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Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Lotion


This looks like it was taken in about 1930.  Did they have sunscreen back then?

 

10 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. It does look a bit like one of their old bottles, lol. I don't think he needed any help attracting a date, though.

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    2. Old Spice was created around 1938, and from the start it was bottled on white opaque glass (see http://www.oldspicecollectibles.com/)
      What the man is holding is either a wooden flask or a dark ceramics bottle.
      The buildings in the background suggests Europe.

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    3. Sunscreen was invented in 1938 and was called Glacier Cream. It only had a SPF of 2. Coppertone came out with some rudimentary products in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1930s Men would carry bottles of oil to sun bathe and had no idea what sunscreen was. Most likely that was what the Man from 1930 was putting on his body.

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    4. Thanks, Cambria. I was too lazy to look that up.

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    5. Sunbathing was not a big thing in the 1930s and people had to worry more about sunburn. Glacier Cream was invented after suffering overexposure to the sun while climbing the Piz Buin alpine peak in 1938. Chemistry student, Franz Greiter, developed one of the world's first sun protection products and it only had a SPF of 2. It was not until the 1960s and 70s that the better products were developed with high SPF and waterproof.

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  2. I remember as a kid having baby oil spread over my back. I do not remember specific sunscreen, though.

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    Replies
    1. I remember lifeguards with white patches of zinc oxide on their noses, and that's about it in terms of protection.

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  3. En France, avant l'avenement de la creme solaire, les amateurs de plage
    utilisaient une lotion pour le corps pour hydrater et refraichir le peau.


    Gentilhomme a Paris

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    Replies
    1. True, and at some point they wisely started adding screening protection.

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