{"id":4738,"date":"2023-06-11T23:22:29","date_gmt":"2023-06-11T16:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/a-chemist-answers-why-is-my-sunscreen-pilling\/"},"modified":"2023-06-11T23:22:29","modified_gmt":"2023-06-11T16:22:29","slug":"a-chemist-answers-why-is-my-sunscreen-pilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=4738","title":{"rendered":"A Chemist Answers &#8216;Why Is My Sunscreen Pilling?&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"drop-cap text-big text-gray\"> <span class=\"drop-cap__first text-dropcap \">R<\/span>ight now, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/kosas-dreambeam-sunscreen\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/kosas-dreambeam-sunscreen\/\">my absolute favorite SPF<\/a> is <a href=\"https:\/\/clicks.trx-hub.com\/xid\/leafgroup_ca5e0_wellgood?q=https%3A%2F%2Fkosas.7zgd.net%2Fc%2F2372336%2F500244%2F8593%3FsubId1%3DSTMSBT-1074305%26u%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fkosas.com%252Fproducts%252Fdreambeam-spf-40-pa&amp;p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wellandgood.com%2Fwhy-is-my-sunscreen-pilling%2F&amp;event_type=click\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/kosas.com\/products\/dreambeam-spf-40-pa\">Kosas Dream Beam<\/a> ($40). It&#8217;s a mineral SPF that goes on smoothly, the white cast blends away, and it never pills. At least that was the case until I tried to layer it over the gorgeous <a href=\"https:\/\/clicks.trx-hub.com\/xid\/leafgroup_ca5e0_wellgood?q=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.skimresources.com%3Fid%3D104860X1561639%26xs%3D1%26xcust%3DSTMSBT-1074305%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fodacite.com%252Fproducts%252Fvitamin-c-e-hyaluronic-acid-brightening-serum&amp;p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wellandgood.com%2Fwhy-is-my-sunscreen-pilling%2F&amp;event_type=click\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/odacite.com\/products\/vitamin-c-e-hyaluronic-acid-brightening-serum\">Odacit\u00e9 Brightening Serum<\/a> ($78). It has a gel-like texture that feels amazing and dries down fast, but it does <em>not <\/em>play well with Dream Beam\u2014the two together make a pilly mess. I thought this was something that only happened when you put makeup over certain SPFs, but clearly, our pre-SPF skin-care products can create the same issue. So I asked a chemist: &#8220;Why is my sunscreen pilling?&#8221;<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Pilling tends to happen when film formers in a product clump up when exposed to an incompatible ingredient, usually a solvent\u2014for example, water, oil, or silicone,&#8221; explains <a href=\"https:\/\/labmuffin.com\/about-michelle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/labmuffin.com\/about-michelle\/\">Michelle Wong, MD<\/a>, a cosmetic chemist based in Sydney, Australia. &#8220;It tends to happen when you rub the product.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>None of these ingredients are &#8220;bad&#8221; ingredients. But when you&#8217;re mixing different skin-care items (especially across multiple brands) you&#8217;re bound to run into some bad matches. That&#8217;s why you may notice that your go-to SPF only pills sometimes. And not only does this make a mess, it means the sunscreen isn&#8217;t really staying on your face. &#8220;The pilling is sunscreen coming off your skin,&#8221; says Dr. Wong.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content \" style=\"\" data-module-init=\"related-content\" data-module-immediate=\"\" v-cloak=\"\">\n<div class=\"related-content__wrapper \" v-cloak=\"\" :class=\"{'is-loaded':isLoaded}\">\n<p> <span class=\"inline pr-6 text-seafoam-dark\">Related Stories<\/span> <\/p>\n<p> <related-content class=\"related-content__links\" parent-article-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/why-is-my-sunscreen-pilling\/\" current-title=\"Feel Like Your SPF Only Pills Sometimes? That\u2019s Because It\u2019s Interacting With *These* Ingredients in Your Other Products\" current-image=\"A-woman-witha-floral-shirt-and-matching-sunhat-425x285.jpg\" v-on:parsely-posts-loaded=\"onPostsLoaded\" start-date=\"2022-12-11\" tag=\"div\" inline-template=\"\" url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/why-is-my-sunscreen-pilling\/\" secret=\"w5ztterVB03LGZJLfXS0hf3EvQBuFFIWew9hmVQxthU\" apikey=\"wellandgood.com\" limit=\"3\"> <\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"related-content__card mb-[10px] sm:mb-[20px]\" :class=\"{'related-content__card--full':posts.length === 1}\" v-for=\"(post, key) in posts\"> <a v-on:click.prevent=\"trackLinkGA($event, key)\" :href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/why-is-my-sunscreen-pilling\/post.url\" data-url-source=\"related-content\" class=\"related-content__link\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"\"> <\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content__card--image bg-tan\" :style=\"{ backgroundImage: 'url(' + post.image_url + ')' }\"> <img :src=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/why-is-my-sunscreen-pilling\/post.image_url\" :alt=\"post.title\"\/> <\/div>\n<p> <\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <\/related-content> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>To keep your SPF on your face and not in little balls on your bathroom counter, it&#8217;s time to get a little savvy.