Six of the best budget sunscreens for summer 2025
As essential as daily sunscreen is, it remains one of the most commonly abandoned steps in even the most diligent skincare routines. Often it comes down to texture, finish, or compatibility with make-up – or simply not finding one that suits your skin tone or feels pleasant enough to apply (and reapply).
At this time of year, however, there's no room for negotiation. So, here's a round-up of six excellent, affordable sunscreens – including four for under €20 – that work across a range of skin types and scenarios.
La Roche Posay Anthelios UVAIR SPF50
La Roche Posay Anthelios UVAIR SPF50 (€26 from Meaghers Pharmacy)
The latest addition to La Roche-Posay's Anthelios range, UVAIR SPF50 (€26 from Meaghers Pharmacy) is a new-generation sunscreen that ticks several boxes at once. It's ultralight, fluid in texture, and absorbs into the skin within seconds – making application quick and enjoyable. What sets it apart is its unique ability to hydrate without being overly dewy. Instead, it settles into a soft, slightly matt finish, making it especially well-suited to oilier skin types – or even as a primer before make-up.
Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics SPF50
Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun SPF50 (€18.99 from Boots)
There are very few Korean sunscreens I've tried and didn't like – but this one might just be my all-time favourite. Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics SPF50 (€18.99 from Boots) combines skin-loving, soothing and moisturising ingredients with high-level protection in a dreamily light, luminous formula. If you have dry or dehydrated skin – or simply love a dewy finish from your skincare – this one's for you. The ultra-thin texture layers beautifully under make-up, making it as functional as it is indulgent.
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The Ordinary UV Filters SPF45 Sun Protection Serum
The Ordinary UV Filters SPF45 Sun Protection Serum (€19.90 from Arnotts)
Brand new and very impressive from The Ordinary, UV Filters SPF45 Sun Protection Serum (€19.90 from Arnotts) is an exceptionally lightweight, serum-like sunscreen that suits all skin types but shines especially bright for dry or dehydrated skin. I love the pocket-sized packaging, and the formula itself is beautifully light and quick to absorb. It's non-irritating, making it a great option for sensitive skin, and it plays perfectly under a full face of make-up.
CeraVe AM Facial Moisturising Lotion SPF50
CeraVe AM Facial Moisturising Lotion SPF50 (€17.50 from millies.ie)
For normal, combination or dry skin – or for skin that just needs a little extra TLC – you can't go wrong with CeraVe AM Facial Moisturising Lotion SPF50 (€17.50 from millies.ie). It's fuss-free, fast-absorbing, and gentle enough for sensitive skin, making it ideal for quick application on the go. Plus, the ceramide-rich formula helps to soothe and strengthen the skin barrier. A great all-rounder that does exactly what you need it to.
Caudalie Vinosun Invisible High Protection Stick SPF50
Caudalie Vinosun Protect Invisible High Protection Stick SPF50 (€18 from cultbeauty.com)
I love a good sunscreen stick – especially one that works for all skin types. Caudalie Vinosun Invisible High Protection Stick SPF50 (€18 from Cult Beauty) is dry, non-greasy and incredibly easy to apply. It's particularly brilliant for the neck and chest, especially if you wear a lot of white shirts or T-shirts – this won't transfer or stain your clothes. It's a pleasure to use and makes reapplying sunscreen on the go quick and fuss-free. Since it's a stick, it's important to apply enough for full protection – about five passes per area should do the trick.
Sculpted by Aimee
Sun Mist SPF50
Sculpted by Aimee Sun Mist SPF50 (€22 from sculptedbyaimee.com)
Reapplying sunscreen over a full face of make-up used to be tricky and often disappointing, either disturbing your base or leaving behind a sticky, greasy finish. Sculpted by Aimee Sun Mist SPF50 changes all that – it's completely transparent, dry-touch and refreshingly cool on the skin. Best of all, it leaves no trace and doesn't budge your make-up. It's ideal for quick touch-ups and stress-free reapplication throughout the day.
