burnd: Dr. Mitchnick's 1998 Formula Revived for Everyone Who Stays Outside
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burnd
A pediatrician invented transparent zinc oxide in 1998. His son revived the formula from Costa Rica in 2023. The result is the sunscreen they’ve always used — and now everyone can.
Shop burnd ↓Most sunscreen brands start with a marketing brief. burnd started with a pediatrician who kept seeing sunburned kids and sunscreens that didn’t work. Dr. Mark Mitchnick didn’t just complain about the problem — he solved it. He invented transparent zinc oxide, built a lab, and supplied the formulas to major brands. Then he made one for his own family. That formula, used daily for 25 years, became burnd.
1998: A Father Solves the Problem
Dr. Mark Mitchnick was a pediatrician watching the same thing happen over and over: kids coming in sunburned, parents using sunscreens that weren’t working. The products on the market were either ineffective, left a white cast, or were so unpleasant to apply that nobody actually used them consistently. So he did what scientists do — he went to work on the problem.
“My dad, a pediatrician, kept seeing sunburned kids and sunscreens that didn’t work. So he invented transparent zinc oxide, built a lab, and supplied major brands. But none made a sunscreen he trusted for his family, so he made it himself.”
— burndHe invented transparent zinc oxide — the technology that makes mineral sunscreen actually wearable — built a lab, and became a supplier to the major brands. But here’s the thing: even with access to the best formulation science in the industry, none of those brands made a sunscreen he trusted for his own family. So he made one himself. That formula lived in his household for the next 25 years.
2023: The Son Calls from Costa Rica
Dr. Mitchnick’s son grew up using his dad’s sunscreen every day. Pale, prone to acne, always in the ocean — he knew exactly what good sun protection felt like, and he knew nothing else came close. When he moved to Costa Rica in 2023 and ran out, the gap was impossible to ignore.
“Whenever I run out, nothing else works. After moving to Costa Rica, I called him and asked him to revive his original formula. I shared it with friends, saw it work, and realized the problem wasn’t just mine.”
— burndHe called his dad. They revived the original formula. He shared it with friends in Costa Rica, watched it work on different skin types in real outdoor conditions, and realized what he’d always taken for granted was actually something most people had never had access to. That’s when burnd became a brand.
The burnd Standard
- Transparent zinc oxide — the technology Dr. Mitchnick invented, no white cast
- Medical-grade standards — formulated with the same rigor as clinical products
- Accessible pricing — great sun protection shouldn’t be a luxury
- No fear-marketing — no noise, no hype, just honest performance claims
- Full transparency — they use it themselves, every day
- Built for real outdoor use — pale skin, acne-prone skin, ocean, sun, sweat
The Mission: If It Isn’t Genuinely Better, It Isn’t Worth Making
burnd’s operating principle is as simple as it gets: build a small system of high-performance products that actually work. Medical-grade standards. Accessible pricing. No fear-marketing, no noise, full transparency. Products they use themselves. That’s it. No sprawling product line, no trend-chasing, no ingredient du jour. Just the formula that’s been trusted in one family for 25 years, now available to everyone who stays outside.
Now Available At Daily Health & Beauty
Medical-grade sun protection. No white cast. No excuses.
Shop burnd ↓The Story Behind The Formula
Dr. Mark Mitchnick — pediatrician, inventor of transparent zinc oxide, and the scientist behind the formula that became burnd.
Dr. Mitchnick spent his career at the intersection of medicine and formulation science. He watched the sunscreen industry from the inside — supplying the technology that made mineral sunscreen wearable to the brands that sold it — and saw firsthand how rarely that technology was used to its full potential. His family formula was the version that didn’t cut corners.
Twenty-five years later, his son brought it to the world. burnd is what happens when the person who invented the technology decides to stop supplying it to brands who won’t use it right — and just makes the product himself.
Why burnd Belongs in Your Outdoor Kit
At Daily Health & Beauty, we carry burnd because the origin story is the product. This isn’t a brand built around a trend or a marketing angle — it’s a formula that’s been trusted by the family of the scientist who invented the underlying technology, for 25 years, in real outdoor conditions. Medical-grade standards, transparent zinc oxide, no white cast, accessible pricing, and zero tolerance for products that don’t actually work. If you spend time outside, burnd is the sunscreen you’ve been looking for.
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