Coppertone….

Living four blocks from the beach gives one an interesting perspective on sun screen. I love the beach. I live close enough that I get funky dirty windows and so much sand on my floors it’s almost not worth sweeping… and sweep I do.

Because I am in the beauty biz I always try to take care of my clients skin, nails and hair. No easy task in this state… But I digress, Sunscreen is important and yet I can’t seem to use it unless I use Coppertone. It’s not because I am allergic to others, have weird skin issues or don’t think the others will work. It’s because I am just old. If 43 is old… I love Coppertone. I love it because of the smell. The scent of Coppertone to me IS the scent of summer. It is always the same no matter what SPF you buy, the smell of Coppertone never changes.

When I was a kid, Coppertone was the smell of driving 450 miles in a non air-conditioned 1967 VW Bug from po-dunk-no-where Arizona to Titi Evi’s in the OC. When I was a teen, it was the smell of 7 girls ditch day-ing it in a too-small car to the harbor in Oceanside to chase Marines who were way to old for us and whom we were told not to talk to (one of whom I married.) In my twenties, it was the smell of my son passed out on my shoulder; both of us coming home burned out, hungry and thoroughly exhausted from a day of sandy toes, salty skin, hair and water logged sinuses. Once my son was old enough to apply it to himself, it was the mother’s olfactory/visual sense of, “You didn’t wear any sunscreen did you?” (Because it was the smell that was missing from the air, not to mention my son’s beet red face, shoulders and ears.)

Now that I am in my 40’s I get to argue with my friends’ children to wear sunscreen and usually it’s some coconut or baby scented nonsense and I can just barely stand to apply it. I know the smell isn’t what is going to make the others work but for some reason it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work. Is this other non-Coppertone crap too pretty smelling??

Since I was a kid, that baby girl (was that Brooke Shields too?) the one with the black dog pulling the bottoms off a white behind was the symbol of all things summer, who is now nowhere to be found. No thanks to the pedophiles making such a cute illustration dirty… She is now a cute, covered up, watered down version of who she used to be. But so am I, and as long as I can find the name Coppertone I will never believe that any other sunscreen will work in all that sand, saltwater and sun.

Today, I applied my first spray (YES, YOU SPRAY IT NOW TOO!) of Coppertone SPF 40 Waterproof Sport because yesterday after running, my all-too-gorgeous-guy friend Travis asked me if I had put any on. I said no and asked why? His Reply, “Well I don’t want you to get that weird old lady leather chest thing going.”

Huh.

OK Trav. I have complied and will spend the rest of summer dousing my chest and other exposed parts to the lovely and memory inducing fragrance of Coppertone…

…you can use what makes you happy.