National Sunscreen Day is upon us and while the duration may be for just a day, the sentiment around wearing sun protection applies year round. Thirteen Lune is proud to carry a variety of SPF from diverse and inclusive brands that consider skin health for everyone. One of those brands is Dune Suncare which has been a recent but exciting and successful launch. The brand prioritizes clear and clean formulations that suit all skin types and tones, skincare packed products that hydrate and address aging and sensitive skin. Plus, the packaging is super chic and makes us want to book a long, sunny vacation STAT.
But it’s the efficacy and consideration bottled into each Dune product that we’re obsessing over on National Sunscreen Day and every day.
Learn more about Dune Suncare founders, Emily and Mei, their impetus to start the brand, sunscreen misconceptions and how Dune addresses safe suncare for the entire body.
GET TO KNOW - DUNE SUNCARE
What is the most common misconception you hear around sunscreen?
That those with more melanin in their skin are less susceptible to photodamage or, more dangerously, skin cancer. Probably the most infamous case of skin cancer in black skin is Bob Marley who developed and died from melanoma that began on his toe. Broad Spectrum protection is critical for everyone, everywhere, year round. Someone might also be more susceptible to harmful UV exposures out in the snow than on a hot summer's day. And to that end, be sure to check the UV levels every day, no matter where you are, to ensure you're protecting yourself as best you can.
What was the impetus to launch Dune?
We've all been (hopefully) wearing sunscreen since almost birth, and therefore, all have a life-long experience with it - that is, if we had responsible guardians in our youth who were doing the applying :) Our most resonate sunscreen memory as kids was of our parents running after us at the beach with those thick, pasty lotions that left a horrible white cast and were incredibly uncomfortable to wear....and then us running as fast as we could away to avoid them. Jump forward to March 2020, week two of COVID, at the demise of our jobs and with all the time and space to build our dream company - we wanted to fill an enormous white space in an essential and antiquated category. Living in Venice Beach, CA and living very active lives outdoors, we weren't stepping outside without applying sunscreen. It's the #1 beauty product on the market: the only preventative to aging and skin cancer in the entire industry - pretty powerful. Emily, being freckled and fair-skinned, and having a huge affinity for skincare all her life, was frustrated by the lack of innovation and 2 for 1 clinical skincare benefits in the suncare industry - drawn to the texture of clear gel formulas produced in the Asian market. And, Mei, being a darker-skinned Chinese lady and surfer, was plagued by #whitecastproblems and frustrated by the price of "quality," speciality sunscreens that somehow justified an enormous price tag for smaller fill weights. Fast forward 2.5 years later, and with the help of our incredible lab, we brought to market the first clear gel suncare line in the US, packed with clinically proven skincare benefits. We wanted to be a brand that put innovation, inclusivity, and accessibility in both price point and distribution at its center. In less than two years, we've won 7 awards for "best sunscreen of the year" with top outlets, are now derm-backed by two of the biggest dermatologists globally, have ventured into 1,300 doors with top retailers (whoop Thirteen Lune!), ship worldwide from our website, and continue to bring the highest quality 2 for 1 suncare products to market, all priced below $30.
How much spf do you recommend applying to the face (a general measurement)?
Classic teaching is around 1⁄4 teaspoon for the face. Or, an easier, helpful method to follow: the two-finger rule, which recommends spanning the length of your pointer and middle fingers.
Why was it important to you to create an inclusive suncare brand? And how does Dune address this in its products?
Sunscreen is not marginalized, it's for everyone to wear every day, year round, no matter how dark your skin tone. When we first started building the company, a lot of our main competitors today were speaking mostly to women in their marketing and product innovation appeal which didn't make sense to us. Concurrently, the sunscreen options on shelf lacked innovation, transparently, and mainly consisted of white lotion formulas which weren't inclusive on all (/most!) skin tones and often left a purple-ish hue on medium-darker skin tones. We were inspired by some Korean suncare options that weren't made in the US and learned quickly from our first partner, our lab, that it was incredibly complicated to mix a clear gel suncare/OTC formula in the US that was compliant to FDA guidelines. BUT, they were up for the challenge. A year and a half, and over 100 experiments in the life cycle development later - with the lifeline of government unemployment checks and a handful of sold Disney stocks to pay for our first production run - we landed on our final formulations. We infused a natural mint green color into our SKUs which was intentional as green acts as a neutralizer on all skin tones and helps to mitigate redness. We also loved Nickelodeon slime as kids and thought we could have fun with the younger demographic with our mint green gel textures; today, we get tons of testimonials from moms saying their kids are in love with DUNE and even go out of their way to ask for it - as opposed to avoiding other white lotion SPFs altogether. As a company, you can do all the cool branding and gimmicky marketing in the book, but at the end of the day, product is paramount. As of last week, we are so proud to be the first Indie brand in the US to venture into dermatology clinics - further validating the trust behind and efficacy of our brand at the highest, clinical level.
Dune is packed with skincare benefits, what are some key ingredients you utilize in your products that benefit skin on both face and body?
Packed it is! One of our biggest differentiators in the category is that our products are clinically proven to *protect and perfect* all skin tones. Our hero launch collection touts 72 hours of hydration which is the biggest hydration claim to achieve in the world in skincare (humble brag). We're able to hit that claim through the use of ingredients like hibiscus extract and glycerin. We use neem leaf and flower extract in a lot of our products which helps to clarify the skin and keep acne at bay (all of our products won't clog pores) and improve the skin's overall elasticity. The Mug Guard is clinically proven to reduce fine lines, wrinkles, dark spots, and redness. After 28 days of daily use you'll see a huge improvement in the smoothness and brightness of your skin tone (check out the before & after results on our website for proof). We use knotgrass extract, bisabolol, and ginger extract to help protect skin from environmental aggressors, increase skin’s luminosity and bounce, and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. The Mineral Melt - developed for 3 years with a group of Board Certified doctors - is packed with youth-promoting peptides and is clinically proven to brighten, firm, and hydrate the skin while blocking UVA/UVA rays, pollution, and blue light. It's a miracle mineral sunscreen that's also the sheerest mineral in the US market through a patent-pending, proprietary microdispersion technology. We are fully transparent about our ingredients - feel free to venture over to the Thirteen Lune site to see what we use in all of our products. You can also visit www.dunesuncare.com for more information.
