And let’s not get into the whole TSA flying thing, where I forgot that my larger-than-4oz-tube of sunscreen wouldn’t make it through the airport and had to abandon a fresh tube purchased on vacation. These wipes would make it through, I’m assuming. (Stupid TSA.)

I’d definitely give these a try.

http://www.coppertone.com

TAN, DON’T BURN! Use Coppertone®!

More to your question, yes. Find the button with a circle and a little vertical line cutting through the top. Hold it down with your finger. Walk away.

As you say, though, individual foil/plastic laminate packets, $13 for 25, is absurdly expensive and wasteful for routine use. The summer-staple biggest-bottle-available-of-whatever-brand-isn’t-a-complete-rip-off is hard to beat.

I don’t like the waste of this one but can definitely see how it’d be handy to have for those days/times when I’ve forgotten to plaster my redheaded-easily-burned child with sunscreen before we leave the house.

Easier and faster:

Find the RJ45 connector on the cat5 cable going into the back of your computer.
Remove it from the computer.

There you are, fully functional computer
and no annoying or dangerous intehwebs!

(There will be a switch if you have RF
link instead…)

What you say?

Just a tip.

As for this product. YAY . . . let’s throw away more stuff!!!!! The disposable economy is just what Boing Boing promotes on a regular basis. Hmm . . . seems to me that I can get sunscreen in a small bottle far far cheaper than these scraps of paper towel, and as a Red Head I know quite a bit about sun screen. I spend a good deal of time in the tropics and have learned not to burn. These sun wipes will never be found in my bag. This uncool tool reeks of SPAM.

The “cooltoolsbb-20″ at the end of that link is what tells Amazon they referred you. There’s nothing wrong with this, and it’s pretty standard practice on blogs that link to products. But I would appreciate if BB was more transparent and explained what the Cool Tools business is all about, and who exactly is profiting.

I do see the utility here, of course, as a backup solution you can stick in various places (glove box, bike saddle bag, backpack/shoulder bag etc.) in case you need it, especially if you’re particularly prone to sun burn.

Personally I hate sunscreen because of the greasiness. However, these days there are non-greasy sunscreens available. It doesn’t seem like these wipes use the non-greasy stuff though. The nicest one I’ve found, and which I’ve been using exclusively (though generally I don’t need it very often even though I live in southern california) is by Neutrogena, it’s got “Sheer” in the name I think.

Works well (there’s a range of SPFs to choose from), goes on very nicely, smells nice (which is a big reason why it’s often worth it to pay a little extra for things like this), and it really isn’t greasy at all – it feels really nice actually. Plus this year the bottle design is new – it’s pretty clever and seems like it shouldn’t cause any spillage either in transit or in use (not like a standard bottle which very quickly becomes covered with greasy sunscreen so you have to store it in a plastic bag or something). It’s similar to those fancy travel containers you can get in stores like REI or EMS these days that don’t spill, and the new Hershey’s chocolate sauce bottles that also don’t spill or drip.

Also it’s not really that expensive; even store brand sunscreen will set you back 6 or 7 dollars… and if you buy the smaller size (for 7 or 8 dollars) it’s more than enough for one or two people for a year or so if you’re not heavy users. Since (supposedly) sunscreen loses its effectiveness after sitting on the shelf for a while, you kind of need to buy a new bottle every summer anyway, so it may as well be a slightly smaller bottle of a higher-quality product so there’s less wasted.

“… a [1993 study] of over fifty years’ worth of medical literature … found that whilst frequent regular sun exposure acts to cause cancers that have a 0.3% death rate with 2,000 U.S. fatalities per year, it also acts to *prevent* cancers that have death rates from 20-65% with 138,000 U.S. fatalities per year.”

http://www.oasisadvancedwellness.com/learning/vitamin-D3-sunscreen-controversy.html

So – looks like the sun is not the enemy. Give yourself regular doses of it, but avoid burning.

These were standard issue for field techs when I was corporate H&S. It was more cost effective than having a bottle of sunscreen in their PPE pack, and I didn’t have to worry about these leaking onto their respirators.

You can attach the used towelette to your hat or pack or whatever to keep on repelling bugs even after you’ve used up the wipe.