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Sunscreen: All you need to know to pick the best SPF for your face, scalp and body
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This week I'm loving … Brow Aid IllumiLift Eye & Brow Hydrogel Mask
Brow Aid IllumiLift Eye & Brow Hydrogel Mask (€9 for a single, €32 for a pack of five from browaid.com)
A rather genius new launch from the excellent Irish brand Brow Aid, IllumiLift Eye & Brow Hydrogel Mask (€9 for a single, €32 for a pack of five from browaid.com) soothes and refreshes the eye area and brows while nourishing hair follicles with a potent blend of ingredients – including Hyaluronic Acid, Niacinamide, Caffeine, Ceramides, Vitamin C, Retinyl Palmitate, and more. It feels instantly cooling and depuffs the entire area around your eyes and brows.
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Irish Times
15 hours ago
- Irish Times
Mike Ryan: What next for the ‘Indiana Jones of epidemiology' as he leaves WHO?
If Indiana Jones had been an epidemiologist instead of an archaeologist, Hollywood might have looked no further for inspiration than the life and times of a Co Sligo man, Mike Ryan . The 60-year-old is leaving the crisis-hit World Health Organisation (WHO) after decades of fighting deadly diseases in some of the most dangerous places on earth. In January, a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order pulling the US out of the WHO, Ryan, the organisation's deputy director general, was doing what he does best. He was on his way to check out the response to an Ebola outbreak in Kampala, Uganda, after giving a pep talk in Islamabad to the team trying to eradicate polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two countries where it remains stubbornly endemic. READ MORE WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus , who visited Dublin this week, says the world is 'living in a golden age of disease elimination' and his one-time right-hand man, Ryan, has been at the forefront of that effort since he joined the organisation in 1996. Tedros paid tribute to Ryan on Friday at a press conference in WHO's Geneva HQ on the inconclusive findings of an advisory group assessing the origins of the Covid virus. 'I know that many of you value his experience and knowledge and his Irish way of saying things. WHO will not be the same without Mike but when he says I am tired and need to go then it is very difficult to keep him,' he said. Tedros with help on pronunciation from Dr Ryan managed to say: 'Go raibh mile maith agat.' 'It's been a long road,' Ryan responded. 'Eight years leading the emergencies programme and I can tell you it's a 24-hour 365 day job and it's been a great honour Tedros to lead it on your behalf and on behalf of all our wonderful staff and partners and people out there on the front lines.' His leading role in the WHO's efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic earned him a Presidential Services Award from Michael D Higgins, and he takes pleasure in the fact that Tom Howley's, his local pub in Curry, Co Sligo, displays a newspaper headline announcing that he shared the honour with Jack Charlton. Dr Mike Ryan and is team in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo The young Mike Ryan lost his merchant seaman father at the age of 11 and was raised by his mother along with his two brothers in a family that extends across the border into Co Mayo. He played GAA football up to senior level for Curry, and it's a place he loves to return to when he can. Ryan was the first in his family to go to university. While completing his studies to be a trauma surgeon, he took a job in a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, and was held hostage there by Saddam Hussein's regime during the first Gulf War. He worked to the point of exhaustion. [ How Dr Mike Ryan became a victim of 'desperate' funding crisis in WHO Opens in new window ] Before his release from Iraq, he fractured his spine in a road incident, which ended his ambition of becoming a surgeon but launched him into what became a distinguished career as an epidemiologist. 'He's the complete package,' says a long-time colleague, Bruce Aylward, a Canadian epidemiologist who also leaves the WHO senior management team this month as major cutbacks get under way. Canadian epidemiologist Bruce Aylward: 'Mike [Ryan] is one of those rare people who can step into those spaces, command respect and chart a way forward. He brings wonderful clarity of vision.' Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images. 