How Tinted SPF Can Simplify Your Summer Routine

Your Summer Skin Deserves to Breathe

Summer is the season that makes everything feel more alive. The days are longer, the air is warmer, and this means more time enjoying nature. There’s truly nothing like summer!

But, if you’ve ever stepped into the July heat with a full face of products and watched it all slide off by noon, you know that your skin may not share your same love of summer.

This isn’t bad news, though. Your skin is just asking for something different. Something more simple. Not more, just better. 

If your current morning routine involves a parade of products before you even get to SPF, this article is for you. The stack most of us were taught — moisturizer, then SPF, then primer, then foundation — wasn’t exactly designed with skin health in mind. It was designed to sell more products. And in the summer heat, it shows.

That’s exactly why we’ve been formulating something better. Our new Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30 and Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15 are the products we wished existed: real sun protection, a skin-evening tint, and nourishment, all in one intentional step. Protection and a little color, without the complexity. Talk about skinimalism at its best!

This is your guide to a summer morning that feels good, for your skin and for you.

Why Summer is the Season to Simplify

Your skin doesn’t behave in July the way it does in January. Heat increases sebum production. Humidity can make skin more reactive. More movement that comes with sweating, swimming, and just living your life in the sun means products are working harder to stay put.

And heavy layers just don’t cooperate with any of that.

When you load your skin up in warmer weather, you’re:

• Trapping heat
• Creating more opportunity for congestion
• Asking your barrier to work harder

More ingredients also means more chances for irritation, especially for skin that’s already a little sensitive from the sun and heat.

The skinimalism approach in summer isn’t about skipping steps you need. Instead, it’s about choosing products that do more, so you need fewer of them. Skin that isn’t constantly covered, stripped, and re-covered tends to be calmer, clearer, and more resilient over time. There’s something really beautiful about trusting it a little more.

Here’s the summer morning ritual your skin actually wants:

→ Wake up skin (with a mist or facial dry brush)

→ Nourish

→ Protect

That’s it! And with the right products, it’s enough.

To learn more about building a skin ritual that works with your biology, visit our skin-specific regimens or take the Selfie Skin Quiz to find your starting point. 

What’s REALLY In Your Sunscreen?

Summer is peak SPF season, which makes it the perfect (and most important) time to take a closer look at what’s actually in yours.

Most conventional sunscreens rely on chemical filters to absorb UV rays and convert them into heat. These filters are things like:

• Oxybenzone
• Octinoxate
• Avobenzone
• Homosalate

The concern isn’t that they don’t work. It’s that they don’t just stay on your skin. 

Studies show that all 6 of the most commonly used chemical sunscreen filters were absorbed into the bloodstream at concentrations exceeding the FDA’s threshold. ¹ And get this: that’s after just one day of use. Imagine if you’re slathering this on your skin every day!

These filters have also been detected in blood, urine, and breast milk weeks after application.

The FDA has only confirmed 2 sunscreen ingredients as Generally Recognized as Safe and Effective: zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. Everything else is still under review.

Then there’s the base. A surprising number of SPFs (even ones marketed as “clean!”) are formulated with industrialized seed oils like sunflower, canola, or safflower. These are highly unstable polyunsaturated fats and oxidize when exposed to heat and UV, creating reactive oxygen species on your skin. ²

You’re applying sunscreen to protect against oxidative damage, and the base is creating it.

Mineral SPF with non-nano zinc oxide is a very different approach (thankfully!). Rather than absorbing into the skin, it sits on the surface and physically deflects UV rays. Non-nano particles are too big to penetrate the skin barrier, which makes them the most transparent and biocompatible form of mineral protection available.

And this is the foundation of every product in our SPF collection. It’s also where our Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30 and Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15 starts. 

You can read more about our take on sun care in our Sun Care Directory and if you're curious about what's currently in your sunscreen, paste the ingredient list into our SPF Ingredient Checker to see if any ingredients get flagged!

Why We Don’t Love Layering SPF + Makeup

Even with good mineral SPF in hand, most people still apply it as one layer in a stack. And that stack — moisturizer, SPF, primer, foundation, setting spray — can mean a lot of layers that don’t play well together.

Mineral zinc oxide doesn’t reliably mix with the silicones, synthetic polymers, and emulsifiers common in conventional primers and foundations. The result often gives you pilling, coverage that’s uneven, or a diluted protection factor that isn’t doing what you think it is.

There’s also the simple reality of summer. More layers trap more heat. More heat means more movement. More movement means everything migrates on your skin. The full-coverage routine that felt beautiful in October is falling off your skin come June.

