ECO Skincare: Protect your skin and help protect our planet

Being a strawberry blonde guy hailing from the UK and spending an average of 6hrs or so in the blazing sun on the French coast, I don’t need to use suncream! But for those of you that are interested in caring for your skin and not getting torched by the sun, then this new line of skincare products could be of great interest to you folks.

A lot of suncream/block on the market use pretty harsh ingredients that aren’t kind on your skin and can be seriously harmful to our natural environment. I’ve met a few surfers who opt to not use suncream and there haven’t been many viable alternatives.

But there are people out there looking to make a change and here is something interesting….

Ride Skincare are focused on helping protect our planet and have the eco friendly approach. They’ve designed their goods using natural and organic ingredients. The guys have avoided using synthetic stuff that is toxic to the skin and can cause serious damage to corals and sea life in general.

I’m yet to try this stuff out, but I’m backing the idea and I look forward to testing the products out.

My knowledge of skincare products and what’s behind it is next to none!! So I fired a few questions to get an understanding behind the Ride Skincare vision:

SB: What sets you guys apart from the huge array of suncream/care products on the market already?

RD: There are two main things that set Ride Skincare apart from all the sunscreens you might find in the supermarket. For a start we have made our products in the most natural way we can by only using ingredients that you find in nature. We care about the planet and about our skin and we want to look after both, so that means not using harsh synthetic ingredients that might harm our skin and the ocean. Secondly, right from the beginning we have been testing and developing the products to make sure they work in real world surfing conditions. Sometimes we needed to tweak a formulation to make it more water resistant or not too greasy so your hands weren't slippery. This has shaped the products into what they are today and makes us different.**

SB: Suncream is used worldwide and we all know it works. That said, I honestly have no idea how it works!! Can you share with us any suncream science in simple form to give us a better understanding?**

RD:, The simplest thing is to talk about the UVA and UVB rays that most people have heard of. Both of these can cause huge damage to your skin and ultimately lead to skin cancer. Most sunscreens use a combination of chemical synthetic filters that absorb into the skin and break down the UVA and UVB rays making them harmless. Instead of using chemical filters Ride Protect uses a mineral called Titanium Dioxide that is mined from the earth. This mineral sits on top of your skin and reflects back the UVA and UVB rays. This means there is no chance of any questionable chemicals being absorbed into your blood stream.

SB: I’m a big fan of saving the planet. Do you have any cool tech jargon to back up the claim that your ingredients don’t harm our corals and sea environment?

RD: There have been studies on chemical filters such as Oxybenzone that have found that the toxic effects on young coral causes endocrine disruption, DNA damage and ultimately the death of corals. Oxybenzone also exacerbates coral bleaching, a process by which coral rejects symbiotic organisms and lose their colour. There have also been questions raised around the use of NANO Titanium Dioxide (super small particles) and their effect on corals, which is why we only use non nano Titanium dioxide to make sure our impact is as low as possible.

SB: Could you give us a list of the ingredients you will be using?

**RD:**Of course, The ingredients for the Ride Protect sunscreen are:
Polyglyceryl-3 Polyricinoleate, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Simmondsia
Chinensis (jojoba)* Oil, Cocos Nucifera (coconut) Oil*, Euphorbia
Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Titanium Dioxide, Caprylic/Capric
Triglyceride, Polyhydroxystearic Acid, Stearic Acid, Alumina, Aqua,
Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, yellow iron oxide, Triethyl Citrate, Caprylyl
Glycol, Benzoic acid, Tocopherol *Certified organic ingredients

**For the Ride Recover moisturiser:**Aqua, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii
(Shea) Butter, Squalane, Caprylic / Capric Triglycerides, Glycerin, Cera
Alba (Beeswax), Glyceryl Stearate, Theobroma Cacao, (Cocoa) Seed Oil,
Coco Glucoside, Sucrose Stearate, Coconut Alcohol, Mentha Piperita
(Peppermint) Leaf Oil, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe) Leaf Juice Powder,
Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Leaf Extract, Olea Europaea (Olive) Husk
Oil, Xanthan Gum, Tocopherol, Gluconolactone, Sodium Benzoate, Calcium ,
Gluconate, Limonene+

SB: How does one go about getting the SPF tests done and how are they actually carried out?

RD: To achieve the SPF rating a group of volunteers have a patch of skin applied with the sunscreen which is then exposed to a UV light for a certain amount of time. The change in pigment of the skin determines the SPF rating of the product. There are machines that can measure the
effectiveness of a sunscreens SPF to get a good idea of what it will be but at the moment to sell a sunscreen in Europe you need to have the old fashioned test on humans.

SB: If I was to go for a 3hour surf, will one application of you Ride Protect 30SPF do the job?

RD: This is a tricky question to answer as everyone’s skin reacts differently to the sun, and your skin type and how strong the sun would define how soon you would get burnt. I would typically say no, you will have to re-apply as is the case for any sunscreen.

SB: Will you be launching any 50SPF sunscreen?

RD: This could be a potential in the future however the way sunscreen SPF is rated is not as simple as you might think. SPF 50, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean ‘20 SPFs better’ than SPF30. An SPF 30 sunscreen will block almost 97% of UVB rays whilst an SPF 50 sunscreen
will block 98% of UVB rays, so as you can see the benefits of an SPF 50 are not as high as you might think.

SB: I have serious problems with allergies. Are you products dermatologically tested for those with skin conditions?

RD: We have had the products tested, though not yet formally. Once we are past the Kickstarter phase this will be next on the list. By using natural and milder ingredients we have found that the products worked really well for our volunteers with allergies and sensitive skin.

SB: Do you have any other skin care products in the pipeline?

RD: We have plenty of ideas we would love to put into action. For example, a natural body wash that could be emptied into the sea without doing any harm and a natural deodorant that works all day but doesn’t contain any aluminum. Hopefully once our current range is out there we can look to start developing these other ideas.

To sum up:

Ride Skincare are a new company which will be launched on Kickstarter 24/10/2016. Their products are ECO friendly and their designed to handle the harshest of conditions. So if you’re keen on protecting your skin and being kind to our planet….then check these guys out!

I’d like to thank Tom Marshall from Ride Skincare for taking the time to answer some questions and I’ll be road testing the range in the near future…so watch this space for the follow up and results of the finished product.

Follow this to go to their kick starter page.