Banana Boat & Hawaiian Tropic sent me a selection of their 2009 products. I was able to choose anything I wanted to try from their line, and I tried pretty much everything that wasn’t a fake tanner. Because – ew. (Incidentally, THAT’s how you market to mom bloggers – send me as many of your products as I want with no obligation, no follow up, no expected linkage….nothing – just an honest review if I feel like doing it. You’re going to get much farther in life as a marketer if you realize these things.)

I’ve used BB & HT products my entire life and I know they’re reliable products that provide great sun protection.

While I wish everyone would use chemical-free products like Jason or California Baby (Cali.Baby in Canada here), I realize that not everyone is educated about the chemicals in mainstream products and their absorption in to the bloodstream, and also that many people feel that natural products are out of their budget (though that’s not necessarily true, but that’s another post). The thing about Banana Boat & Hawaiian Tropic? Everyone knows their name, they’re available everywhere, and they’re relatively affordable. I personally use Jason on my family & myself because it’s available locally. California Baby has some products available in Canada but not their sunscreens at this time, so the customs fees & duties are too risky if they’re not shipped USPS and therefore I haven’t ordered any. (If you can get some locally and want to ship me some, let me know. I’ll pay you.)

Ahem. Anyway…

Onto the products up for review today:

Hawaiian Tropic After Sun Body Butter (for me)
Banana Boat Ultra Defense FACES lotion, SPF 30 (for me)
Hawaiian Tropic Oil Free Sensitive spray, SPF 50 (for me)
Banana Boat Ultra Defense spray, SPF 85 (for me)
Banana Boat Kids spray, SPF 50 (for kids)
Banana Boat tear free Baby spray, SPF 50 (for kids)

Let’s start with the Hawaiian Tropic After Sun Body Butter. It smells like the Hawaiian Tropic of my childhood and brought back great memories. It’s creamy & goes on smooth, feels great and is very moisturizing. It’s like my very favourite body butter ever but with a bunch of chemicals added.

The Banana Boat Ultra Defense FACES lotion, SPF 30 is in a tube (good, because I wouldn’t want to spray my face) and I’ve been using it over my moisturizers and under my makeup for a few weeks. It works great – no burns yet – and has that typical dry & a little tacky feel for a few minutes after you put it on but you don’t notice it for long. I’ve never used a sunscreen that didn’t have that feel – even the natural ones – so it must be the actual sunscreen additives. I like this stuff, but as always I wish it had fewer chemicals in it. That’s standard for anything you can buy at Walmart. I’m going to finish the tube, never using it on my kids, and then research something more natural or perhaps try my Jason stuff on my face.

The final four products listed above are the sunscreen sprays, and I’ll review them all together as there are very few differences between them. The main thing you’re going to notice is that some of them are “no rub” and go on clear, smelling a lot like bug spray because of the amazingly high alcohol content. No wonder my kids were acting drunk in the back yard last week. (Kidding – they are always kind of crazy, but the alcohol is really gross…60% of what you put in the skin is absorbed into the bloodstream, you know.) The others are spray on lotions, which you can spray all over the body but then need to rub in. They smell a little less alcoholic, but alcohol is still the top ingredient. Why? I have no idea. I assume because it’s cheap & takes no research to find something safer that still works in their bottle designs. The dangerous chemicals are the only things (but they’re BIG things) that I don’t like about these products. They work awesome in terms of sun protection. I love love LOVE the continuous spray feature (though I may be killing the ozone layer single handedly in getting through my samples…I didn’t see anything about them being CFC free). The no-rub sprays would be awesome for sandy beaches – no rubbing sand into your skin, they dry quickly so nothing will stick after just a minute or two, and you can spray your own back. Awesome concept!

So there you have it. Great, effective products with way too many chemicals and alcohol that shouldn’t be anywhere near a child’s skin – their largest organ.

My standard good/bad/ugly review format seemed like more work than it was worth for this one. Hopefully this does it for you and gives you a good idea of what these products are all about.

In summary: great marketing, great effectiveness, great packaging concept, great ease of use, some really bad ingredients.

Here are the hazards of using Banana Boat & Hawaiian Tropic products as far as they’ve been researched by EWG at this point. The 2009 products are not listed yet.