PicoDash

In just two months since Ultra Violette’s Skinscreen SPF collection landed in the UK, it’s sold out SIX TIMES, with one product selling every two minutes globally. Woah! This is one of those moments where I am kicking myself for not buying shares in a company, because – urgh I feel sick writing this – I knew it was coming.

About a year away I got chatting to a colleague about how unsexy sunscreen had become for daily (non-beach) use and how they lacked the elegance and finesse we’d come to expect in active, high-tech skincare. Basic instructions of ‘apply to clean dry skin only’ felt counterproductive to our beloved layers of acids and serums beneath. The existing everyday SPFs out there (although brilliantly protective) were either clunky and thick or so runny they’d make your eyes sting, and often left a white-ish cast that excluded darker skin tones. And I heard one of them namedrop a new Australian brand that was going to rock the market.

Sure enough a year on, beauty editors, aestheticians and influencers are going nuts about Ultra Violette’s electric blue tubes of joy. They’re plastered everywhere on social feeds and they’ve had the main-grid seal of approval from skincare royalty such as Michelle Wong, Caroline Hirons and Dr Justine Kluk.

There are so, so many reasons why this brand is surrounded by a glitter cloud of marketing magic. The intense Yves Klein blue packaging is instant shelfie catnip. The witty wording, tongue-in-cheek mood and glam imagery is a breath of fresh air in the SPF yawntown. Calling itself ‘Skinscreen’ shifts our perception from yuk beach sunblock to high-performance daily skincare. The timing is perfect: it arrived in the seismic wake of Gwyneth Paltrow’s “I use SPF like highlighter” gaff, whereafter any chat about sunscreen turned from a-bit-preachy to pro-safety cool.

But I’m curious: as an evangelical daily SPF50 wearer, are these products genuinely as brilliant as they seem? Six weeks ago I cracked open my set, dived in and hustled them out as hard as I possibly could.

The first thing I noticed was the wording on all the tubes and bottles. “Formulated and created in the toughest place to get a sunscreen approved: Australia.” Boom. That’s my trust hooked in. I need this assurance that these products will futureproof my face, protect me from skin cancer and prevent my pigmentation marks from getting darker and more obvious.

Next, I read “apply lotion directly to face as the final step of your skincare routine.” Yes. YES. Now we’re talking. My carefully curated, bordering-on-religious morning skincare strategy gets way more love and attention than my kids or my husband. I am all here for replacing my current moisturiser for one that treats in the same comforting and nourishing way with SPF50, all while playing nicely with what’s been applied beneath. Hope levels right now? So, so high.

So here’s the lowdown on the skinscreen wardrobe I’ve been playing skin dress-up with:

Supreme Screen SPF50+ Hydrating Facial Skinscreen, £34, Space NK.

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