Today was a gorgeous, 80 degree, sunny day in Minneapolis and we took advantage of having the day off of work to enjoy the beautiful weather. We just received my favorite La Roche Posay product in the mail and lucky us, it came with the brand new ‘My UV Patch’

The product concept is pretty simple – the patch looks like temporary tattoo that is super thin and really adhesive. It is marketed as being able to stay on the skin for up to five days, is waterproof, stretchy and virtually weightless.

The patch works together with a downloaded app, available both on iOS and Android, that scans the patch at different times throughout the day and uses “physiological sensing and pattern recognition algorithms” that look at changes on your skin over time. It’s pretty amazing that all of this technology is housed within the super thin patch. Here is what the app looks like on iPhone:

You can choose an avatar – Helios or Helias. It’s very cute and novel – they are live action cartoons that remind you to scan your patch and tell you how you’re doing throughout the day. The app has you create a profile with name, age, skin type, preferred sunscreen type (lotion, cream, spray, gel) and location – and then you’re all set. It was all super easy to do.

Throughout the day the app will send you reminders of when to scan your patch. It started at a 30 minute interval and then went to 60 minutes. We’re not sure if this is the same for everyone, but that’s what we experienced.

The whole concept is cute and actually kind of fun – I think it is a great tool especially to engage and teach children and adolescents about the importance of UV protection. L’Oreal (the parent company of La Roche Posay) is taking great strides in offering this type of technology, and we don’t know of any other company who is doing something similar! Our only critique is that the app doesn’t really give much in-depth information. They do have an end of day quiz which tests some basic sun protection knowledge, and gives you prizes for correct answers. Today I got a virtual cape for my Helios avatar! It would be interesting to see skin temperature at each scan, or more recommendations and information about sun damage. Of course, they make it really easy to link to their website to purchase SPF 🙂

Here is what you see after each scan. We got this scary warning around 1pm when we were out on the boat. The Helios avatar popped up after that and reminded us to reapply sunscreen.

My UV Patch isn’t really logical for daily use, nor do we believe it was intended for it. This is a fun addition to your daily routine to see where you’re at in terms of UV exposure throughout the day — and it shows you just how fast that 80-90 minute reapplication time comes up!

Right now, you can get your own My UV Patch with any Anthelios SPF or Anthelios-Dermo Kids Sunscreen purchase on the La Roche Posay Website.

Here are some more fun pictures of our day with the My UV Patch!