FAQ

If you’re naked and of average height and build, you should be using 37ml of cream to cover your entire body. That’s a crazy amount of sunscreen, but that’s what happens when you do the maths. That’s one of the reasons we have large pouches. So when you are dosing, that means:

For ‘an everyday’ kind of day – when you are wearing long sleeves and long pants…
– Face, ears, neck, hands – 2 pumps for both adults and kids.

For a ‘summer day’ kind of day – when you are wearing shorts and a t-shirt
– In addition to the ‘everyday’ amount
– Forearms and lower legs – 4 pumps for adults / 2 pumps for kids

For a ‘beach day’ kind of day – when you are wearing pretty much nothing
– In addition to the ‘summer day’ amount
– Upper arms, torso, upper legs, feet – 11 pumps für adults / 6 pumps for kids

to sun protection

UVB radiation is responsible for sunburn, this should always be avoided.

Skin ageing and eventually non melanoma skin cancer is driven by the cumulative amount of UVA radiation reaching your skin over years. Years! Which is a problem for your future self – not your now self.

And those UVA rays keep coming all year round – sure, they are stronger in summer than winter, but they don’t decrease to the extent that UVB does – they keep coming.

And it’s those UVA rays that are responsible for skin ageing – premature wrinkles, loss of skin laxity, an increasing risk of pigmentation and most problematically, an increasing risk of skin cancer.

But you can do your future self a solid by blocking those UVA rays from hitting your skin today by putting on a broad spectrum SPF 30 or 50 cream on exposed skin daily – all year round.

Yep – 20 minutes before you go into the sun. The eco elio filter needs time to activate after it comes into contact with your skin. It’s also easier to put cream on kids before you get outside.

Absolutely yes! Which means you need to be extra careful and diligent about sun protection in Spring and the start of summer. It doesn’t mean that having a tan is a sign of a ‘healthy glow’, it just means you have a little more melanin, and you have a little more built-in protection. So take it easy at the start of the season please

Short answer: reapply regularly.

Long answer: It’s complicated!

It primarily depends on your skin type, UV intensity, and the SPF of the cream, but in reality it is influenced by a multitude of factors: the time of year, time of day, the clothing you’re wearing, the activities you’re doing etc.

So the following is a theoretical maximum!

It starts with knowing your skin type which is based on the work of Dr. Fitzgerald who defined 6 skin archetypes in the 1970s.

Consider the case of skin type 1 (the most sensitive), which takes 10 minutes to start burning with a ‘high’ UV level. If you apply eco elio properly – right amount, right coverage – you can remain in the sun for 300 minutes (SPF factor (30) * your skin’s natural protection (10 minutes)) without burning. In other words, in a perfect world, on a day that has a ‘high’ level of UV radiation, eco elio SPF 30 provides 5 hours of protection.

But if the UV intensity is extreme that day, you would start to burn after just 3 minutes without sunscreen. It follows that with eco elio SPF 30 you are then protected for 90 minutes.

But! But! In the real world, you are doing things: like running around, going swimming, inadvertently wiping it off with a towel or on your clothes or sweating it out etc. etc.

So – short answer: if there is a chance the cream has come off, reapply every 2 hours, otherwise – reapply regularly.

We get this question a lot – and it stems from the fact that we recommend reapplying the cream regularly. Which is the right thing to do! Particularly if you’re running around outdoors or in the park. But with the SPF 50, there is still protection for even a type I skin type on a high UV day up to 8 hours after application. So yes, it definitely will.

Yes, but…

It’s unlikely that you’ll get a Vitamin D deficiency in summer in Germany, even if you’re a militant sunscreen user – which unfortunately no one is. It’s good for some brands to talk about being ‘Pro Vitamin D’ – there is just no real evidence to suggest it’s necessary – or what that even means.

The question is more relevant if you have an existing, underlying vitamin D deficiency – the cream won’t impact things either way – you’ll still have a deficiency. If you’re worried about it, or are showing symptoms of a vitamin D deficiency (fatigue, bone pain, muscle weakness, aches, or cramps and mood changes), or have a higher chance of having a deficiency (darker skin, over 50 years of age) get your vitamin D levels checked out – it’s an important topic.

