Brush On Block started because of my daughter.
When she was young, she developed a sensitivity to chemical sunscreens. It made me pay closer attention to what I’d been putting on her skin, and to what was actually in the products I’d been reaching for without much thought. As we figured it out, I started looking for something mineral-only, zinc-based, genuinely safe for sensitive skin.
What I found was that the options were limited, and the ones that existed were, to put it plainly, not designed for how we actually live. Heavy, messy, hard to carry, harder to reapply.
So I started thinking about what it would take to design something better. That was around 2011, and Brush On Block launched soon after with a mineral powder sunscreen in a self-dispensing brush: a format built specifically for easy, realistic, everyday use.
What started as a solution for my family has been evolving ever since.
Designed to fit real life. The brush that started Brush On Block.
Where the Brand Went From There
Once I started paying attention to how people actually use sunscreen (or don’t) I couldn’t stop.
The mineral-first decision was about safety, but the format decisions that followed were about something else – the gap between knowing you should protect your skin and actually doing it consistently, in the life you have. Not the ideal version of your morning routine, the real one.
I kept noticing that the gap was biggest for busy women. The ones managing their own health alongside everyone else’s. The ones who apply sunscreen at 7am and never reapply because they’re wearing makeup and there’s no easy way to. The ones who know all the right things and still can’t make it stick, not because they don’t care, but because the products weren’t designed with their actual day in mind.
Sunscreen designed for the way women move through the day.
Every product we’ve built since that first powder brush has been an answer to that problem. The Sheer Genius tinted moisturizer for the woman who wants SPF in her skincare step. The BOB KIDS line for the mom who wants her kids to build the habit themselves. The formats that make reapplication something you can actually do at your desk, in the car, between meetings.
I started solving for my daughter. I kept solving for all of us.
Give to Gain
The International Women's Day theme this year is Give to Gain, the idea that what we invest in each other comes back multiplied.
I just kept noticing the same thing, that women wanted to protect their skin and couldn't make it stick. Not because they didn't care, but because nothing fit how they actually lived. So I kept building toward that fit.
What came back was over a million products in the hands of people who finally have a routine that fits. Customers who write to say they wear it every day now. Kids who reach for the brush themselves before school. Women who stopped thinking of sun protection as one more thing they were failing at.
That’s not a small thing. That’s the whole thing.
What This Day Means to Me
Being a woman-owned business doesn’t come with a manual. There are days it feels like an advantage and days it feels like something you have to prove around.
What I’ve learned is that the best thing I can do for this brand and for the women who use it, or for anyone watching and thinking about building something of their own, is to keep building something real. Not something that looks good on a shelf but falls apart in daily life. Something that actually earns its place in a routine.
That’s the version of Give to Gain I know how to live out. Make something worth trusting. Give it to the world and let the trust compound.
To the Women Who Show Up For Themselves Daily
Not perfectly, not with a 12-step routine and a flawlessly curated vanity, just consistently. In the car, in your bag, in the two minutes between the board meeting and running to pickup.
That’s who I made this for. That’s who this day is for.
Happy International Women’s Day!
— Andrea
Brush On Block is a women-owned mineral sun care brand designed for the sunscreen you’ll actually wear every day.
