Sunscreen Savvy: Unlocking the Truth about Healthier Sun Protection | CōTZ Sunscreen - Sailing Through Life

Episode Transcript
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Lorie Tesny (03:05):
I'd like to welcome my guest today, Gillian, who is
with CoTZ sunscreen.
Thank you, Gillian, for beinghere and joining us to enlighten
us on this crazy world ofsunscreen.

Gillian Barrie - CoTZ Ski (03:17):
Thank you so much for having me,
Lorie.
I'm super excited to be hereand talk about mineral
sunscreens.

So this audience is really sensitive to this topic.
They're always learning andtrying new products.
I can tell you, everybody Italked to talks about all the
sunscreen they've ever tried,all the clothing they've ever
tried to protect themselves fromthe sun and UV.
So learning about what it isand what new products are and
how they can continue to keepthemselves safe and to be sure

(03:46):
to avoid any future issues fromUV exposure is really important
to them.
So I wanted to make sure I hadsomebody represented in this
series to explain aboutsunscreen, to talk about the
products and why it's soimportant that you guys do what
you do.

Gillian Barrie - CoT (04:03):
Absolutely , and that's that's what I'm
here to do.
Talk about not only mineralsunscreens but the options that
we provide here at CoTZ, becauseI think sunscreen gets such a
negative wrap.
It sometimes it's greasy,sometimes it's sticky, it leaves
a bad fragrance and it feelslike a chore to put on.
So we really tried to createproducts that people want to
wear daily, so they're gettingthat protection and it's not

(04:25):
such a hassle.

So tell me a little bit about CoTZ sunscreen Where.
what was the starting point ofthis company and what was the
inspiration to, to create this,this product?
So CoTZ was founded in 2002 bya plastic surgeon and he was
sick and tired of cutting skincancer off of people, so he
actually stopped practicing.

(04:47):
He teamed up with a chemist andthey formulated CoTZ mineral
sunscreens.
So he started more of apreventative aspect of the
business as opposed to, you know, performing the surgeries while
it was too late.
And.

Gillian Barrie - CoTZ Skin (05:00):
CoTZ is actually an acronym It
stands for contains onlytitanium and zinc, so it's right
in the name.
Titanium dioxide and zinc oxideare recognized by the FDA as
grace, which is generallyrecognized as safe and effective
.
So you can guarantee that theactive ingredients in code
sunscreens are just going to bethat titanium dioxide and zinc
oxide.

Yes, very important , because we all know there's a
struggle.
There's the struggle ofsunscreens.
What do you do?
Do you use mineral?
Do you use chemical?
Can you mix the two?
That's a big one.
That's a big one There is ishow to apply it and use it
safely and effectively.

Absolutely , And it comes back to the
education piece.
I mean, sometimes people arechoosing the right product but
they're not applying it properly.
And then the big issue ofreapplication.
Sunscreen is not a one stopshop.
You got to rebuy every coupleof hours to continue the
effectiveness the mineralsunscreen and how that all works

(05:58):
.
So mineral sunscreens?
they work by sitting on top ofthe skin and it acts as
thousands of little tiny mirrors.
So when you think about the sungoing to penetrate your skin,
it's not actually going topenetrate the epidermis.
It's going to bounce off andreflect off of those quote
unquote little tiny mirrors.
So the sun actually neverpenetrates your skin.

(06:20):
It just sits on top as abarrier between the skin and the
sun.
The way chemical sunscreenswork is they actually absorb
into the skin and then into theblood stream.
So that's where we see issueswith the chemical sunscreen
filters that have had links toenvironmental damage and then
some health considerations.
Those chemicals can absorb intothe blood stream and that's how

(06:44):
a chemical sunscreen works.
So it's really important tochoose a mineral sunscreen that
sits on top of the skin andnever actually soaks it to the
blood stream.

And have you ever heard or do you know anything
about?
if you use a chemical sunscreen, can then the next application
be a mineral sunscreen, or isthere kind of a rule of thumb if
you pick one, you stick withthat?

