The Sunscreen Our Gear Guy Trusts to Protect His Whole Family

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Getting outside and rafting, surfing, and camping with my four-year-old daughter and wife is unequivocally my favorite thing in my life. It is also usually a massive pain in the ass to make happen. Since both of those things are true at the same time, I embrace any chance to streamline getting the family out the door for an adventure. One of the key parts of that process is our mondo 18-ounce pump bottle of SPF 50 Supergoop Play Sunscreen ($58) that sits in my daughter’s bathroom. It’s pricey, but good sunscreen is non-negotiable in our outdoor-centric house, and this is our favorite after testing over 50 of them. Not to mention that this one container has been enough to last us an entire summer and will likely get us through ski season, too.

My wife, daughter, and I all use the same sunscreen. That might not seem like a big deal to folks who don’t have to put a dozen moving pieces together to get out the door, but since we all use it and it’s always in the same place, it likely saved us hundreds of minutes since we started using it three years ago. The pump makes applying the proper amount easy and efficient, even for our daughter.

Supergoop Play actually feels good to put on and, once applied, it disappears. It doesn’t whiten up our faces like mineral-based sunscreens, and doesn’t have a strong smell. It rubs in easily and hydrates our skin without being greasy. If we need to take some with us, we refill travel-sized sunscreen containers.

It is a chemical, rather than mineral, sunscreen, which concerns some folks, but it doesn’t contain oxybenzone, titanium dioxide, or PABAs. Supergoop follows EU standards for ingredients—which is significantly more stringent than the U.S.—and the result is a product I feel really comfortable using on my daughter every single day. That sense of comfort is enhanced by its SPF 50 rating and 80 minutes of water and sweat resistance. A few re-applications is plenty to get us through a full day of swimming, hiking, and picnicking outside.

Am I going to hit an efficiency vortex and get out my door in three minutes when I go boating with my daughter tomorrow morning? No. I assure you we will be a hot mess—struggling to find the just right hat that my daughter wants to wear or a matching pair of adventure sandals. But a stop in the bathroom for both of us to generously lather up with Supergoop will give us a few extra minutes on the water and keep us protected while we’re out there, though, which I will happily take.

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