Sunscreen Review: Riemann P20

For years I had this item on my Amazon wish list. It has been many years so I’m actually not even sure where I heard about it initially. But it honestly sounded like the holy grail of sunscreen.
Riemann P20


The formulation at that time was touted to last all day and allow you to tan through it slowly even when you’re in and out of the water. At the time, that sounded perfect. But I hemmed and hawed because, while apparently Brits love this stuff, it is not available in the US and is not approved by the FDA. Many people I told about it talked about how the FDA is often not reliable and Europe is rigid as well (this company is Danish). But my go-to anecdote for why animal research is a necessity is the story of Thalidomide. It was approved in Europe while a woman at the FDA insisted more teratogenic studies needed to be done. She was right. But obviously they do OK over there and if I lived in London I’d probably pick this up at the druggist without blinking.

I gave up on it as years passed. I slowly got the message that tanning, while not as bad as burning, was not doing myself any favors. I tried to get good at using sunscreen not only to modulate tan but to prevent it.

But I have also been to the beach and on beach vacations with pale children enough times to know that the absolutely most annoying part is disturbing a little person who is busy having fun in the sun in order to reapply sunscreen approximately 10,000 times per day. So after I had my own little pale baby I started lusting after this all day sunscreen again.

I looked it up and it was still around, still very popular with the pale people of Europe, PLUS in the past few years, as UVA and UVB protection were both required they reformulated and now it was available in higher spf with both-so no tanning through it (sob). But it was still not available in the US.
I emailed the company and explicitly asked whether they had ever submitted to the FDA and if they had ever been denied by a regulatory body. They said no, they just haven't tried to enter the U.S. Market. Hmmm.

I couldn’t stand the suspense any more, I sold a kidney and ordered some rushed from the UK (shipping cost more than the sunscreen because of my hesitation) and took it to Maui to test it.

Hypothesis: Putting on sunscreen once per day will be more enjoyable than reapplying all the damn time.

Materials & Methods:
Three groups (n=1)

1-Amber- P20-spf15-lotion



2-Michael-P20-spf50-spritz bottle.



-Groups 1 &2 applied liberally once per day and did not touch up. The only exception was using any residual cream from group 3 on our faces every so often and occasionally applying a bit more to our necks after showering.

3-Andrew- conventional sunscreen control

-Reapplied Coppertone spf50 every 80-100 minutes until he hated us.


Results:

We all are basically the same skin tone as we were when we left (which I am ecstatic about for the boys and know I should be happy about for myself but can't fully shake wanting to come back bronzed). Funnily enough, the closest we had to redness was Andrew’s forearms because we had an afternoon that we weren’t vigilant enough when he was in the car (no babies were harmed in this study, luckily he was pretty pale the next day).

The only areas that got a little touchy were our shoulder areas. Which we thought could be from excess rubbing of our clothes and suits or just that those areas are more prone to over exposure.

It is crazy spendy. The spritz bottle led to more waste and it is basically gone after use by one person for a week. It also stained the brim of Michael’s shorts but that washed out pretty well at home.

Discussion:
This stuff is so cool. So either they've been lying to us and we don't need to reapply sunscreen (many, many sources to cite dismissing this possibility) or this stuff works and they are keeping it from us.

I think it will be my go to for myself and Michael was pretty happy too. My only hesitation is with Andrew. Do I trust it?









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