20% Off Heliocare, Colorescience and Zooki: What I'd Actually Pick
There is 20% off three brands in the shop until Saturday, and rather than send you a picture of a discount code and leave you to it, I would rather do the more useful thing and tell you which one of these you actually need.
Because that is the real problem with a sunscreen sale. There are twenty-odd sunscreens on the page, they all say SPF 50, and the difference between them is not marketing. SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor, and the number tells you about strength, not about suitability. Two bottles can carry the same number and behave completely differently on your face. One of them will sit under your make-up without pilling and one of them will not. One will calm a red cheek and one will make it angrier.
So here is the sale, and here is what I would put in your basket.
The offer, in plain terms
Use the code
SUMMER
20% off Heliocare, Colorescience and Zooki
Ends Saturday 16 August, 23:59
It covers three brands and only three: Heliocare, Colorescience and Zooki. There is no minimum spend, and you can use it more than once. You type it in the discount box at checkout and the 20% comes off there, not on the product page, so do not panic when the page still shows the full price.
Two things about it that are genuinely in your favour and that I would rather point out than let you find by accident.
The first is that the Heliocare and Colorescience prices in the shop are already reduced against their recommended retail price, and the code comes off the reduced price rather than the original one. So the saving stacks.
The second is that the sunscreen sale is happening in August rather than in October, which is when this sort of thing usually gets discounted. There is a lot of summer left, and September in this country is frequently better than August.
What it does not cover: treatments and consultations, the digital guides, and the other skincare brands in the shop. If you are after Exuviance, AllSkin Med, NEOSTRATA or PRIORI, the code will not work on them and I do not want you to find that out at checkout.
If you have never been clear on the mineral versus chemical question, read this first and the rest of this page will make more sense: Mineral vs Chemical Sunscreen: How to Choose the Right One for Your Skin.
Heliocare: the one you wear every day
Heliocare is the brand I reach for when someone needs a sunscreen they will actually use in November as well as July. The textures are light, they are built for daily wear under make-up rather than for a beach, and the range is unusually well split by skin type. That last part is the reason it is on this page.
The whole range is 20% off. This is how I would match them.
If your skin is oily or you get shiny by lunchtime: Heliocare 360° Oil-Free Gel SPF 50. £22.50, so £18.00 with the code. A dry-touch gel that leaves no film. This is the one that behaves best under make-up out of the whole range.
If you are red, reactive or have been told you have rosacea: Heliocare 360° A-R Emulsion SPF 50. £25.50, so £20.40. A-R is for anti-redness. It is tinted very slightly green underneath, which cancels red visually rather than covering it, and it is the sunscreen I recommend most often for skin that reacts to everything else.
If you are dealing with pigmentation or melasma: Heliocare 360° Pigment Solution Fluid SPF 50. £25.50, so £20.40. Tinted, high protection, and it covers the visible light range as well as ultraviolet, which matters for pigmentation in a way it does not for sunburn.
If you are acne-prone: Heliocare 360 Acnimat SPF 50+. £24.00, so £19.20. Matte, oil-free, formulated not to block pores.
If your main concern is ageing and you want one product to do both jobs: Heliocare 360 Age Active Fluid SPF 50. £24.00, so £19.20.
If you want the most comfortable texture in the range: Heliocare® 360° Sensation SPF 50+. £28.00, so £22.40. This is the nicest one to wear, and there are two in stock rather than one.
If you are outdoors, sweating, or on a bike: Heliocare® 360° SPORT Transparent Sunscreen Stick SPF 50+. £22.99, so £18.39. A stick, so it lives in a bag and gets used.
If you want the highest protection available: Heliocare 360° AK Fluid SPF 100. £24.50, so £19.60.
For children: Heliocare 360° Pediatrics Mineral. £23.50, so £18.80. A mineral formula for young skin.
One honest note. The Heliocare 360° Mineral Tolerance Fluid is the one that sells out first here and it has already gone. It is not in the list above for that reason.
If redness or sensitivity is your whole issue, I have gone through the options properly here: The Best Sunscreen for Rosacea and Sensitive Skin. And for pigmentation: How to Stop Pigmentation Getting Worse This Summer.
What I would look at from Heliocare
Heliocare 360° Oil-Free Gel SPF 50
£22.50, £18.00 with SUMMER
Heliocare 360° A-R Emulsion SPF 50
£25.50, £20.40 with SUMMER
Heliocare 360° Pigment Solution Fluid SPF 50
£25.50, £20.40 with SUMMER
Heliocare 360 Acnimat SPF 50+
£24.00, £19.20 with SUMMER
Browse the whole Heliocare range
Colorescience: the one you wear over your make-up
This is a different job, and it is the job almost everybody skips.