'There's no denying what a giant Mike is in global health and especially in the world of infectious diseases and emergencies. He has been on the front end of so many of these now, so competent. Mike is one of those rare people who can step into those spaces, command respect and chart a way forward. He brings wonderful clarity of vision. At the same time, he's a man of the people who can lead a team in the midst of uncertainty,' adds Aylward. Only time will tell where Dr Ryan goes next. Could it be Áras an Uachtaráin? Head of the HSE? A senior UN role? A return to the WHO as a senior adviser? Or, could he lead a mooted pandemic corps of international health experts to boost preparedness for the next pandemic, possibly funded by Bill Gates? [ Dr Mike Ryan targeted by political parties for potential presidential run Opens in new window ] Could Labour or another political party recruit him as a candidate for the autumn's presidential campaign. His interest in joining the Department of Health has been sounded out, unsuccessfully, before. On the prospect of a run for the presidency, Mary Harney, the former minister for health, said: 'He's a man of enormous substance and highly rated across the globe. I think he would be a very formidable candidate. He's got a lot of street cred especially after his defence of the children of Gaza. I couldn't speak highly enough of him.' Ryan's diplomatic skills are in no doubt following the adoption by UN member states at the World Health Assembly last month of a global pandemic agreement. Following the Covid pandemic, which claimed some 20 million lives, Ryan said: 'The prospect of facing the next big pandemic without some common agreement between states seems unconscionable.' The agreement is a rare example in the current geopolitical climate of a multilateral success for the UN system. It provides a template for future pandemic response and international co-operation, though it still requires a further annex to be adopted at next year's World Health Assembly before it can be fully ratified. Mike Ryan's ability to nurture organisational sea change was first demonstrated 25 years ago when he conceived the idea of a Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, which today numbers 310 institutions, including national public health agencies and NGOs Exasperated by suggestions that the WHO was a 'deep state'-type agency, Ryan pointed out that the word 'lockdown' does not feature in the text and has likened the role of the WHO to that of the staff at Augusta, home of the US Masters golf tournament. 'We get to cut the greens and serve the sandwiches,' he says. Following its adoption by consensus at the World Health Assembly, Tedros paid tribute to Ryan and his deputy, Jaouad Mahjour, for their tireless support to the International Negotiating Body over the last 3½ years of discussion and drafting. This singular achievement marks Ryan out as someone with the strategic nous to help the UN reinvent itself as it faces into an existential crisis forced by UN member states demanding a reduction in the plethora of UN bodies and mandates as they follow the US example and slash development and humanitarian aid budgets. His ability to nurture organisational sea change was first demonstrated 25 years ago. He then conceived the idea of a Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, which today numbers 310 institutions, including national public health agencies and NGOs. It has been activated in more than 150 international outbreak responses, dramatically curtailing the spread of infectious diseases and reducing epidemic death tolls. There is a possibility that the UN may turn to Ryan as it seeks to devise a new global health architecture that will break down the silos between UN agencies providing health services to people affected by conflict and disaster. These include Unicef, the children's agency, UNHCR, the refugees agency, and the World Food Programme. Under one option outlined in a recent leaked memo from UN headquarters in New York, operational aspects of these agencies could be merged into a single humanitarian entity. At the same time, the WHO is in discussion with 12 sister agencies and global health initiatives to see how synergies and savings can be made. Ryan has a phenomenal appetite for work. As evidenced by his January visit to Pakistan, he temporarily filled the vacuum left by the untimely death last August of his good friend and colleague, ex-Irish army officer Aidan O'Leary, who was the WHO director of the global polio eradication initiative. [ Aidan O'Leary obituary: Humanitarian who led WHO's polio eradication efforts Opens in new window ] He also led the prioritisation exercise forced on the WHO by budget cuts that are likely to see a 25 per cent cut in staff numbers at its Geneva base and across regional offices, as it faces a shortfall of $1.7 billion in its running costs of $4.2 billion over the next two years. The initial reduction was top-down, reducing the senior management team from 14 to seven, and work got under way in earnest this week to cut the number of department heads from 76 to 34 before a wider cull of staff gets under way. In his parting words on Friday, Dr Tedros told Dr Ryan 'we know where to find you' in a hint that there may yet be work for him to carry out on behalf of the WHO. It was clear in Tedros's initial announcement last month that it was not easy to let him go. 