Review of: Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration

Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration certainly provides burn protection. It's not just a sunburn protection lotion, though. It provides broad spectrum protection (read, "greatly reduces cancer risk from sun exposure") and has great water resistance. It feels good and smells good, too.

Though it's a moisturizing lotion, it doesn't leave oily stains. I tested this by applying it, waiting 30 minutes, wiping it off with a dry washcloth, then putting on a shirt and rubbing that against the area where I had applied this lotion. Probably, the lotion remnants still on my skin got into the shirt fibers, but there was no visible indication of this.

I performed multiple tests for efficacy.

In one test, I was outside for about half an hour and showed no signs of sun exposure. Doubling that in the second test did not change the results.

While it's true that you need some sunlight to stimulate D2 production, it's also true that sunlight causes cellular damage during every minute of exposure to it. This is why:

• A sunscreen should be an important part of your sunlight exposure strategy (see note at end of this review).
• Tan contestants and "sun worshippers" look about three times their age when they reach their early 30s.
• Melanomas often develop on people who think it's a good idea to get that (un)healthy "glow" but almost never develop on people who work nights and sleep during the daylight hours.

I like the smell of this product. It's very subtle and pleasant. This, coming from a person who hates most fragrances in skin care products. I also like the source of this fragrance; it comes from natural ingredients (such as actual mango) rather than petroleum-based chemicals. Maybe the fact it didn't come from rancid fat or toxic chemicals, as is the case with most fragrances, is why I found it pleasant.

This sunscreen is easy to apply, too. It goes on smoothly. I've used some sunscreens that are kind of runny, and they leave a thin coating that provides very little actual protection. Tropic Silk has some thickness to it.

Being outside in that blazing sun can rapidly dry out your skin. Tropical Silk solves this problem with moisturizers.

A problem with the early sunscreens was they'd come off if you perspired. Most sunscreens today will stay on, until you use soap and water (plus some vigorous scrubbing) to remove them. I tested Tropical Silk by working up a sweat outside. As the perspiration ran off my shoulders and back, I thought this particular test was unfair and I wasn't going to include it in my review.

We are presently in a severe draught in Kansas, where I live. So it's very dry here. Thus, my perspiration dried off when I came in and answered e-mail with the fan blowing on me. My next task was to get ready for a trip to the local library. That meant washing up and putting a shirt on. To my amazement, that Tropical Silk was still on my skin. It did, however, easily wash off in the shower. However....

People who use chemically-fragranced sunscreen need to consider that it doesn't make much sense to use a product that will reduce your chances of skin cancer from the sun but radically increase your chances of skin cancer from the chemicals in that lotion. Since these petrochemical carcinogens are rapidly absorbed through the skin and into the blood, use of these products increases the risk of cancer of the eye, brain, pancreas, liver, etc. If you shower with a scented detergent (most bar "soap" isn't actually soap; read the label), you are contaminating your skin and blood with some nasty stuff.

All sunscreen products contain some toxins (else they would not work, it just goes with the territory), so I use these cautiously and only to supplement normal sun exposure precautions except when testing a sunscreen product. These precautions include:

• Wear a wide-brim hat.
• Stay in the shade as much as possible.
• Avoid going outside during "prime time," which is from 1000 to 1500 (during summer Daylight Squandering Time, that's going to read on a DST-maladjusted clock as 1100 to 1600).

Still, there are times when these precautions are insufficient or when a person might choose not to take them. A good sunscreen fills the void. And this is a good sunscreen.

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