Altruist Sunscreen SPF 50 | Review

Many of you will now that I'm a big believer in wearing SPF everyday. Yep, even in this mostly dull, wet and grey English weather. My go to for the last year has been the Balance Me Natural Protection Moisturiser SPF 25, which I reviewed here. However, I am well aware that at £26 many people will find it too expensive for an SPF, especially if say you were purchasing one for each member of your family (I do end up purchasing my Mum and Sister's for them because they cannot be trusted left to their own devices!). This is exactly where the Altruist Dermatologist Sunscreen SPF 50* comes in. The founders actually created this SPF because they believe that a good sunscreen should be accessible to everyone, and not everyone has a lot of spare cash to spend on skincare and beauty products (I know I didn't as a student, and I know that there are a lot of people who have much less disposable income).

Before this turns into a speech about poverty and injustice in our society (I could go on!), I wanted to point out that Altruist was created by skin cancer specialist Dr Birnie. For every bottle purchased, Altruist also donates to charities supporting children with albinism. What a nice person, right?! I also feel like these small, ethical companies are exactly the type that we should be supporting. I mean it is nice to be acknowledged by the big brands every now and again, but sometimes you gotta think about the greater good.

These SPFs retail at £4 for the SPF 30 (200ml), and £3.75 for SPF 50 (100ml). The spray version costs £5 for both the SPF 30 and 50 (200ml). You can find them here on Amazon, although they only seem to be selling them in packs of two at the moment. I know that I said I preferred physical SPFs (for the debate on natural vs chemical sunscreens - see the Balance Me post here), however this one is a mixed one so I can live with that. It also has a 5 star ultra UVA protection, it's water resistant, and it's hypoallergenic and fragrance free; making is suitable for sensitive skin.

I think it's time I moved on to my thoughts on the product now. In terms of formula and consistency, I think it is one of the more lightweight SPFs I've used, it's definitely nowhere near the thickness of say Nivea/Garnier SPFs, and it's much more lightweight then the Balance Me SPF too. Although the Balance Me SPF is a moisturiser too so that one feels more like a base, whereas the Altruist isn't a combination product, however it can still be used as a moisturiser over a serum as it is quite hydrating and it creates a nice barrier between makeup/primers and the skincare underneath so to speak.

It absorbs well and quite quickly, it also isn't as greasy as many other SPFs I've used. On my body it doesn't leave any shine at all, not does it feel sticky upon the skin, once you've massaged it in you won't really be able to tell you have it on. On my face, there is a bit of a a visible shine on areas where my skin is a bit congested (cheeks, chin), but again it's not that bad that I wouldn't go out with it on alone. It doesn't feel hot or sticky on my face either, and it seems to go well with my beauty products.

During the day it fares well, it doesn't cause my makeup to go haywire, well that's more the sun melting it off. Although, at the end of the day I definitely do feel like I need to cleanse my face properly to remove it and it can start feeling a bit hot, but again that's probably a combination of the heat. I actually don't get along with the heat that well. I think I sometimes do get some symptoms of heat exhaustion, although it's not something I've been to the doctors about, but I do have an adversity to strong heat because of this. It also makes my skin go all hot and irritated, and I get those annoying under the surface breakouts. I have been testing out this Altruist SPF for the last 5-6 weeks, and around that time or even before I think my skin had been breaking out a lot more, and going from dry to congested, and back and forth. Therefore, I have stopped using this for brief periods so that I could isolate whether it's a single product that was causing the breakouts. Although, now my skin has calmed down a lot and I'm still using this without any breakouts. Therefore, I would say it was just my skin adapting to the rollercoaster weather, and not the Altruist.

Overall, I would say the Altruist Sunscreen SPF 50* is incredible value for money. It definitely beats a lot of the drugstore SPF brands that leave your skin feeling like a hot mess. I think the formula would be suitable for a lot of people, especially those that struggle with sensitive skin like me. Again, the price point and the ethical stance behind the brand is just amazing, it's definitely an SPF I will be recommending to people. It's worth bearing in mind most SPFs no longer retain their power after they have been opened for 12 months, and because we have such a short summer here anyway, sometimes it does feel like a waste buying SPFs for your body and not using them much, but atleast with Altruist it's not like you're throwing away a lot of money.

I hope you enjoyed this post!

What is your favourite SPF at the moment?

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