'The new team has been chosen after very careful consideration, and to ensure gender balance and geographical representation,' Tedros said. 'This was, as you can imagine, an extremely difficult and painful decision for me, as it is for every manager in our organisation who is having to decide who stays and who goes.' [ World Health Organisation forges ahead as US makes its absence felt Opens in new window ] Whatever the calculation that resulted in his departure, there is little doubt the WHO has lost one of its finest advocates and best communicators, someone who reassured the world at large that professionals were in charge during the constant rounds of media briefings at the height of the pandemic. Ryan could also engage listeners when he talked about a humanitarian crisis such as the killing and starvation of Palestinians by Israel. He spoke from the heart last month when addressing the UN Geneva press corps on the horrific situation in Gaza. 'We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza because if we don't do something about it, we are complicit in what is happening before our very eyes.' Ryan is a man for all seasons, and it is hard to imagine we have seen or heard the last of him.
Irish Times
15 hours ago
- Irish Times
‘Simple and straightforward': The €4,500 naming of the National Children's Hospital Ireland
This week it was announced that the long-awaited new children's hospital will be called ... the National Children's Hospital Ireland. Okay, that's not exactly original, is it? According to a statement from the Department of Health , the name was chosen as it reflects 'the vision of the new hospital being a hub in a national network of paediatric care'. The hospital, which has been beset by delays and will cost €2.24 billion, will work with regional and local paediatric units to ensure equitable access to healthcare for all children. This process was done through engagement with 'stakeholders', including the youth advisory council, the department said. READ MORE According to Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill , it was important to ensure the name was simple and straightforward – so worried parents would end up exactly where they want to go, regardless of any potential language barriers. [ 'We have planned everything:' Inside the new national children's hospital Opens in new window ] How much did the naming process cost? Some €4,500, according to the Department of Health. But wait, wasn't that always the name? You would be forgiven for thinking that given the way people refer to the healthcare centre as simply the new children's hospital. But, in fact, it has been unnamed until now. Carroll MacNeill has acknowledged most people are likely to continue calling it the children's hospital – as they do now. [ National children's hospital: Completion delayed until at least September Opens in new window ] Were there issues with naming the hospital previously? There was a bit of a drama around the name of the hospital in 2017. In October of that year, the then minister for health Simon Harris announced the hospital would be known as Phoenix Children's Hospital Ireland. However, Phoenix Children's Hospital in Arizona warned Harris it would be compelled to take legal action if the new national children's hospital in Dublin went ahead with plans to use a similar name. He subsequently said there would be a rethink about the name. Were there other names put forward? According to the department, there were 17 names in the mix. The most vocal campaign was for the hospital to be named after Kathleen Lynn – a doctor and political activist who was involved in both the 1913 Lockout and the 1916 Easter Rising. An online campaign, which amassed just under 6,000 signatures, said: 'Dr Lynn was an incredible woman, revolutionary and role model. She did so much to improve the lives of children in Ireland and she deserves to be recognised. Nothing would be more fitting than a children's hospital named in her honour.' So will there be any mention of Dr Lynn in the new hospital? Carroll MacNeill has said she would like to name something within the facility after her, such as a wing or auditorium.
