Australia is regarded as the global leader in sun protection, skin cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment. This reputation has been built on a number of fronts, not least due to the pioneering efforts of one man.
Milton Blake, a chemist from Adelaide, South Australia, experimented with the production of sunscreen back in the 1920s. It took him over 10 years to develop a product which could be sold commercially.
Milton had read about a substance that absorbed the burning ultraviolet rays from the sun. With the aid of a heater, weighing scales and saucepans for containers he managed to develop a process which incorporated this substance into a cream.
Milton’s formula was tested by Professor Kerr Grant at the University of Adelaide and it was found to have sun protective properties.
Blake Milton, a chemist from Adelaide in South Australia, developed the first commercial sunscreen in 1932
In 1932 Blake Milton launched his sunscreen through Hamilton Laboratories (the name Hamilton was derived from his transcript signature H.A. Milton). With funding from friends and family, he was able to produce 500 tubes of "sunburn cream". This was the first-known commercially available sunscreen in the World. Hamilton sunscreen still exists to this day.
Other key individuals with regards to the development of modern sunscreen include Eugene Schueller, the founder of L’oreal who brought a product to market in 1936. Also, Swiss chemist Franz Greiter introduced a "Glacier Cream” in the 1940s which has since become the basis of Piz Buin sunscreen.
At Solbari Sun Protection we cannot claim to have invented sunscreen or sun protective clothing, but we are 100 per cent committed to designing the best UPF 50+ sun protection products we can.
Solbari Sun Protection offers an award-winning range of UPF 50+ sun protective clothing, UV arm sleeves, broad brim sun hats and sun-blocking umbrellas.
