(chill music)
- Hi, I'm Jazzmyne.
- Hi, my name is Celine Isimbi.
- Hi, my name is Aishah-Nyeta Brown.
- I am the co-environmental education director
at Black Girl Environmentalist.
- And I am the creative director
at Black Girl Environmentalist.
- We're going to be trying two different sunscreens
for darker skin tones, like black people
and people of color, and rating them
on whether they leave a white cast.
Is it waterproof? Is it eco-friendly, reef safe?
And does it protect us from the sun?
- Black Girl Environmentalist is an inclusive community
for black girls, women, and non-binary folks
where we focus on the environment
and why our voices are such an important part
of the environmental movement.
- We are widely aware of the importance of sunscreen.
And from a young age, we are flooded with messages
about the benefits of sunscreen.
However, like many beauty products,
dark skin people are very often left out
of product design and considerations.
And there's a popular misconception
that we don't need sun protection.
And this goes to a larger systemic barrier caused
by colorism.
Colorism is a systemic barrier and can be seen
in every facet of society, even within the beauty industry.
- I don't know much about sunscreen period.
I'm ready to start this journey.
- I don't really take sunscreen very seriously.
I guess we'll sort of find out
if these sunscreens work or not.
- I have Black Girl Sunscreen and Cocokind.
- Two sunscreens, which I've never used before in my life.
- Both look so amazing.
I'm kind of interested to see how this is going to work
and if I'm going to see any come off in the water.
We are going to put the Cocokind sunscreen
on the left side of our body
and Black Girl Sunscreen on our right side of the body.
- I'll be using Cocokind on my face,
and then I will be trying Black Girl Sunscreen
on the rest of my body.
- I don't like the ingredients enough in the Cocokind
to apply it on my face.
So I'm going to take the Black Girl Sunscreen
and I'm going to apply it to my face.
So this is the Cocokind sunscreen.
- What I like about the Cocokind is that it's vegan,
it's cruelty-free, it also has no fragrance,
it's both UVA and UVB and blue-light protective.
- It says it's for all skin types.
Very simple packaging to read.
- The Cocokind sunscreen is a mineral sunscreen,
which means that it doesn't have some
of those really toxic compounds in it's formula.
- The Black Girl Sunscreen is SPF 30, so it's above SPF 15.
It's infused with jojoba and avocado.
- So one thing about the Black Girl Sunscreen is
that it is a chemical sunscreen.
The Black Girl Sunscreen says that it is reef safe.
Reef safe is not a regulated term.
There is 10% homosalate in this
and homosalate actually has been shown
to have hormone disruption, not only in humans,
but also when we get in the water,
it will disturb the ecosystem and any fish.
There's also an ingredient
in the Black Girl Sunscreen called octocrylene,
octocrylene has been linked
to decreasing the resiliency of coral reefs,
and it does this by acting as a metabolic toxin.
Girl, we not trying to kill the ocean, dang!
- Now it's time to head off to the pool.
- I've got my water bottle, I've got my backpack,
and I'm ready to go test out these sunscreens.
- So I'll be taking these along with me
and we'll be trying it.
So I have now arrived at Long Point Beach.
- So, I'm here.
And I'm with my friend Maggie. Hey.
- Okay.
So before I get into the water, I wanted
to discuss a little bit of knowledge with you.
So we found out
that the black girl sunscreen is not reef safe,
so this is better off if you're in pools
that already have chemicals in them.
And then the Cocokind is reef safe,
so this is safe to wear in open water
and around little fishes.
Good to know. Check your labels.
Time to get in the water.
(upbeat music)
It's freezing.
This is Cocokind, this is Black Girl Sunscreen.
This is a little bit of a cast to me.
- The Cocokind, it just came off so easily.
And now my entire left side of my body is white.
- As of right now,
the Black Girl Sunscreen worked a little bit better.
- So I've now come out of the water.
You can see that the sunscreen has faded away,
even though both sunscreens are water resistant.
As you can see, water fades away the sunscreen
and you can see it fade away.
So I'll be reapplying both sunscreens.
Again, Black Girl Sunscreen will be reapplied
onto my body and Cocokind will be reapplied onto my face.
- So I'm just going to chill in the sun a little bit.
I'm gonna do some reapplication.
My skin is still on the one side, very white
and blue and purple.
- The only honest difference that I'm feeling is
that this Cocokind one feels different on my skin.
It's not oily, but it's kind of tacky.
The other side of my body, it feels very smooth.
It feels very lightweight.
Both feel protective, though.
I feel like a new person, wearing sunscreen.
- Honestly, I loved using both of these.
- I think both worked really, really well.
- We were in the sun for quite some time
and my skin feels exactly how it did when I woke up.
The Cocokind sunscreen leaves an awful white cast.
- However, after a minute
of skin contact, the white cast did disappear.
- For the locations that are a little bit more
around with the environment I'm going to use the Cocokind.
- With the Black Girl Sunscreen,
honestly loved, loved this sunscreen.
It is very lightweight.
It's both for your face and for your body.
So thinking about a student budget, you have a sunscreen
that is both two in one.
- Out of the two, I think I lean a little bit more
into the Black Girl Sunscreen.
- If I had to choose one sunscreen that I would wear,
I would definitely pick Black Girl Sunscreen
'cause it doesn't have a white cast.
- Overall, I really enjoyed using
both the Black Girl Sunscreen and the Cocokind sunscreen.
- Knowing what labels to look for,
knowing what ingredients to look for,
seeing if things are actually safe or not,
I think that makes a really, really big difference.
- Please follow and keep up
with Black Girl Environmentalist.
Visit our website and support, if you're able to support.
Get involved if you do identify as a black environmentalist
or someone who is just really keen about the environment.
Please, please, please wear sunscreen.
(happy music)
(chill music)