Mindful March: Goodbye Ouch.

The challenge

I enjoy a challenge.

When it comes to groceries on a budget, it's not enough to simply buy the cheapest available item on the shelf, because I have equally important health goals, and cheap food typically has a lot of padding and fillers and numbers; so compound extreme frugality with a desire to purchase healthily, mostly organic, and as low-waste, (packaging), as possible, and it's no easy feat.

The same is true of other consumables, in my life.

Every Saturday I set off with my little cotton bags, and glass jars, and round up as many organic, zero-waste consumables as I possibly can from the bulk store.

During the week I bring my lunch to the office in jars and containers; eschewing the zip-lock environment-killers in all their light, convenient, water-proofness.

What I couldn't seem to find was an answer to my sustainably packaged sunscreen requirements. Locally made and produced. Zinc-based. Natural ingredients. Transparent website. High SPF. And an option to return the packaging.

Oh, how many times I had thought, "Why can't stores just provide sunscreen on tap, and we can fill our own containers? Why do I have to fill the world with plastic tubes, all the time? Olive oil is on tap. Why not sunscreen? Come on, New Zealand; do better."

Enter, Goodbye Ouch

And then, quite by accident, I spied a little round tin suspended from a hook in the supermarket, near the lip SPF's.

I saw it was zinc based with a high SPF and I purchased it. It's like I unhooked the cardboard tab in the store, and hooked myself in the process.

In terms of formula, it is silky smooth. It spreads with ease, doesn't pill underneath other products, and is so creamy and moisturising I often don't bother with the addition of a moisturiser. The sheen masks dryness under my eyes, it scatters light on the higher planes of the face, but it never leaves me looking like a sweaty disco ball.

Simply put, the product melts into the skin; but it does so with an emollient barrier, not to be confused with grease, that holds up all day without taking any additional products on a downward transition.

But more than cosmetic, and/or user appeal, what I was after this summer, (considering New Zealand finally got one after the horrendous flooding that was the previous year's 'summer'), was someone to fulfil my quest for a sunscreen that wouldn't leave me with anything to discard at the end of its life.

As I went about each sustainably-led store, I came across more sunscreen options in recyclable packaging; but nowhere had a pump bottle that would provide the option of weighing my container, and then charging me per ounce of product. As my finger scraped the bottom of my little round tin, I decided to order some more online.

I wasn't prepared to take the gamble of a similarly packaged product, at the possible expense of superlative performance.

Sustainable packaging

Upon the website, I was delighted to see other products from this company, but the environment-conscious shaped part of my heart absolutely soared when I spied the word Returnable in the description.

And, sure enough, the large tin is able to be returned, at no extra cost, for a credit to use on a new sunscreen. (Or, other product.)

The stainless steel is so innocuous in its composition that it can be repurposed for anything you think of, and I have already landed on my use for it: bringing my snacks to work with me. It's incredibly light, and so far I've been using a small glass jar. It's about time I upgraded to something durable, but light. (A decent portion of my commute is on foot.)

The other wonderful thing about the way these products are packaged, is the ability to hold on to the smaller tins and simply use the larger one to refill them. That way, you can literally carry the small tin in your pocket, or bag, everywhere you go. There are three of us in our household, and we each have a little tin and then share a large one between us. It's the perfect little system that closes the loop on any discarded packaging. No more plastic tubes. No more waste. No more gummed-up lids and spluttering of wasted product.

Ingredients

I don't consider myself an expert on any topic in this life, outside of my own neuroses; (and I say that in jest, because I don't truly think I'm neurotic, I just like to try to do things as best I possibly can.) It matters to me that if I cast a backward glance over my past efforts, I can sincerely say that I did my best.

There's room for improvement, always, and I embrace my setbacks and failures. (Mostly.) But on the whole, I like to feel informed, and I like science-backed, evidence-based claims.

That said, my understanding of sunscreen has changed in recent times, and it no longer seemed like a viable path for my family to plaster on lashings of chemical sunscreen, with reckless, year-round abandon.

Dr Greger, whose dedication to the depths of evidence-based research I greatly respect, did a deep-dive on the topic of sunscreen for his How Not To Age book, and recommends zinc-based sunscreen as the gold standard.

My own skin type - impossibly fair, and prone to burning - dictates that SPF 50 is a must.

Goodbye Ouch is not only zinc-based, but 2 hours water-resistant, and SPF 50. It smells lovely, and a little goes a long way. I've used it on my lips, and my eyelids, with no issues.

Made for and by those of us under the hole-zone

Anyone from New Zealand knows first hand just how fierce the sun really is, here.

My dad was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2018, and in 2019 was told there was nothing they could do for him beyond making him comfortable. Pregnant, at the time, I grappled with the idea that my father would never meet my child.

Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy later, there was no positive outlook until he became eligible for immunotherapy.

It saved his life.

It changed mine.

Summer, for me, still means long sleeves and long pants. It means grabbing a hat even just to walk from the house to the car. I was impressed to see that this company also states how sunscreen is intended for the exposed body parts that can't always be covered by clothing. Backs of the hands. Face. That sort of thing.

It is not for sun-worshipping in a bikini at midday.

I was also delighted to see that the company also provide an equally closed-loop option for insect repellant! Living in the dense, subtropical forestry of Waiheke Island, the mosquitos that come in over night can sound like a swarm of bees on the outskirts of our mosquito nets, and so venturing outdoors often means coming equiped with a plastic spray bottle of eye-watering repellant.

There have also been the hideous moments of realising, at 1am, that you are somehow trapped inside the net with one or two mozzies, and have to make a quick dash to the spray or roll-on bottles.

I have not tried the repellant, yet, but it's on my list. They provide a stainless steel, refillable bottle to keep their sustainable goals, and mine, in check.

But that's another blog...