Business Notes Products

Who says zinc oxide has to be ugly? This summer the goop that surfers and sailors put on their faces to prevent sunburn can be stylish as well as protective. Thanks to new products called Zinka and Le Zink, zinc-oxide cream is no longer available only in drab white. It now comes in hot pink, deep purple and many other shades, enabling sun worshipers to color-coordinate their noses with their beach balls and bikinis.

Two California surfers, Michael Rodgers, 25, and Tony Cassella, 28, came up with the idea for colored sunscreens in 1982, but it took them more than three years to recruit a chemist and find a lab to make the product. The time, it turned out, was well spent. Since their Zinka appeared in February, more than 90,000 .75-oz. tubes have been sold, at $4.50 each, in the U.S., Canada, Japan and Europe. In the meantime, an Australian firm marketed a similar product, Le Zink, in October, but it did not reach the U.S. until last month. It comes in .35-oz. containers priced at $4.99.