<\/p>\n<h2>How to prevent sunscreen pilling<\/h2>\n<h3>1. Limit skin care under your sunscreen<\/h3>\n<p>Your best bet is to keep the skin care under your SPF minimal. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard to say what ingredients to avoid, I would just try to minimize using anything underneath sunscreen,&#8221; says Dr. Wong. But if your seven-step routine is quaking at the thought, keep reading.<\/p>\n<h3>2. Let your routine fully dry before putting on SPF<\/h3>\n<p>This is a step you should follow regardless of whether or not you&#8217;re concerned about pilling. &#8220;If <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/apply-skin-care-to-wet-or-dry-skin\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/apply-skin-care-to-wet-or-dry-skin\/\">you put a mineral sunscreen on wet skin<\/a>, it doesn&#8217;t go on,&#8221; says,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drshirleychi\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drshirleychi\/?hl=en\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\">Shirley Chi, MD<\/a>, a board-certified dermatologist in Southern California. And while chemical sunscreen may blend into wet skin, it&#8217;s not going to work as well, because it interacts with the top layer of your epidermis, to absorb ultraviolet rays so they don&#8217;t go cause damage. &#8220;If you&#8217;re applying it to wet skin, then that&#8217;s going to affect the absorption of the chemical sunscreen,&#8221; says Dr. Chi.<\/p>\n<h3>3. Take a look at the ingredients<\/h3>\n<p>Unless you&#8217;re a literal chemist and know how to interpret ingredients very well, this step can be pretty hit-or-miss, but it&#8217;s a great place to start. For example, when I asked Dr. Wong why my two products didn&#8217;t like each other, she said &#8220;Not really sure, I&#8217;d have to play with them and test how they interact with other serums and sunscreens\u2014I would guess perhaps it&#8217;s the cellulose acetate butyrate in the Odacite.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To do your own analysis for funsies, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/paulas-choice-beautypedia\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.wellandgood.com\/paulas-choice-beautypedia\/\">pop the ingredient lists<\/a>\u00a0for your products into <a href=\"https:\/\/clicks.trx-hub.com\/xid\/leafgroup_ca5e0_wellgood?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kqzyfj.com%2Fclick-100155342-15252357%3Fsid%3DSTMSBT-1054571%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.paulaschoice.com%252Fbeautypedia-ingredient-checker&amp;p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wellandgood.com%2Fwhy-is-my-sunscreen-pilling%2F&amp;event_type=click\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-vars-event=\"body text\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.paulaschoice.com\/beautypedia-ingredient-checker\">Paula&#8217;s Choice Beautypedia<\/a>. It&#8217;s a skin-care search engine where you can filter the ingredients by purpose and see if any opposing ingredients stick out to you.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Give yourself time to start over if necessary<\/h3>\n<p>If all else fails and your new skin-care-SPF combo don&#8217;t play well with each other, you&#8217;re going to want to run it back and try again with different pairings. &#8220;Just make sure you have some extra time to wipe everything off and start over if you&#8217;re about to test a new combo,&#8221; says Dr. Wong.<\/p>\n<div class=\"disclaimers__after_content mb-[18px] mt-[16px] pt-[16px]\">\n<div class=\"outline-earmark relative mt-[8px] pt-[10px] pl-[20px]\">\n<p>\n            Our editors independently select these products. Making a purchase through our links may earn Well+Good a commission.          <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1675549\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Right now, my absolute favorite SPF is Kosas Dream Beam ($40). It&#8217;s a mineral SPF that goes on smoothly, the white cast blends away, and it never pills. At least that was the case until I tried to layer it over the gorgeous Odacit\u00e9 Brightening Serum ($78). It has a gel-like texture that feels amazing &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}