Gillian Barrie - CoTZ Skin Ca (07:04):
I think the rule of thumb would
be if you pick one, you stickwith it.
Obviously we want to encouragepeople to wear mineral
sunscreens, but the truth of itis that somebody uses a chemical
sunscreen, the damage isalready done.
And that's not to say that youcan't make a switch to a mineral
sunscreen, because obviously wewant to see everybody using
mineral sunscreens And, like Isaid earlier, people don't know

(07:27):
what they don't know.
So making the switch, even ifit's a little late in the game,
at least you're on a path tousing a healthier product.

And how did CoTZ come up with the formulas?
And you said the company waslooking for creating a product
that wasn't greasy, that peoplewould actually want to wear, and
so what goes into that?
How much research is done?
How did they develop theformulas and all that?

Gillian Barrie - CoTZ Skin C (07:53):
So , like I said back in 2002, we
started with our first product,which was Prime and Protect
Tinted, and that serves a dualpurpose, so it's not only an SPF
.
This one actually doubles as amakeup primer, so that ties into
making products that peoplewant to wear.
We have a lot of dual functionproducts that not only serve as
an SPF, but they serve as anadditional level of skincare, so

(08:15):
you can kind of combine some ofyour skincare steps into one
product and that makes it moreeasy and attainable for people
to wear on a daily basis.
So that's kind of how we'vedeveloped our products going
forward.
In addition to the Prime andProtect, we have more hydrating
products, and I think ourchemists and our founder have

(08:35):
really looked at types of skinthat people have and where they
can create a product to helppeople while incorporating SPF.

Do you know that if there was anything that outside
of seeing repeatedly the skincancer cases that were coming in
by the plastic surgeon, do youknow if that was the only reason
?
or was there somebody in thefamily, or was it anything
generated that way that it'sjust like this is enough and I

(09:05):
can't do this anymore?
We got to prevent this from theget-go.

So I think, as he's performing all
of these procedures, he noticeda gap in the market and that
there wasn't really a goodmineral sunscreen out there, and
2002 feels like forever.
I mean, that's 21 years andthinking about the way that
sunscreen is advertised now it'ssuch a more popular product,

(09:30):
but back then we didn't have allof these options.
So in that sense he was reallyone of the first to come up with
a good mineral sunscreen,because it just didn't exist
back then.
So he identified a gap andfilled it.

Can you touch on a little bit?
I'm just thinking of all theingredients You're saying.
It's just the simple stuff.
It's the titanium and the zinc.
So people are always lookingfor products that are safe for
themselves, for the environment,and I know there's nothing

(10:02):
outside of that in the sunscreen, so it is preservative free
Absolutely, so we're not havingto worry about all that.
What else is a benefit to thissunscreen?

So there's a couple of different
benefits In addition to beingvegan.
We are cruelty free, glutenfree, we don't use any oils, and
then in the majority of ourproducts, except for the lip, we
don't use a fragrance, becausefragrance can often be
irritating.
We don't have any phthalates aswell.
You said preservative free.

(10:32):
And then the last piece isrefriendly.
Fd isn't an FDA coined term atthis point in time, but because
they do identify that thetitanium dioxide and zinc oxide
are great, since those are thetwo active ingredients in our
products, we are deemed greatfriendly.

Like a chemical sunscreen, and the ones that do
have those chemicals that affectnot only ourselves but the
environment.
Do you know anything about whatthose chemicals are and why
they are so dangerous?

So I always say if it looks very
hard and difficult to pronounceand there's a couple of X's and
Benzones and Zones, those areusually your ones to stay away
from.
So that would includeoxybenzone, evo-benzone,
octinoxate, octocrylene,homo-salate and those chemical
sunscreen filters have beenattributed to coral reef

(11:27):
leaching and additionalenvironmental harm.

When you think about you're at the beach, you
don't want to be number one, youwant to protect yourself.
number two, you don't want toharm the environment.
But what is a good practicewhen using sunscreen?
you put it on, and I know thisis a really bad habit for a lot
of people.
It's like I put it on, I'm goodfor the day, And that's really

(11:52):
deceiving with how this reallyworks.
So what is the suggested usefor applying it and staying safe
?

