You grab it on your way out the door. It’s a simple, smart habit, especially here in Australia. But have you ever actually wondered where that bottle of sunscreen came from?

Let's walk through it.

Ancient Times: The Original Sun Block

Long before labs and chemists, people were trying to keep the sun off their skin. We’re talking thousands of years ago. Ancient Egyptians used stuff like rice bran and jasmine, and the Greeks used olive oil. It was a start, but we had a long way to go.

1930s: An Aussie Chemist Has a Crack

The first real flicker of modern sunscreen happened right here in Australia. In the early 1930s, a chemist named Milton Blake started experimenting with a formula in his home lab. It makes perfect sense, doesn't it? An Aussie, living under our sun, trying to create something that could actually absorb UV rays. He was on the right track.

1940s: A Wartime Breakthrough

An American airman and pharmacist, Benjamin Green, saw his mates getting absolutely fried by the sun in the South Pacific. His answer was a thick, red, sticky goo he called "Red Vet Pet." It was basically a form of petroleum jelly. It wasn't pretty, but it did the job. After the war, Green refined the formula, added some cocoa butter, and launched what would become the iconic Coppertone brand. This was the birth of the commercial chemical sunscreen.

Around the same time, in 1946, a Swiss chemist and keen mountaineer named Franz Greiter got a nasty sunburn while climbing. Being a chemist, he decided to create a better solution. The result was one of the first brands dedicated to sun protection: Piz Buin, named after the very mountain where he got the idea.

1960s: The SPF is Born

For that, you can thank Franz Greiter again. He created the system. In 1962, he introduced the Sun Protection Factor, or SPF.

For the first time, there was a standard. It gave everyone a clear, reliable way to measure the protection in the bottle. While it took until the 70s for the system to be widely adopted, Greiter was the one who laid the groundwork.

1979: We Get Started

This is where we come in. Seeing the need for serious, reliable protection specifically for Australian conditions, our family-owned was founded. Since 1979, our mission has been simple: make no-fuss Australian sunscreen that holds up. No marketing fluff, just protection that does its job so you can get on with yours.

So there you have it. From rice bran and red goo to the reliable bottle in your bag today. We’ve just carried on that legacy, making sure the stuff you use is simple, effective, and built for a life outdoors.