Sunscreen stops working during the day. Not because it expires on your face, but because it comes off on your hands, your phone and your collar, and because most of us apply about a third of the amount the SPF number on the bottle was tested at. The protection you have at four in the afternoon is not the protection you put on at seven in the morning.
The reason nobody reapplies is obvious. You are not going to take a full face of make-up off at your desk to put more cream on. So the reapplication problem is not a discipline problem, it is a format problem, and Colorescience is the brand that solves it.
The one I would buy first: Colorescience Sunforgettable Total Protection Mineral Sunscreen Brush SPF 50. £46.00, so £36.80 with the code. It is a powder in a brush. You sweep it over make-up, it takes fifteen seconds, and it is the only realistic way most women will ever top up at lunchtime. Currently the Gold shade is the one in stock.
If you want a tinted mineral SPF that replaces your base: Colorescience Total Protection Face Shield Flex. £45.00, so £36.00. Light and Medium are in stock.
If you are shiny by midday: Colorescience Sunforgettable Total Protection Face Shield Matte SPF 50. £39.00, so £31.20.
If you are dry or dull and want a glow: Colorescience Sunforgettable Total Protection Face Shield Glow SPF 50. £39.00, so £31.20.
If you want it untinted: Colorescience Sunforgettable Total Protection Face Shield SPF 50 Classic. £39.00, so £31.20.
If you hate the feel of sunscreen: Colorescience Total Protection No-Show™ Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50. £38.00, so £30.40. Invisible finish, no white cast.
For body, hands and the back of the neck: Colorescience Sunforgettable Total Protection Sport Stick SPF 50. £32.00, so £25.60.
Then the two categories people forget entirely.
Eyes: Colorescience Total Eye 3-in-1 Renewal Therapy SPF 35. £60.50, so £48.40. The skin around the eye is the thinnest on the face and it is the area almost nobody protects, because normal sunscreen stings there. This is a treatment cream, a concealer and an SPF in one tube. It is the most expensive thing on this page and it is the one I would least like you to skip. The Fair shade is in stock.
Make-up that is also protection. The Colorescience Mineral Corrector Palette SPF 20 is £38.00, so £30.40. The Natural Finish Pressed Foundation SPF 20 is £37.50, so £30.00, in Medium Sunlight. The Lip Shine SPF 35 is £23.99, so £19.19, and lips are the other place nobody protects. The Sunforgettable Total Protection Colour Balm SPF 50 in Golden Hour is £20.00, so £16.00.
A caveat I have to give you, because it is the thing I say most often about make-up with an SPF in it. The number on a foundation is real, but it is tested at an amount of product far greater than anyone actually wears. Treat the SPF in your make-up as a bonus on top of a proper sunscreen, not as the sunscreen itself.
I have written the long version of that caveat here: Is the SPF in Your Makeup Actually Protecting You?
What I would look at from Colorescience
Sunforgettable Total Protection Mineral Sunscreen Brush SPF 50
£46.00, £36.80 with SUMMER
Colorescience Total Protection Face Shield Flex
£45.00, £36.00 with SUMMER
Face Shield Matte SPF 50
£39.00, £31.20 with SUMMER
Total Eye 3-in-1 Renewal Therapy SPF 35
£60.50, £48.40 with SUMMER
Browse the whole Colorescience range
Zooki: the supplements, and what they can and cannot claim
Zooki is the third brand in the sale, and I am going to handle it differently, because supplements are where the honest answer and the marketing answer are furthest apart.
In this country, a supplement can only make a health claim that sits on the approved list. Everything else is decoration. So I am going to tell you which of these have an authorised claim behind them and which do not, and you can decide what that is worth to you. I would rather lose the sale than have you buy something on the strength of a sentence that was never allowed to be written.
Zooki Liposomal Magnesium. From £2.50 for a single sachet, £29.99 for 14 and £59.99 for 30, so £23.99 and £47.99 with the code. Magnesium has authorised claims for a reduction of tiredness and fatigue, for normal muscle function and for normal psychological function. This is the best-evidenced thing in the Zooki range and there is genuine stock of it. I wrote a whole piece on which form of magnesium to buy three days ago, and it applies here.