So , generally with the face and
the neck, a good rule of thumbis using the three-finger rule,
and that's applying a line ofsunscreen down your first three
fingers, and that should beenough to cover your face and
your neck.
For the rest of your body,there's no rule per say.
However, you do want to makesure that you're covering the

(12:22):
entirety of your body, which ispretty easy to do when you're
applying a lotion.
This is where sprays get alittle tricky, because you're
not 100% guaranteed to cover100% of your body because it is
a spray, it's not a directapplication, but all of our
products are a lotionconsistency, with the exception
of our stick and our phone, butthey're all a direct application

(12:45):
.
So you really are ensuring thatyou're covering your body 100%.
It sounds corny, but I sat inthe alarm when I'm on the beach
and every two hours I reapply.
If I'm in the water and I'mwearing a product that isn't
water resistant, i'm going toreapply more frequently.
At the end of the day, it mayseem like a chore, it may seem
like a hassle, but it'snecessary to protect your skin.

I know this is going to be the next thing with
the mineral sunscreens.
It's been a long time thatpeople have a perception of
mineral sunscreens leaving likea big white stripe down your
nose and under your eyes.
I know it's been a fight toexplain that to people, that
things are changing and it'staken a while.

(13:29):
But as far as your products go,you were mentioning that one of
them was tinted, and is thatthe new trend to try to make it
more user friendly?

Yes , absolutely So.
We tint our product with ironoxide so we don't have any dyes
in any of our products.
So, again, it's a mineral tintAnd the reason for that is it
blends virtually with any skintone and we really want to be
inclusive.
So we have a couple ofdifferent tint options.
We don't necessarily providelike a lightly tinted, medium

(14:01):
tint and dark tint for eachproduct, but each product that
is tinted has its own tint, sowe really do have something for
everyone And, ironically, oursensitive SPF 40 for the face
and body.
It's a non-tinted product thatblends in beautifully with
darker skin tones.
People don't believe it untilthey see it, so we try to get
the product in as many people'shands as possible because it

(14:25):
blends seamlessly and it'shonestly very impressive.
We did just come out with aflawless complexion, richly
tinted.
We had the flawless complexionregular tint prior to that, but
we wanted to be sure that wewere catering to an even larger
variety of skin tones.
So we came out with the richlytinted, which just has a higher

(14:46):
percentage of iron oxide in it,and that is for people with
darker complexions, and thefeedback that we've received so
far is incredible.
I mean, it just launched amonth or two ago and we've seen
incredible results on people.

And you touched on something really important too
is a skin tone doesn't protectyou more or less from the sun
Absolutely, and I think theresearch I've seen is the reason
that lighter skin people arecaught.
The skin cancers caught earlieris because of the contrast with

(15:21):
the color of the skin cancer Andin darker skin people it's
harder to detect And so themortality rate is higher because
it's always found at a laterstage, and so that always puts
everybody at a higher risk for ahigher stage diagnosis.
And it's so nice that there's,across the board, an awareness

(15:44):
that's been generated to,regardless of what color you are
, what color your hair is, youreyes are, everybody needs to
wear sunscreen or some form ofsun protection.
Because I can tell youfirsthand, this is not a fun
journey.
It's provided me with a lot ofblessings as far as being able
to share my story and empowerother people to be smarter about

(16:08):
decisions, but I grew up in aNorthern climate.
I didn't it wasn't in the Southlaying out all the time, i
didn't go to tanning beds, ididn't do all that stuff, and
yet I still ended up with astage three diagnosis And it was
all from a tiny mole, and it'sso crazy to think that something
so little could do so muchdamage.

And you make such a great point
with people with lightercomplexions and the contrast
that a mole can have on alighter complexion.
The same is true with burning.
I mean, you take somebody witha light complexion and you put
them out in the sun for a fewhours, you're going to see a
burn so much clearer on somebodywith a lighter complexion than
somebody with a darkercomplexion.

(16:50):
A trick that we like to usehere with UVA and UVB.
UVB stands for burning and theUVA stands for aging.
So even if you don't think thatyou're seeing the UVB burning
effects of the sun rays, you'restill getting the aging aspect
of the UVA rays And you're stillbeing susceptible to melanoma

(17:13):
and skin cancers.

