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Great New Find: Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunscreen SPF 85

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If you read this blog often enough, you’ll know that I am a sunscreen fanatic. So imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunscreen SPF 85 ($10.44, Drugstore.com). New for the summer, Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunscreen SPF 85 combines the powerful UVA protection of the HelioplexTM complex (avobenzone and oxybenzone) plus an almost-unheard of UVB, 85!

What makes SPF 85 so great?

According to Dr. Leslie Baumann, author of Cosmetic Dermatology, the Sun Protection Factor (SPF) commonly listed on products refers to the amount of UVB protection, measured by the time it takes for a person without sunscreen versus a person with sunscreen to show a erythemal skin reaction (i.e., to show redness).

The amount of UVB an SPF is effective at blocking may be estimated using the following algorithm from Dr. Rachel Herschenfeld: SPF 30 allows 1/30 UVB rays, or 3.3% through, meaning it blocks about 96.6% of UVB rays; SPF 50 allows 1/50 UVB rays, or 2.0% through, meaning it blocks 98.0% of UVB rays.  An SPF of 80 means that only 1/80, or 1.25% of rays get through, meaning that Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunscreen SPF 85 is blocking 98.75% of the sun’s rays.  Pretty impressive!

And if you mathematicians out there noticed that there is a bigger increase when you move from SPF 30 to SPF 50 than from SPF 50 to SPF 80, you are correct.  The higher the numbers go, the smaller the amount of protection inferred with each increase.   Still, I would rather get 98.75% of the rays blocked with Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry Touch Sunscreen SPF 85 than 98.0% with an SPF 50!  🙂

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Accredited in [easyazon_link identifier=”0553383302″ locale=”US” tag=”cosmeticswiki-20″]The Skin Type Solution[/easyazon_link] by one of my idols, Dr. Leslie Baumann (director, Division of Cosmetic Dermatology and Assistant Professor of

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Nicki Zevola is the founder and editor-in-chief of FutureDerm.com. Named one of the top 30 beauty bloggers in the world by Konector.com since 2009, Nicki

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