Hi, I’m Susan Dudas, the founder of My Day Screen™. Welcome to our first blog post. Welcome to My Day Screen™!
As I launch my brand, I want to share a few things about me, the purpose of my brand, and how the two fit.
My Day Screen was formed because of two situations: 1. Adoption and 2. Skin cancer. While the two situations don’t seem to connect, they do.
Adoption is a big deal in the Dudas family. I was adopted when I was a baby. My family talked openly about my adoption – as much as they knew – and I always considered my adoption a blessing. When my husband, Dave, and I decided to have children, it was obvious how we would expand our family – through adoption. Our daughters were born overseas. We brought them home when they were two years old. (That’s a blog in and of itself!) They are our beautiful gifts! With 75% of our family members being adoptees, Dave is the only one that is not adopted. But… we like him anyway.
As an adoptee and adoptive parent, my eyes, ears, and heart are open to kids who don’t have a good home. I have supported, volunteered and served on boards of organizations that help kids find good homes. Helping kids find homes is central to my life. In fact, as an entrepreneur, it has been my desire to start a business and use some of the profits to benefit organizations that help kids find stable homes. I’ve considered and tried various business concepts over the years but nothing resonated with me. I didn’t give up though. I kept my day job – organization development consulting – but remained vigilant in thinking and experimenting with different business ideas and models.
In the Fall of 2018, Dave was diagnosed with skin cancer. Our dermatologist told him to wear mineral sunscreen every day. Dave has been an avid golfer and has rarely applied sunscreen over the years. All that changed. We both ‘saw the light’ and began our search for mineral sunscreen. We found mineral sunscreen products but we also found that many of the active and inactive ingredients in these sunscreens were potentially toxic. We reviewed the products’ ingredients on EWG’s Skin Deep site. We didn’t like what we found. It was then that I had my ‘Eureka!’ moment.
I spent hundreds of hours researching mineral sunscreen products. I read reviews from customers of mineral sunscreen products and natural sunscreen products to learn their desires and needs for such products. Dave and I attended a Cosmetic Chemists conference to learn more about the science behind sunscreen and to connect with experts in the field. I found a formulator that would create just what I wanted. And they did.
In the midst of formulation development, I also was diagnosed with skin cancer. While I had Basal Cell Carcinoma, a form that rarely metastasizes, it was the aggressive form of BCC and had spread all over my nose. I needed and received radiation treatments for a month. (I looked like Rudolph, but, hey, it was December.) With both Dave and I having the skin cancer diagnosis, I was determined more than ever to bring safe and desirable suncare to the marketplace.
It has been a long journey to get to market with many twists and turns (e.g., Covid-19; my mother’s stroke, sustainable packaging supplier issues) but WE ARE HERE! We are ready to bring you the best natural, mineral sunscreen for indoor and outdoor protection. (I’ll tell you more later about the need for indoor protection.)
And we are ready to donate to Kidsave International and StandUp for Kids on every purchase of $30 or more from our website.
I am proud to introduce My Day Screen™ - plant-based mineral sunscreen that feels wonderful on the skin and protects against blue light and UV light damage. Suncare that feels like Skincare. I am also proud that our packaging is sustainable.
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