Island Tribe Clear Gel Sun Protection

I spend a LOT of time out under the sun. You will never see me actually lying around tanning (what’s with that anyway — skin cancer anyone?), but the hours of hiking, trail running, swimming, climbing, mountain biking and surfskiing add up. Enter Island Tribe Clear Gel Sun Protection.

As soon as you squeeze some of the product out of the tube you will know this is something different: instead of the usual white oily cream, you get a Vaseline-like gel. It does take a little getting used to the feeling of the gel on your skin, and it’s not necessarily something you will want to apply for late afternoon cocktails in Camps Bay.

Another advantage of the gel is that you can reapply it during exercise. I have tried this with normal sun protection, and found that it immediately sweats out. In the recent inaugural X Lakes Summer I spent almost 7 hours on my MTB and in my surfski adventuring in the hot summer sun from George to Knysna. At the last transition, with another hour to go in the sun and on the water, I dried my skin with a towel before applying more gel, and it stuck no problem at all. I do not believe you can do this with any other sun protection!

Rest assured, at the end of the day it will still be doing the business in and out of water: protecting your skin against the sun! In fact, you will actually have to specifically clean it off — that’s how well it lasts!

There was a small packaging problem whereby the base of the tube split, leaking the gel out, but this seems to have been rectified.

R120 @ Cape Union Mart (100ml)