The cleaner, simpler answer isn’t a better foundation. It’s a product that makes foundation optional. It’s a product that protects, nourishes, and evens your skin tone in just one step. And with ingredients your skin recognizes!

That’s what tinted SPF does. And it’s what our Sun Serum was made for.

If you’re curious about how oil-based skincare and layering work, here’s a great place to dig deeper. 

Meet Our Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30

At its simplest, tinted SPF is exactly what it sounds like: a mineral sunscreen with a sheer tint that evens your skin tone.

But when it’s formulated with real intention, the way our Sun Serum is, it’s doing a lot more. 

It’s skincare.

It’s sun protection.

It’s a complexion product, all working together. 

The Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30 was designed to provide daily mineral SPF 30 protection with a creamy-to-silky, serum-like texture that leaves skin looking even and healthy. It’s your skin, just better. It feels like skincare while you’re wearing it, not makeup. 

And it was formulated without the things that don’t belong. 

NO:

• Petroleum derivatives
• Refined seed oils
• Synthetic dyes
• PFAS
• Fragrance
• Chemical sunscreen filters

What’s Inside

The active ingredient is 25% non-nano zinc oxide. This is physical, broad-spectrum protection that stays on skin rather than absorbing into it.

The barrier support comes from grass-fed tallow, organic raspberry seed oil, and organic moringa oil. Let’s talk about the tallow for a minute.

Studies show that tallow’s fatty acid profile closely mirrors the lipids found in the skin’s own barrier, making it highly biocompatible as a topical ingredient. ³

Further studies confirm that topically applied palmitic and stearic acids (found in tallow) support barrier repair and help build an effective outer layer! ⁴

Tallow absorbs without heaviness, nourishes without congestion, and works with your skin’s biology instead of just sitting on top of it. 

You can read more about why we love animal-based skincare here. 

The antioxidant defense blend includes:

• Astaxanthin
• Kakadu plum
• Seabuckthorn oil
  

Astaxanthin (a.k.a. nature’s most potent antioxidant) in particular has a lot of research behind it. Derived from red algae, it gives wild salmon their iconic pink color. This powerful antioxidant has been shown to help skin become more resistant to UV-induced damage, while also reducing UV-induced moisture loss (compared to placebo). ⁵

Topically, astaxanthin applied before UV exposure prevents UV-induced collagen reduction and skin thickening.

For a full deep dive on this ingredient, check out our astaxanthin benefits article. 

And then there’s bakuchiol, our botanically derived retinol alternative. It’s mixed with a green algae extract (chlamydomonas reinhardtii extract) in our Sun Serum for gentle skin renewal without the sun sensitivity concerns that come with conventional retinoids.

You can read more about why we love bakuchiol here.

→ SHOP THIS RITUAL: Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30

Meet Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15

The Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15 is the product that completes the ritual. And once you start using it, you’ll wonder what you ever did without it!

It’s a multi-purpose, on-the-go essential: a buildable flush of color with light SPF 15 protection and a cream-to-skin-like finish that works beautifully on both lips and cheeks.

Swipe it on your lips, blend a little onto the apples of your cheeks with your fingertips, and you have that effortless, just-came-in-from-outside glow without any extra steps.

The base is grass-fed tallow, beeswax, and mango butter — all nourishing, barrier-supportive, and deeply biocompatible. It’s for the same reasons we love tallow in every product we make! The antioxidant support comes from astaxanthin and seabuckthorn oil working together, offering a gentle protective layer against environmental stress throughout the day.

Five shades make it super wearable: 

• Cinnamon
• Pomegranate
• Hibiscus
• Pink Grapefruit
• Hazelnut 

The colors are subtle, soft, earthy, and naturally flattering. Think of it like a healthy flush that elevates you.

Paired with the Sun Serum, your whole morning becomes just two products. Skincare, sun protection, and a pop of color. 

→ SHOP THIS RITUAL: Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15

Your Skinimalism Summer Morning Ritual

Here’s how to build your summer morning around these two products.

Step 1: Cleanse (or don’t)

Morning doesn’t always call for a cleanse. 

If you had a gentle evening routine the night before, a splash of water and a generous mist is often enough to reset without stripping what your skin worked to build overnight.

Our holistic esthetician, Courtney, loves a facial dry brush in the morning in place of a full cleanse. The dry brush wakes up your skin, gets stagnant lymph moving, and perfectly preps your skin for better product absorption!

When you do need a cleanse, our lightly foaming Cleansing Bars are our first reach for a gentle refresh first thing in the morning. It’s nourishing, barrier-friendly, and leaves your skin clean without that stripped feeling that makes you want to immediately compensate with more products.

Step 2: Mist

Spritz your skin-specific mist generously over your whole face. 

