Gritty sunscreen? Here's why and what to do about it...

As you are probably aware Shade contain a high percentage of shea butter. Shea butter is made up of many fatty acids, which each melt and solidify at their own pace. Unfortunately when manufacturing it is not always possible to quickly cool the batches in the same way as could be achieved when making the formula in small batches by hand, and when packed and then stacked, the cooling process can take a while, increasing the risk of the shea forming 'grains'. This is an interesting article which explains this phenomenon in more depth.

If this has happened to your Shade, don't despair! It's easy to remedy using the following quick trick:

1. Put a plate over a pan of simmering water on your stove.
2. Place your open tin of Shade on the plate and leave to warm.
3. After a few minutes, use a kebab stick or chopstick to gently start stirring the sunscreen.
4. Keep stirring gently (you don't want to knock it off the plate or spill it over the side like clever clogs here!) until it's all melted and beautifully smooth again.
5. Don't leave unattended or it could get too hot and the wax will separate from the rest of the formula.
6. Turn off the heat and remove the whole plate from the pan.
7. Leave to one side to cool.
8. Replace the lid.
9. Ta da! Your Shade is good as new!! 😎
10. Pop it in the fridge to speed up the cooling but don't leave it there for too long or it will go rock hard!!

This can be repeated as many times as necessary and as Shade is a mineral sunscreen this won't affect its efficacy but will make it nice and easy to apply again!