Are ingestible sunscreens the next big thing?

Today in weird beauty news, we’ve just stumbled upon possibly the strangest beauty product we’ve seen this year.

Introducing ingestible sunscreens.

Yep, that’s right – sunscreens that you swallow rather than applying them in the traditional topical fashion.

Who would have thought?!

One such product making the rounds overseas is known as the Heliocare Oral Capsule and its manufacturer claims the product contains a proprietary ingredient named polypodium leucotomos extract, or Fernblock, which allegedly helps the skin’s ability to protect itself against the ageing effects of free radicals.

Sounds kinda interesting (not to mention convenient), right?

So to suss out whether these could be a viable option for sun protection, we thought we’d better consult an expert.

We spoke to cosmetic physician Dr Edwina Morgan of KAILO Wellness Medispa, and she had some thoughts on these strange new ingestible beauty products.

“My position on sunscreen pills or tonics would be to err on the side of caution. Sun protection requires both a chemical and physical barrier, so regardless of what a pill offers, the old-fashioned cover-up is still important to provide that barrier,” says Dr Morgan.

And she’s made another very solid point: “only part of anything we ingest is fully absorbed so it would be impossible to know how much you are absorbing from a tablet”.

“Further scientific studies would need to be completed for us to know if a sunscreen in a pill is effective. I would always recommend to cover up physically and also use a chemical barrier such as sunscreen or a moisturiser with SPF. As sun is the biggest accelerant for ageing, at KAILO Wellness Medispa we strongly recommend products that protect against the sun and also strengthen the skin’s natural barriers such as vitamins A and C,” Dr Morgan says. 

And we think we’ll heed her advice. As is often the case with things that seem too good to be true, this one sounds like it might be mostly all hype. It’s highly likely this product isn’t the safest bet when it comes to protecting yourself from the sun’s rays, and that’s a risk we’re not interested in taking.

On another note, slip, slop, slurp doesn’t really have quite the same ring.

Yeah, we think this is one new cosmetic innovation we’ll sit out for now.

If you’re wanting to discover more strange new beauty innovations, check out Amazon’s quirkiest beauty buys.

What are your favourite new beauty innovations? Let us know in the comments.

Main image credit: @kourtneykardash