When I’m preparing for a holiday in the heat, sun cream is an absolute must when it comes to packing my suitcase.
Having spent years using the same products from reputable brands, I’ve still suffered the pain of developing sunburn.
It didn’t matter if I applied it myself or had someone else give me a hand, I’d come back from a week under the sun with some form of burn.
So on a recent break in Malta, I tested out a new product on a whim – the Lacura Refreshing Dry Mist with SPF30+ from Aldi – just to see how my sensitive skin would fair.
Now, it’s my MVP for sunny holidays. Here’s how my experience went.
I’ve always been the person who burns easily and never tans, even when the mercury rises in the UK. I’ll get sunburned in all sorts of weird and uncomfortable places: my hairline, behind the knees, and always on my neck and shoulders.
I spent a year in Australia, and only after that did I return to the UK with a healthy yet marginal glow. What’s worse is that my sunburns don’t always ‘magically’ transform into a tan, but more, a slightly lighter shade of red. Blushed, if you will.
During the autumn and winter months, my skin is a ghoulish shade of white, and because I’ve never grown up as a sun seeker during the dark season, I’ve never had a need to douse myself in sun cream.
But during a recent trip to Malta, a country known for its generous temperatures during shoulder season, I couldn’t risk returning home redder than a lobster.
A few months back I got the Lacura Refreshing Dry Mist (£3.29) with SPF30+ from Aldi, an alternative to the Nivea Sun Protect & Dry Touch Refreshing Sunscreen Mist (£12).
Growing up, it was always ‘the thicker the better’, even if I avoided them as much as I could get away with, so a dry mist sunscreen had never been on my radar.
Taking a punt with the Lacura dry mist, I decided to throw it in my suitcase alongside two other sun creams I’d been using for yonks. Needless to say, I didn’t use my trusty Nivea sun creams once.
Average temperatures in Malta in October are around 25°C, and we were treated to the most glorious weather you could want during the autumn. Temperatures never dipped below the average, with a whole week of sunshine.
With temperatures of 29°C starting off the trip, it would be inevitable that the sun rays would blister my delicate skin.
The idea of the Lacura Refreshing Dry Mist is to offer invisible application, with transparent droplets being absorbed rapidly to leave skin protected from the sun.
I’ll admit I was hesitant at its efficacy due to its invisibility – again, the thicker the better – but there was only one way to find out.
The Dry Mist offered an easy application, especially for those harder-to-reach spots. Within an instant, the Dry Mist absorbed and left no residue or sticky feeling on my skin. I doubled up with a second spritz just to be safe. The result? No burns.
The shock of the Dry Mist working didn’t quite seem real, so I tested it out on the second day and every day after that. The most sunburn I came back from Malta was a light flush of a burn on my chest, which by the time I’d landed back in the UK had slowly faded.
I never needed to turn to my trusty Nivea backups, they merely stewed away in my suitcase for an entire week.
The Dry Mist shouldn’t be used directly on the face, but I’d come armed with The Answer’s Daily Ritual SPF50+, an Aussie creation (they know how to do suncare).
Aldi’s Lacura Refreshing Dry Mist completely changed my opinion on own-brand sun cream and spray sun protection.
The Lacura Refreshing Dry Mist comes available in SPF30+ or SPF50+, the latter I’ve yet to try.
It was truly the MVP of my Malta adventure, making sun cream application simple, rather than an arduous task of getting someone else to reach in all the nooks and crannies.
Will I be using it again for some winter or summer sun? Most definitely.