In an industry where there is an overwhelming amount of product launches daily, Product Of The Weekcuts through the noise. To help you find your new beauty and wellness favorites, this series highlights the tried-and-true products that our writers can’t live without.
It’s midsummer and the conversation about sunscreen and darker skin tones have peaked. Do Black women really have to reapply sunscreen? (Hint: the answer is yes). Is American sunscreen bad compared to Korean? And, with inclusivity facing a problem (even in 2025), does mineral sunscreen have space for darker skin?
While some brands are falsely marketing their tinted mineral sunscreens as having “no white cast” (even while appearing grey on darker complexions), others, like TONAL, are not giving up on mixing mineral sunscreen with foundation. So, I put the Bajan beauty brand’s Sunveil Foundation to the test.
I can’t lie, I was a bit skeptical at first because the foundation contains 9.5 percent Zinc Oxide, which is the white powdery culprit behind the controversy surrounding white casts in the first place. The mineral is used as a physical barrier sitting on top of the skin (unlike chemical sunscreen, which absorbs into the skin), providing broad-spectrum protection against sun damage immediately after application. Which means, for darker skin tones, mineral sunscreen must be tinted to blend into our natural complexion.
For TONAL, the Sunveil Foundation was the solution. “We’re creating sun-safe makeup designed to elevate your everyday routine,” reads black letters on the side of the bright yellow packaging. The bottle, which is easy to grab by its spherical top, makes the product more attractive while the 10-shades makes you so. Better than any other tinted sunscreen I’ve tried, this one actually blends into my skin with a medium coverage that shades my hyperpigmentation without a greyscale (my perfect shade is “Tamarind”).
Unlike American sunscreens, which are FDA-regulated as a drug (we have only 16 approved sunscreen ingredients with the latest approved in 1999), Korean sunscreens have newer and more lighter weight filters. And, although Sunveil doesn’t contain the popular, yet unapproved ingredients found in the best Korean sunscreens, like bemotrizinol, silatriazole and bisoctrizole, it is still a product made in South Korea with advanced patented ingredients.
For example, Sepicontrol A5 reduces sebum regulation by 20 percent, which is more than necessary in the summer heat, while Hyalpol Matrix increases hydration by 40 percent to prevent your skin feeling dry under makeup. The most obvious benefit of Sunveil, however, is not having to remember to put sunscreen on at all. Now, my summer makeup routine isn’t complete without it.