Here Comes the Sun Patch
A new wearable is like a second skin that warns you when UV exposure turns risky
SUMMER’S HERE, and that means it’s skin cancer season. Over 75,000 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed this year in the U.S., predicts the American Cancer Society, and many of those incidents are directly due to the high summer sun. The risk isn’t just in the hunt for the perfect golden tan—it’s also in the ultraviolet radiation we are exposed to throughout the summer months even when we’re not at the beach. UV light is incredibly deceptive; even a cloudy day can deliver potentially cancerous rays.
A new wearable device accurately tracks your daily UV exposure, protecting you from the sun without messing up your beach day outfit. The My UV Patch sticks to your skin like a temporary tattoo, stays on after a swim or shower and is so thin—just 150 microns thick, thinner than a human hair—that it wrinkles like your own skin, making it less obtrusive than any other Uv-reading wristband or patch on the market, according to manufacturer L’oréal.
The tech behind the wearable is remarkably simple: It has photosensitive blue squares that change hue when exposed to sunlight. You snap a photo with your phone, and an app reads the changes in the image. You put the patch anywhere you worry about getting too much sun, like the back of the neck or hand, and it’ll last for days.
L’oréal debuted the wearable at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and it was released to the public in June. CES may seem like a strange place for a makeup company, but L’oréal has had an incubator for some time now, and in 2011 the company hired biophysicist Guive Balooch to run it, with the mandate to create new products at the speed of a tech startup.
“Our focus is on educating consumers on sun care,” Balooch says. To that end, the company is giving away the patches and the app to use them for free. Of course, if you’re shocked by the results and looking to protect yourself from the sun, L’oréal sells products for that too.