  375ml $38.95

I am always on the look out for new and different sun protection products, living in Australia I wear a sun protectant year round either under my makeup in a moisturizer or a high foundation with a high SPF and on any exposed skin like arms, legs and especially hands. My Mum recently horrified me telling me her and her friends used to sun bake till they had blisters on their chests!

At 61 my Mum looks beautiful but does have signs of sun damage from her youth and her only beauty advice to me has been to protect my skin.

A couple of weeks ago when sitting at The Boat House - a sun drenched cafe in Palm Beach with my friends having brunch my dear friend Lucinda whipped out some Milk sunscreen for us all to use. I had never heard of the brand before, but after applying it to my arms I was quickly asking her all about it. Milk was created by Australian swimmer Michael Kilm, it I think is essentially is a mens skin care range from scoping out the website offering products ranging from moisturizer to protein bars. Anyway my friend Lucinda has amazing skin and claimed this to be her holy grail sunsreen, so I immediately bought 2 bottles of the Dry Touch SPF 30+ Sunscreen and have been using it everyday since. 

The best thing about the Milk sunscreen is it isn't greasy it applies almost in a gel consistancy and is so easy to rub into your skin, then when it dries it is completely matte and is not greasy or shiny leaving a white cast to your skin like most sunscreens do. It contains Vitamin E, Aloe Vera and Tea Tree, which are all great for your skin, I would avoid using it on top of any cuts or grazes because it does sting and if you cannot stand the smell of Tea Tree oil then you will not like this sunscreen at all. I cannot wait to be using this all summer long at the beach.

Please if you don't wear a sunscreen during the day on your exposed skin because you don't like the feel then shop around and find one you get on with, in the long run your skin will thank you!

Milk is available from www.milkskincare.com 

Milk does ship internationally.

Also via Myer, Coles, Woolworths and Pulse, Nation and Harrisons Phamacies Australia wide.