This is your hydration base, a.k.a. the layer that preps your barrier and helps everything that follows absorb more beautifully. 

→ The Clarifying Mist is for oil-rich or acne-prone skin. 

→ The Soothing Mist if you’re dealing with redness or sensitivity. 

→ The Plumping Mist for drier or dull skin that wants a little more.

Step 3: Serum (optional, and worth listening to your skin about)

This is where the Sun Serum earns its name.

On days when your skin is feeling balanced and content, going straight from mist to Sun Serum is absolutely enough! It’s called a serum for a reason, and the formula is doing real skincare work alongside that beautiful tint. 

On days when your skin needs a little more (like if it’s drier, more depleted, or you want extra antioxidant support), layer a lightweight skin-specific serum into damp skin first, or reach for the Antioxidant Balm as a nourishing step underneath.

Pay attention to what your skin is telling you. It’s usually pretty honest about what it needs!

Step 4: Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30

The hero of the whole ritual!

Apply the Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30 to your face, neck, and decollete as the next step in your facial ritual. Warm a small amount between your fingertips first, then press and blend outward from the center of your face.

Build lightly where you want a little more coverage (maybe around the nose, or any red areas), and let it sheer out naturally everywhere else.

It settles into your skin rather than sitting on top of it, which is exactly the feeling you’re after!

For longer days or extended time outdoors, keep the Sun Stick SPF 25 in your bag. It reapplies cleanly over the Sun Serum without disturbing anything. Press, blend, done!

Step 5: Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15

The finishing touch that takes seconds and makes the whole look feel complete.

Swipe the Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15 onto lips, then use the warmth of your fingertips to tap a touch onto the apples of your cheeks and blend softly outwards.

If you’d like a little more shine on the lips, layer the Lip Oil on top for a gorgeous glossy finish that also helps the color last. 

→ SHOP THIS RITUAL

Cleansing Bars | Facial Dry Brush | Clarifying Mist | Soothing Mist | Plumping Mist | Serum | Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30 | Antioxidant Balm | Sun Stick SPF 25 | Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15 | Lip Oils

Who is This For?

Honestly? We think everyone will love our new Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30 and Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15.

But here’s how to know if it’s especially for you. 

→ If you want to step out looking polished without spending your whole morning getting there. The Sun Serum gives that effortless, skin-looks-good-on-its-own finish. Think: an even tone, healthy glow, and no product-y feeling.

→ If your skin tends towards congestion especially in summer. You’ll appreciate not having heavy foundation sitting on your pores all day. Fewer layers, less heat trapping, and more breathing room.

→ If you have sensitive skin that reacts to the ingredient cocktail in conventional products. Consolidating down to just 2 clean, simple products makes a real difference. Both the Sun Serum and the Lip + Cheek Tint are formulated without synthetic fragrance + pigments, petroleum derivatives, PFAS, industrial seed oils, and chemical filters. These ingredients are the ones most commonly linked to sensitivity and irritation.

→ If you’re someone who is outside a lot, traveling, or always on the move. A routine that takes 2 minutes and holds up in real summer life is everything. 

Quick note: Tinted SPF isn’t trying to replace full-coverage foundation for days when you want it. These products are for the days you want your skin to look like skin, just a little more even, a little more protected, and glowing!

Your Summer Skin, Simplified

Summer has a way of reminding us what we actually need. Lighter. Simpler. More time outside and less time getting ready for it.

The Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30 and Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15 aren’t about cutting corners. They’re the result of years of thinking carefully about what great sun care and beautiful skin require, and then building something that delivers both without the compromise. 

Protected skin has never looked better!

Take the Selfie Skin Quiz to find your supporting products.

Shop This Article

Sun Serum Tinted SPF 30 | Lip + Cheek Tint SPF 15 | Sun Stick SPF 25 | Sun Lip Balm SPF 15 | Lip Oils | Cleansing Bars | Facial Dry Brush | Clarifying Mist | Soothing Mist | Plumping Mist | Antioxidant Balm | Serum

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Sources

1. JAMA Network | Effect of Sunscreen Application on Plasma Concentration of Sunscreen Active Ingredients
   
2. ScienceDirect | Analytical evaluation of polyunsaturated fatty acids degradation during thermal oxidation of edible oils by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
   
3. PubMed Central | Tallow, Rendered Animal Fat, and Its Biocompatibility With Skin: A Scoping Review
   
4. Wiley Online Library | Topically applied, fatty acid-containing formulations provide superior barrier benefits in an ex vivo tape-stripped skin model
   
5. PubMed Central | The Protective Role of Astaxanthin for UV-Induced Skin Deterioration in Healthy People—A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

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