You know we talked a little bit before we started
to really record this episode isthe age range of people and the
generations of people who aredefiant about wearing sunscreen.

Sure .
So the vast majority of thegeneral population isn't
familiar with the differencebetween a chemical and a mineral
sunscreen And, like I said alittle bit earlier, it's a
battle that we're fighting One,to get people to wear a
sunscreen, but then, two, toidentify the difference between
a chemical and a mineralsunscreen and see the importance
of wearing a mineral sunscreenas opposed to a chemical

(17:51):
sunscreen.
And, with the age, in the age ofsocial media and marketing,
there's so many trendy brandsout there that advertise healthy
products, but their sunscreensare actually filled with
chemical sunscreen filters thatcan be toxic to the environment
and your body And that makes youquestion if your efforts in
wearing sunscreen are actuallycausing more harm than good.
People don't know what theydon't know And, unfortunately,

(18:13):
sunscreen isn't necessarily thisglamorous thing that people are
intentionally seeking outeducation on, which is
unfortunate because there's somuch to learn about sunscreens
to make a conscious decision onwhich products to purchase.
And that actually gets intosomething that I really wanted
to talk about And that wasreading your sunscreen bottle
and how important the words onthat bottle are.
People really don't know whatto look for.

(18:35):
But if you turn your sunscreenbottle over and you look at that
active ingredients section.
You're looking for a blend oftitanium dioxide and zinc oxide,
or just zinc oxide Somesunscreens that advertise as
mineral.
You look at the activeingredients and it shows a
hybrid of physical and chemicalblockers, which is an issue
because that's misleading people.

(18:56):
So you're looking at a mineralproduct when actually there is
chemical sunscreen filters inthe formulation and people just
don't know where to look.
So knowing how to read yoursunscreen bottle is super
important, and it's startingwith that active ingredients
section.

And when you look at that ingredients, also the
percentages how important isthat Absolutely?

Absolutely So.
Our products.
They range in the percentage ofcoverage.
If it's a zinc only, you'retypically looking for anything
above an 18%.
Our zinc only sunscreens are a20%, which is a very high
concentration of zinc.
Zinc is super gentle.
We recommend that to anybodywith more sensitive skin,

(19:39):
anybody who has maybe undergonea procedure because that zinc is
so gentle.
With blends of titanium dioxideand zinc oxide, you can see
anywhere from 5% to 8% in thetitanium dioxide with a blend of
the zinc.

There's just so much out there And I know, like
I said, there's always a questto find the right sunscreen that
works for you, and I know forbeing in this environment where
I'm out in the sun or waterreflecting, it's hot and you
don't want to wear somethingthat melts off, you want to wear
something that keeps youprotected, and so it's always

(20:19):
this good big search for what isthe perfect thing.
Now I can tell you I have triedthe sunscreen and I am very
happy with the texture of it,because there have been a lot of
sunscreens that have come andgone through our inventory And

(20:39):
it's something that'slife-dependent.
I guess that's the difference.
It's not just an inconvenienceto put under your makeup so you
stay youthful, it's.
This is something that is goingto save a life.
It is that important to makesure you do get something that
you like and that you continueto use as a regular part of your
self-care.

(21:00):
It's not even a vanity thing atthis point.
It's totally a protective typeof product that will help
everybody stay safe And somaking it something that is
comfortable to use, that isn'tgreasy, that doesn't Thank you,
especially with tinted stuff.
I was worried when I startedusing tinted sunscreen that it

(21:22):
would transfer onto clothing andeverything else, just like
makeup.
And if you put makeup over it,how does that work?
And so it was like this littleresearch thing that I was doing,
like, okay, this does this andthis does this, but when it's 90
degrees out, everything's justgoing, it's going.

It's going to melt.

So it's yeah, like I said, you're in that
environment.
You try to make sure that youuse the best you can and use it
correctly.