But, from a scientific perspective, the damage from the sun far outweighs the risks associated with a vitamin D deficiency, which can be treated with supplements as necessary.

If you won’t more info, you can dive into a study on the topic here.

2 reasons

1. Niacinamid is a great moisturiser – it hydrates the skin, while protecting the barrier function and improving skin structure and elasticity. Which makes the cream an ideal every day moisturiser.

2. It has been demonstrated that Nicotinamide supports skin regeneration after sun exposure

It depends on too many factors and lots of assumptions to give an exact number, but our rule of thumb is that a 4 headed family in Europe would use 6 pouches a year if they were to be fully protected. Let’s be real: no one ever uses the amount they are supposed to. Main message: you should be using way more sunscreen than you currently are – just ask your dermatologist.

Yes. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a good thing that your makeup has a sun filter in it, but it’s unfortunately not enough to properly protect you. The problem is that the same rules apply for how much cream you are supposed to use for sunscreen as for makeup: 2 pumps of eco elio (4 ml) for face, neck, ears and hands. And that just means that if you’re not applying that much make up, you are not getting that much protection.

So, stick to your normal beauty routine, just apply eco elio first.

An old dermatological rule of thumb is: the important things come first. So if you need to apply a medication, it comes first, then comes the sunscreen, and so on.

Yes – that’s just the skin’s normal response to being exposed to the sun. Though, as we are a high SPF formula (30 or 50), the body’s response to sun exposure – tanning (or burning if you’re like us!) – will be less than if you’re using an SPF 20.

The thing is, tanning is not a good thing, that’s just a function of skin damage – not something that you want to aspire to. And if you’ve been paying attention to what we are about, that’s what we are trying to help you avoid.

You don’t need any more – and you only need 1. A good cream works all over, for adults and kids alike, and is good for sensitive skin. And all of those different formats are suboptimal from an environmental and dosing perspective.

The only decision we think you need to make is are you an SPF 30 kind of person, or an SPF 50. There is not much else you need to worry about – apart from remembering to put it on.

UV radiation is part of the natural energy produced by the sun. On the electromagnetic spectrum, UV light has shorter wavelengths than visible light, so your eyes can’t see UV, but your skin can feel it.

UVB is slightly less energetic, and stays in the upper skin echelons – these are the rays that give you that burn. UVB, B is for burning.

UVA is a shorter wavelength of light, however, it penetrates deeper into the skin. These rays cause skin ageing and non melanoma skin cancer. UVA – A is for ageing.

And don’t forget! These rays can also cause eye damage, including cataracts and eyelid cancers. That means sunglasses too.

We would not describe eco elio as an anti ageing product. But the high protection performance against UVA rays prevents premature skin ageing – so it actually is – and with Vitamin B3 it does an extra good job of keeping you looking young and beautiful.

Yes, it is also suitable for sensitive skin and for kids above 2 years. Our product is developed for all skin types and especially for demanding and sensitive skin. All our products have been dermatologically tested.

Please call or email us immediately. We have a special procedure to record and handle such adverse events.

No. Product samples are a bit of an environmental disaster – too little product compared to too much single use packaging. Our plan is to place our dispensers in many relevant locations, giving people the opportunity to try eco elio.

No.

No. We use beeswax in our formulation with as the name says comes from bees. They are not harmed by taking the ingredient, but because of that we are not fully vegan.

Let us start by defining water resistance. The standard test for water resistance is that you put on the cream, you go into a whirlpool for 20 minutes, you take a pause for 15 minutes, then you go in the whirlpool again for another 20 minutes. The SPF is then measured, and if the cream retains more than 50% of the stated SPF effect, then the cream can be labelled as water resistant.

There are a number of problems with this.

1. It provides a false sense of security – the average consumer thinks water resistance provides the same protection – it clearly does not.
2. It does not take into account other factors – such as swimming, which is accompanied by towel drying and “rubbing off the sunscreen” – which makes reapplication absolutely necessary.