Irish Examiner
20 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Esther McCarthy: As my nephew waits for a kidney donor, a chat today is worth a life tomorrow
He doesn't go to soccer training anymore, even though he was player of the year for Kanturk AFC, not so long ago. He doesn't bother trying to get tickets for the hurling semi-final between Cork and Dublin, even though he'd LOVE to see his county get through to the All-Ireland. He knows he can't go. He's stopped asking his mam if he can go to the local disco. The answer will be no. He doesn't worry about end-of-school exams; he didn't even get to sit them, he was too tired to make it into school. My nephew Kieran is 16. He's on the kidney donor list. And all the things that he used to take for granted are out of his reach now. Kieran suffered complete renal failure, out of the blue, in March last year. Since then, he's gone from travelling from Bweeng with his mam to Temple Street three times a week, to transferring to CUH when he turned 16 in October. But his mam couldn't go in with him for his treatment any more, there's no space, and in medical terms, he's an adult now. So when the nurse asks how he is, he just says fine, even when he's not. He's too embarrassed to say he was vomiting for hours that day. Or that he was scared watching a resuscitation team try to save the man on the bed next to him with a crash cart. He can't find the words to say he's worried the line into his heart is infected. So Kieran and his mam got trained to do dialysis themselves at home this month. Four times a day, every four hours. While his friends are talking about discos and penos, Kieran is practising tying off lines and helping order an IV pole online. Learning how to disinfect and insert things he shouldn't know about. And they never have any reprieve or break, because every day is parcelled into sickness slots; getting ready for dialysis, hooking up to the machine; cleaning up and disposing the waste, then prepping to do it all again, hoping they're doing it right, because one mistake could be deadly. He's one teenager who won't be given out to about having his phone on him all the time, he's watching, hoping, for an unknown number, his bag is packed, ready by the front door. Waiting for the unimaginable to happen to another family, for their loss to be his salvation. It's a tough thing for a 16-year-old to manage. And for his brother. And his dad. And man-oh-man, it's hard for his mam. Kieran Harkins from Bweeng Co Cork in June 2023 when he won Player of the Year at Kanturk AFC. Kieran is waiting for a kidney donation after suffering renal failure in March 2024. Life is different now. The constant fatigue — he can't get out of bed the whole day sometimes. The restricted diet — he's either starving or can't eat at all. The upset stomach. The fear of going anywhere where there are crowds — if he gets a simple bug, his compromised immune system won't cope. The complications around toileting. The missing out on simple, silly things, like just hanging around with his friends. We can talk about these things. He has a great sense of humour, he doesn't complain, he's a sunny, funny kid. We don't talk about the fear. The concrete block in the stomach. We don't talk about the worry. The constant, gnawing, tumbling thoughts that don't turn off. What if? What if? The legislation that kicked in this month simply means everyone over 18 in Ireland is now automatically presumed to consent to donate their heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, or kidney — unless they specifically opt out. And that's their prerogative. Of course it is. But please, do know that even under the new system, donation can't proceed if your family objects. A designated person still must confirm there's no known objection from the deceased. Kieran never got to meet his maternal grandfather, but we often tell him the story about his fake eye. He had a tumour when he was in his 50s, but the eye itself was perfect, and he donated the cornea and the sclera, so two people benefited from his loss. We, as a family, were proud of that; we always had a donor card in our wallets. I know none of us wants to talk about our own death. It's not easy. But it could be the most important conversation you have today. Just let your family know your thoughts on it all. If your legacy might be giving someone a chance at life, isn't that worth a chat? Kieran is one of 500 or so people in Ireland waiting for a kidney transplant. And of course, legislation is just one piece of a much larger, complex puzzle involving trained staff, hospital processes, and the health system logistics. So when you hear about the law, don't let it drift past like just another headline. Think of the boy with the bag by the front door. The one who ties medical lines instead of lacing boots for training. Who doesn't ask to go out anymore, because he already knows the answer. Think of Kieran — and the hundreds like him — whose lives are held in place, quietly, painfully, while they wait for that call. All this law asks is that we talk. That we tell the people we love what we would want, should the unthinkable happen. One conversation — it won't cost you anything. But to Kieran, it could mean absolutely everything. Please visit for more info