Absolutely Another thing that I wanted to
go back to, with likemisconceptions in the sunscreen
world.
you'll see sunscreen companiesthat are marketing SPF 100 or
SPF 100 plus.
And that just really boils myblood, because anything over an
SPF 50 is all the same.

(22:10):
There is a formula that is usedwhen calculating the percentage
of coverage that you're gettingfrom your SPF And it shows that
an SPF 50 gives you 100%coverage where an SPF 30 gives
you 96% coverage.
So that difference is so small.
And when you're looking atwhich sunscreen to pick out, the
FDA recommends anything abovean SPF 30, because you're still

(22:32):
getting 96% of coverage, whichis incredible.
And that difference, like Isaid, between the 30 and the 50
is so small that it reallybothers me.
When I see an SPF 100 andpeople are going out of their
way to purchase this productthat they think is giving them
more coverage And in realityit's not.
And that goes back to theeducation piece.
That's not something that thegeneral population knows.

(22:55):
You know they see a highercoverage of SPF and they think,
oh, i want that, but reallythere is no difference between
an SPF 50 and an SPF 100.

That's interesting too.
Yeah, you're right.
You think that if you'regetting the higher number,
that's just increasing thecoverage And it's such a minimal
amount, wow.
And I think that's somethingthat, as we move forward and our
journey of staying safe, iseducating ourselves to know what
is the best option for us andwhat are the details.

(23:25):
And I know there's a lot outthere, and that's why you're
here is because this mainstreamis the information for somebody.
In a short window of time,you're going to learn so much
about what is safe, how to useit, what to look for and
understanding the product itself.
What is it that it's doing tohelp you stay safe with the sun

(23:49):
exposure, to protecting yourselffrom chemicals and all that.
There's so much that that goesinto something so simple, or at
least appear simple.

Absolutely , and that's why we love doing
things like being on a podcast,because even if this touches the
ears of a couple hundredlisteners, that's a couple
hundred people who are noweducated on not only sunscreens,
with the difference betweenchemical and mineral, and that's
something that we're alwaysstriving for is how to get this

(24:18):
information out to the public.
Like, how do you get people tocare?
How do you get people to spend$28 on a bottle of sunscreen?
And we want people to look atit as an investment, but, like I
said earlier, you know,sunscreen isn't the most
glamorous thing when peoplearen't out there seeking out
information, unless they havesome sort of prior background

(24:39):
Mm-hmm.

So what makes you so passionate about sunscreen?

So funny story.
I came to this company in 2019and I was convinced that I was
allergic to sunscreen, and Ithought this is very ironic that
I'm going into this jobinterview for a product that I
am actually allergic to.
And I learned in that interviewthat I'm not allergic to
sunscreen.
I'm allergic to chemicalsunscreens because I would have

(25:07):
these allergic reactions andskin irritation, and I was at
the point where I was so fed upwith sunscreens.
I didn't know the differencebetween a chemical and a mineral
.
And now that I know that I canwear a mineral sunscreen and not
break out and still beprotecting my skin And my one
wish is that I had learned thissooner And I was only 19 years

(25:27):
old when I first applied for thecompany, so I didn't have that
much you know life before mewhere I wasn't wearing
sunscreens.
But this is something thatpeople need to be educated on as
early as possible, and that'swhy I'm so passionate about it,
because I don't want people outthere to make the same mistake
that I did where they thoughtI'm allergic to sunscreen I'm
just not going to wear it andthen suffer from sunburns every

(25:48):
single summer.
So now I obviously know thedifference and I know the
benefits for mineral sunscreensand sunscreen in general, and
it's just something that I'vebecome so passionate for And I
love educating people And I wastelling you a little bit earlier
.
I'm always talking to myfriends years about how
important it is to wearsunscreen And then if you see me

(26:08):
anywhere outside, there is a100% chance that I will have
either a tube of Cotz on me orsample tubes that I like to give
out to people.
I bring them to every militarytraining that I do.
I put them in my in my pockets,on my vests, and people know
that they can come to me forsunscreen.

