“Are you kidding me?!?”
It’s the only utterance I could muster as I hung up the phone in exasperation after talking with the salesperson at the Nordstrom’s Clarins counter. The only information I needed was the active ingredients in their new moisturizer with sunscreen. It was an easy question that someone with even the most limited amount of skin-care sales experience could handle—just turn the package over and read the three or four words that are written on it. But as soon as I asked, I should’ve known that things were not going to go well…

“Clarins’ counter, how many I help you?”

     “Hello!” I greeted her warmly. “Can you tell me what are the active sunscreen ingredients in the Bright Plus HP Hydrating Day Lotion SPF 20?”

“Let me look,” she said, as she shuffled around. “Ah yes, here it is. It’s SPF 20.”

     “Yes, but what are the active sunscreen ingredients in it?”

“It has SPF 20 sun protection.”

     “I understand what the SPF is because it’s in the product name. I want to know which active sunscreen ingredients are in the product to make the SPF 20.”

“Umm. Please hold.”

     I could hear her muffle the receiver with her hand, some indistinct talking, and then a new, French-accented voice came on the line.

“How may I help you?”

     “Hi, I’m curious about the sunscreens in the Hydrating Day Lotion SPF 20. Can you tell me what they are?”

“Yes, they are SPF 20.”

     I tried not to audibly sigh, but my patience was waning. “I am aware of the SPF because it’s in the product name, what I want to know is what are the active ingredients—the ones listed on the side of the box?”

“Oh yes, I see…” and then she began to rattle them off.

     As I wrote them down, I asked, “What are the percentages of those ingredients?”

“They are …” and she began to rattle those off, too. Then, suddenly, she stopped before the last sunscreen amount and said, “From there, you can do the math.”

     “Pardon me?” I stopped short, legitimately not understanding her statement.

“The math—you can do the math. So it adds up to 20, because, like I said, the SPF is 20.”

At that point, I think I was stunned into silence, because this is absolutely not how SPF works—and anyone selling skin care should know this!

We get questions all the time from Paula’s Choice customers and Beautypedia subscribers who are confused about how SPF works and which SPF they should use, and it’s no wonder if they’re dealing with salespeople like these at the Clarins’ counter. Here’s what you need to know:

• First, be very cautious of any information a cosmetic salesperson gives you about the products they are selling.
• When it comes to sunscreen, a product’s SPF number lets you know how long you can stay in the sun without burning while wearing that product.
• If you can stay in the sun for, say, 15 minutes before your skin starts to turn pink, then applying a sunscreen rated SPF 15 will allow you to stay in the sun 15 times longer. So, 15 (minutes) x (SPF) 15 = 225 or 3 hours and 45 minutes of sun protection.
•  It’s vital to know that the SPF rating refers only to protection from UVB radiation (the sun’s sun burning rays, not UVA, the sun’s silent, “aging” rays that cause deep cellular damage).
• There is no way to judge the UVA protection in a skin-care product with sunscreen unless you check the ingredient listing.
• Only a handful of ingredients can protect skin from the UVA spectrum, so any sunscreen, regardless of SPF must absolutely contain the UVA-protecting ingredients of either titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, avobenzone, Tinosorb, or ecamsule (Mexoryl SX).
• While the SPF is determined by the combined percentage of active sunscreens, it is not a cumulative equation. Simply adding up the percentages is not how SPF is determined!

What I would have really liked to say to the Clarins’ woman I spoke to is this: I can do math, and algebra, calculus, trig, and a bit of geometry, too, but that won’t help me know a percentage of an ingredient in any skin-care product. However, I can add up your customer service skill and skin-care knowledge and it equals absolute zero

To be honest, doing “field work” for Beautypedia is always stressful. Though I’m certain I’ll probably never be exposed as working “undercover” for Beautypedia at the cosmetics counters, there are a fair amount of nerve racking encounters (pun intended) that take over when I’m trying to get information that you know someone doesn’t want you to have, regardless of whether you are entitled to it (and when it comes to ingredient listings on cosmetics that is absolutely public information).

Before I came to work for Beautypedia, I was easily intimidated by cosmetic counter people; they always made me feel “sized up,” and less aware and informed then they are. Now that I have learned quite a bit doing my job here at Beautypedia and reading Paula’s reviews and accumulated research I know these salespeople are pathetically misinformed and I can see that the judgmental arch in their brows is completely meaningless.

A recent OMG moment took place at a Clarins counter. I approached with my Beautypedia coworker, and we browsed the displays, picking up testers and trying to seem interested while we scanned for the specific item we were seeking. The counter person greeted us, and I explained that I was doing some pre-Mother’s Day shopping for my Mom who has very sensitive skin. Before I bought her anything, I explained, I’d need to check the ingredient list with my Dad to be sure that it didn’t contain any of her “no-nos.” This all seems plausible enough, and well within my rights as a consumer, so once I’d found the $80 jar-packaged anti-wrinkle cream I sought, I began to jot down the ingredients on a small notepad.

Before I’d finished the first row of ingredients, the lady stopped me and said, “You really only need to write down the first five ingredients.” She looked me square in the eye, and continued, “The rest aren’t really that important.” Really? Really!! That’s interesting because the product’s claims showcase the inclusion of specific extracts, and in this product, which has 42 ingredients total, the ingredient featured by name on the box is #18! So if the first five ingredients are the only ones that matter, then why boast about the 18th ingredient? Doesn’t make sense, does it? Needless to say, I wrote down all 42 of the ingredients, and walked away, shaking my head in disbelief once again.