Zooki Liposomal Vitamin D & K2 Capsules. £24.99, so £19.99. Vitamin D has authorised claims for the normal function of the immune system and for the maintenance of normal bones and normal muscle function. In the UK the advice is to consider a daily vitamin D supplement in the autumn and winter, so buying it in August is buying it slightly ahead of when you need it, which is the only time anyone ever manages to.
Zooki Liposomal Iron Capsules. £24.99, so £19.99. Iron has authorised claims for a reduction of tiredness and fatigue and for the normal formation of red blood cells and haemoglobin. A caution rather than a pitch: do not start iron on a hunch. Get your ferritin tested first. Iron you do not need is not harmless, and low iron that turns out to have a cause needs the cause looked at rather than a supplement put on top of it.
Zooki Liposomal Vitamin C. From £2.50 a sachet, £44.99 for 30, so £35.99 with the code. Vitamin C has authorised claims for normal collagen formation for the normal function of skin, and for a reduction of tiredness and fatigue. That is the closest thing to a legitimate skin claim in this entire section.
Zooki Creatine+ for Women. £29.99 for 30 sachets, so £23.99. Creatine has an authorised claim for increasing physical performance in bursts of short, high-intensity exercise, at 3g a day. The wider research in women, on muscle and on the brain, is interesting and moving quickly, and it has not yet turned into anything I am allowed to print. Take that as a reason to watch it rather than a reason to buy it.
Zooki Women's Multi Liposomal Capsules. £39.99, so £31.99. A multivitamin earns its place through the individual nutrients in it rather than through anything the bottle says as a whole.
Zooki Biotics+ Brain Clarity Capsules. £39.99, so £31.99. There is no authorised health claim for probiotics in Great Britain. Not one. That does not mean nothing is happening, it means the evidence has not cleared the bar, and I am not going to pretend otherwise on a sale page.
The collagens. Zooki Marine Collagen 5,000mg and Super Strength Marine Collagen 11,000mg are both in the sale, and at the moment it is single sachets rather than the multipacks. Collagen has no authorised health claim in this country either. I sell it, people like it, the research on skin is genuinely more encouraging than the regulatory position suggests, and none of that entitles me to make a claim. If you want the nutrient with an actual authorised skin claim behind it, that is the vitamin C above, and it is cheaper.
Most magnesium sold in this country is the form your body absorbs least well: Which Magnesium for Sleep and Stress? A Pharmacist Explains.
What I would look at from Zooki
Zooki Liposomal Magnesium
From £2.50, £23.99 for 14 with SUMMER
Zooki Liposomal Vitamin D & K2 Capsules
£24.99, £19.99 with SUMMER
Zooki Liposomal Iron Capsules
£24.99, £19.99 with SUMMER
Zooki Women's Multi Liposomal Capsules
£39.99, £31.99 with SUMMER
If you want me to just tell you what to buy
Three baskets, depending on where you are starting from.
If you own no sunscreen you actually like. One Heliocare matched to your skin type from the list above, and the Colorescience brush for topping up. That is roughly £55 with the code, and it is the pair that fixes the two separate problems of putting it on and keeping it on.
If your sunscreen is sorted and you want the gap filled. The Colorescience Total Eye, because the eye area is the one place you are almost certainly not protecting, and it does three jobs at once.
If you are here for the inside rather than the outside. Magnesium and vitamin D, both of which have real authorised claims behind them, both of which are cheaper than most of what sits next to them on a high street shelf.
Two honest warnings before you spend anything
Stock is thin, and I mean genuinely thin. Most of these are single units. I would rather tell you that than have you decide on Friday and find it gone. This is a small clinic shop, not a warehouse.
Nothing here is urgent. No sunscreen becomes a different product because there is 20% off it, and if the one that suits you is not in the sale, buy that one instead at full price. Sunscreen you will wear every day beats a better sunscreen you leave in a drawer, and a discount is not a reason to buy the wrong texture.
Use the code
SUMMER
20% off Heliocare, Colorescience and Zooki
Ends Saturday 16 August, 23:59
A sale is a poor way to build a routine. If you would rather have someone look properly and tell you what to stop buying as well as what to start, that is what a consultation is for. Book an appointment.
Debora Tentis is a Women's Health Pharmacist and Independent Prescriber Trainee based in Milton Keynes. She runs Debora Tentis Clinic, specialising in hormonal health, metabolic optimisation, and facial aesthetics for professional women. This article is health education, not medical advice. Always check with a pharmacist or your GP before starting a supplement alongside prescribed medicines. Book a consultation at deboratentis.com