Gillian, it has been totally informative to
speak with you to understand ata different level, because it it
is overwhelming for people,especially if you've been
recently diagnosed.
I remember going througheverything I owned.
You know everything that it wasnot going to wear ever again

(26:48):
what I had in sunscreen and youknow expiration dates are
important too, by the way, ofmaking sure that whatever you
are using isn't expired, becauseabsolutely, once it expires,
what, what exactly does happen?
maybe I'll ask you that sure.

So if a product is expired and
this this goes for pretty muchany product that has some kind
of purpose, like a sunscreen or,you know, an acne medicine or
something like that it justreduces the effectiveness of the
product.
So, uh, coach, products have athree year shelf life and then
it's 12 months after you openthe product.
So something that I always dois I write the date that I open

(27:28):
my products on on the actualtube so that way I know when I'm
coming up on a year.
We hope that it doesn't take ayear for people to use our
sunscreens, and it certainlydoes not take me a year.
I can go through a tube in amonth if I'm wearing it every
day.
Um, but yeah, especially withit being cleaning time, taking a
look at all of your productsand making sure that nothing's
expired, because you don't wantto be using a product that isn't

(27:50):
effective and that's one ofthose things is it's you cringe.

Every time you go through stuff you're like, oh,
this is expired, i have to throwit away and I'm thinking why
didn't I use it?
what was it about the product?
and that's how I kind ofreevaluate, like what I bought
and how useful was it.
And you unfortunately have tolearn, sometimes the hard way,
that this was the right one and,like I said, i've gone through
my series of sunscreens andthings like that and you just

(28:17):
it's.
It's a learning, always learning, and there's always something
new and I think the with thetechnology and the research and
what they're able to do andunderstand, will continue to
improve and make it more usable,more realistic to be a part of

(28:38):
a daily skincare.

Gillian Barrie - CoTZ Skin Ca (28:40):
I mentioned social media earlier,
but it is becoming more trendy,if you will, for people to put
effort into their skincareroutines and a lot of that is is
seeing people start toincorporate sunscreens in their
routines and and that's alwaysgreat to see, i know my for you
page on tiktok is always peoplegetting ready, get ready with me

(29:01):
and, um, i always smile when Isee a sunscreen because I know
that people are starting tounderstand the importance of
wearing a good mineral sunscreen, and that's becoming the the
popular and trendy thing to do.
So I really do see a shift withwith, especially with social
media, and that that makes mevery happy.

Well, and even just another conversation I had, we
were talking about the age rangeof new patients.
New diagnosis is the youngergeneration, and so it is
imperative that we do make thatimpression on younger people
that start now, because it'sit's an over time exposure that

(29:43):
creates the situation in and alot of the skin cancer is
started at such a young age.
It's those first few burns inyour life and if you get a
blistered burn from the sun,you're more.
It doubles or triples your riskof getting skin cancer.
So it's getting the people thatare out and about and you know

(30:05):
parents making sure they'retaking care of their smaller
children, but it's the I'm surethat teenage year up into the
20s is probably a really hardplace to ensure that that
somebody's using sunscreen andthat's why I think it's so
important to start early,especially on children, because
then it becomes a habit andthey'll go into their teens and

(30:28):
early 20s.

And well, every time I go outside,
mom and dad puts sunscreen on me, so I'm gonna put sunscreen on
myself and it becomes that habit.
It's just one of those thingsthat you do without even
thinking about it.
So, creating those habits earlyon whether it be, you know,
wearing a sunscreen or eatinghealthy or something like that
it ends up paying off more in inthe long run well.

Thanks, Gillian, for your time and and everything
that you brought today it.
This is such an important topicand I know there are so many
people that are on this, thissearch for what is going to work
for me and and something that'sgoing to be the product that
they can trust, and I love that.
You know, this product I'vebeen very impressed with I was.

(31:12):
I was able to try it and reallyunderstand what it was and,
like I said, i've I've tried myshare, so I really appreciate
what you guys have put togetherand and what you've created to
protect people, because we allknow how important that is.

Gillian Barrie - CoTZ Ski (31:27):
Thank you so much for having me and
CoTZ on the podcast.
Like I said, it's a great dayanytime that I get to talk about
sunscreen and educate, even ifit's just one more person.

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