So what we are saying is, we discussed the need for water resistance, but we found it goes a bit against our no nonsense principle, and we left it out of our criteria for the development of the formulation. Our priorities for everyday sun protection require a cream that is thin, light, easily spreadable and sustainable. And unfortunately, that doesn’t fit with water resistance at the moment.

There is an interesting tension here between our sustainability goals and the cosmetic regulations laid out by the EU. Those regulations make sense from a human risk mitigation perspective, but they do conflict with our packaging and sustainability goals.

For the Dispenser, we use 70% pre consumer recycled plastic. Post consumer is all of that mixed material dirty plastic that goes in the yellow sack – this is not allowed to be used in cosmetics. It would be nice to, but regulation in Germany is not here yet.

For the Let’s Go Bottle and the Tube it’s been difficult to source recycled plastic that meets the requisite hygiene standards, and is also affordable. So at this stage, they are not made from recycled materials.

But it’s something we are continually looking into and working with our partners to eventually deliver our complete range made from 100% recycled materials. #WorkInProgress

All our materials are designed to be highly recyclable and should be disposed of in the gelbe sack.

We try to put the recycling triangle on all of our products with the appropriate material information. Have a look and see if you can find it.

The refill: Even if no more sunscreen can be pumped out, there is still some left in the bag. Remove the pump (don’t forget to clean it – there’s a video about it further up in the FAQs) and squeeze out the last bit of cream. Afterwards, you should dispose of the bag in the gelbe sack.

Dispenser, Let’s Go Bottle and Pump: Even though they are designed for longevity, they will certainly reach the end of their life at some point. When that happens, please dispose of them in the gelbe sack.

Let’s take it one by one.

The Dispenser – almost completely recyclable, but you shouldn’t have to worry about that because you are reusing it anyway.

The refill pack – The cap is made of polypropylene, unlike the pouch itself, and should therefore be placed in the gelbe sack separately from the pouch. The bag is made from a mixed material – it is still almost completely recyclable, and because it is white and has minimal printing, it is great for recycling. The gold standard, however, is a mono-material – and we are working towards that with our supplier.

The Let’s Go Bottle – the bottle and lid are made of polypropylene (PP) and are 100% recyclable.

The pump – inside the pump is stainless steel, the rest is made of 2 different plastics (PP and PE). In short: Like most disposable pumps, this one is therefore not made of a mono-material. Unlike other pumps however, this pump is reusable, so it does not have to end up in “thermal recycling” (incineration) anyway.

Labels and printing reduce the ability to recycle materials further downstream in the material cycle. It’s those fancy looking bottles with those beautiful prints that make the downstream material a dirty grey. So in order to contribute to better recycling of materials downstream, we’ve done 2 things:

1. We’ve reduced the amount of printing on the pouch to a bare minimum, and the tube is predominantly white, which means less ink on the tube and less mixing of colours further downstream.
2. The inks that we use EuPIA conform and are plant based, which is better from a biodegradable perspective – further reducing the colour impact when plastics are mixed downstream.

Yes, yes they are. We’ve washed the tubes and pump at least 100 times at home in the dishwasher and have not seen any deterioration in the material.

Good question! This was one of the main motivations for us to develop eco elio, because many commercial formulations still contain microplastics in liquid form. and filters with questionable environmental effects – here is a good article on this problem. Most of the cream (at least. 86%) is biodegradable – that’s a good start. The challenge lies in the filters. We have worked hard to have our filter combination awarded the EcoSun Pass. EcoSun Pass is a scientific evaluation system for measuring the environmental impact of photoprotective filters. It is a transparent evaluation on the basis of internationally recognized criteria and includes eight different parameters, from biodegradability and aquatic toxicity to the potential for endocrine disruption.

We are one of the few sunscreens on the market that has achieved this!

We aim to deliver to Germany and Austria within 2 days, 5 days at the latest.

With the shipping confirmation email you should have received a DHL shipment number (Sendungsnummer). On the DHL homepage you can see the current shipping status by entering this number.

We are sorry that you are not satisfied with eco elio – and we would really like to know why. Please email us at hello@ecoelio.com with your order number and a brief description of the problem so we can find a solution.