Anyone who has acne prone or sensitive skin will understand, sunscreens are typically greasy and bring on breakouts. For that reason, I stayed away from Tizo when I first started working at Blur. In fact, I’ve been steering clear of a lot of sunscreens and blocks  for years because of skins sensitivity.

Then Blur handed me the challenge of changing my mind about SPF and sent me home with water resistant TiZO 3 and tinted TiZO 2.

Here’s the skinny on sun protection; there are two categories, chemical absorbers and physical blocks. The former works by absorbing the UV rays to prevent damage. While efficient, these chemicals are water and oil soluble, which is of course produced by our own skin! This limits their ability to be continuously effective and therefore require frequent reapplication.

TiZO is all about the latter – physical blocks. Physical blocks are naturally occuring of manmade that stay on the surface of your skin to scatter and refract the suns UV rays. They have the added benefit of also blocking environmental factors like wind and all the grimey stuff in the wind.

For the testing phase of my TiZO adventure, I wore the tinted formula for a couple of days and the water resistant for a couple of days. The first thing I noticed was the texture; it is not sticky or slippery like other sunscreens. In fact, it’s much closer to a high quality priming gel.

The super soft finish is also matte. My makeup looked great over top of it and helped keep it fresh and smooth throughout the days with minimal touch ups. For those with clearer skin, the tinted formula is a great alternative to a traditional BB cream.

As the winter nears, a lot of people will stop using sunscreen but TiZO should be considered year round. The sun still shines when it’s cold out and the glare from the sun hitting a coating of snow is equally damaging. I’ll spare you the diatribe – you know that sun causes a ton of skin damage.

I’m a total convert. It is possible to have a positive makeup and skin friendly relationship with sunscreen. I’m happy to add this product to my kit knowing that it doubles as a primer while protecting my clients skin.

Michelle Silverstein

A makeup fanatic from a young age, Michelle began following her dream of a career in makeup in 2012. In that time she’s already acquired the title of Lead Makeup Artist for a Toronto print publication, and at this years TIFF premiered her first film as Key Makeup Artist. At this point in her career, she is excitedly figuring out what’s next and still exploring the many facets of the world of makeup.