In 1981, Cancer Council Victoria put a seagull on Australian television. Sid the Seagull starred in an ad made by Phillip Adams, Peter Best and Alex Stitt, with a jingle telling families to slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat. That jingle is credited with a major shift in how Australians treat the sun. A cartoon bird and a rhyme turned sun protection into a national habit.

Naked Sundays comes out of exactly that culture, though its founder, Samantha Brett, is a former TV news reporter who found a hole in it. Working outdoors under heavy studio makeup, she saw two colleagues have skin cancers removed from their faces, and found there was no way to reapply SPF over makeup without a white cast or pilling. The brand says chemists told her an SPF 50+ mist over makeup could not be done, and that its first mist took around two years to build. The brand launched in summer 2021 in Sydney, with a mist, a cream and a brush.

That is the idea I keep coming back to with sunscreen: the best formula is the one you will actually reapply. The brand itself tells you to reapply every 80 minutes in the sun. The trick is to choose your top-up before your morning layer. The Hydrating Glow Mist is the product the brand was built on, a spray for over makeup, and the Golden Glow Shimmer Mist is the same idea with a sheen. CabanaClear Water Gel Serum is the weightless morning layer, CabanaMilk Mineral Barrier Fluid is the mineral one, and BeautyBarrier Mineral Perfecting Priming Lotion, which the brand says carries 24.5% zinc oxide, doubles as a primer. BeautyScreen Peptide Foundation Tint is for days you want coverage and SPF in one step. The Clear Glow Sun Stick lives in a beach bag, and PoutScreen Lip Treatment is there because lips burn too.

Start with a rule of thumb: if a sunscreen feels heavy, you will apply less of it, and then the number on the tube means nothing. The whole point of a serum or fluid is to make the right amount easy to wear.

Supergoop's Glowscreen has hyaluronic acid and niacinamide, and its Soft-Radiance Drops are a mineral SPF 40 you can wear alone or mix in. Supergoop's Every. Single. Face. is a watery lotion at SPF 50. ILIA's Sun Serum is mineral, with 8-hour oil control, which makes it a good match for anyone whose face is shiny by lunch. Innisfree's Invisible Barrier Korean Sunscreen Serum is SPF 47, and Then I Met You's Essence Light Serum is SPF 50 with PA +++, both in the Korean style that feels more like a skincare step than a sun step.

BYOMA's Ultra-Lightweight Face Fluid and Isle of Paradise's Daily Defense Face Fluid are both SPF 50 fluids, the ones I would give a friend who says she hates sunscreen.

A pairing I like: a serum-style sunscreen in the morning, and a small SPF mist or stick in the bag for reapplying. That way the second layer is a two-second job, and the first one is a pleasure.

What I would skip: applying a lightweight fluid in a thin, quick swipe. A watery texture invites you to use less, so measure it out and layer it if you have to.

Here is how I would choose a tinted sunscreen: try it in daylight, at the window, with your hair back. Tints are the products most likely to look great in a shop and slightly grey or orange in the mirror at home.

Supergoop's Protec(tint) is an SPF 50 skin tint with ectoin, and Iris&Romeo's Weekend Skin is an SPF 50 natural glow tinted sunscreen for days that are mostly outdoors. Iris&Romeo's Best Skin Days is a whipped tint at SPF 30, and Tower 28's SunnyDays is a mineral zinc tint at SPF 30. Beauty of Joseon's Dayscreen is a tinted mineral SPF 30 with ceramides, and Dr. Jart+'s Premium BB is a tinted moisturizer at SPF 30 in the classic BB style.

Bobbi Brown's Vitamin Enriched Skin Tint is SPF 15, so I would treat it as a beautiful tint and keep a proper sunscreen underneath. ciele's bronze & PROTECT is a bronzing concentrate at SPF 50+, the most playful one, for anyone who wants colour and a little sun protection in one bottle.

A pairing I like: a tint on the face and a dab of the same tint on the neck and ears, so you do not end up with a floating face. The neck, ears and hairline are where the sun finds you.

What I would skip: relying on a low-SPF tint alone for a beach day. That is the day for a full sunscreen and a reapplication plan.

A habit worth borrowing: cleanse at night the way you would after a long day in the sun, slowly, with something creamy. Sunscreen is designed to stay on all day, and a quick splash of water will not shift it.

Cleansing milks are the gentlest way to do it. Tammy Fender's, Mila Moursi's and Irene Forte's Almond Cleansing Milk are the three that read as small luxuries, and INNBEAUTY PROJECT's Extreme Cleanse Milky Micellar cleanser is the barrier-repair version. Glossier's Milky Jelly Cleansing Balm & Makeup Remover is the one that takes the tint off, and KORA Organics' Active Algae Calming Cleansing Balm is made for makeup and SPF removal.

Fig.1's Micellar Oil is refillable and made for SPF and makeup, and NIOD's Hydro-Ester Cleaning System is the most unusual of the eight, a hydrating cleansing oil for people who like their routines a little scientific.

A pairing I like: a balm or oil to break down the sunscreen, then a milk to finish. It is a lot less work than scrubbing, and your face stays soft.

What I would skip: rubbing sunscreen off with a rough cloth or a foaming wash that squeaks. If your skin feels tight afterwards, it is too strong.

I think the lesson of Naked Sundays is a simple one: the best sunscreen is the one you will put back on at three in the afternoon. So start with a texture you like, add a little tint if that is what makes you wear it, and keep a mist or stick where you can reach it.

Then treat the evening cleanse as part of the routine, not a footnote. Sid the Seagull got a whole country to slip, slop and slap. You only have to get yourself to reapply. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together Laura Mercier Built a Brand on Makeup That Lets Skin Look Like Skin and Laifen, the High-Speed Dryer Brand Built Around Its Own Motor.