78 Labs
2026 · 04 · 22

Samples arrived.

A small box landed on the doorstep this morning. Inside: tubes from our manufacturer, packed tight, and our first physical look at the product we've been designing on paper since November.

A small package wrapped in green bubble wrap, photographed from above on a dark wooden surface.
The package, on the doorstep.

We unpacked them and went straight to testing. We wanted to write something the same day, before our opinions had time to harden.

Six identical white sunscreen tubes fanned out on a dark wood surface, photographed from the cap end.
Six tubes. Same batch. First samples in our hands.

The framework

Two of us tested in parallel, against the imported sunscreen we've been using daily for years — the one we said this product needed to feel like. Plain skin, then over moisturizer, then under makeup. Same arm, same room, same morning light.

A small dollop of white sunscreen on the back of a hand, with sample tubes softly out of focus in the background.
First application. Plain skin, then over moisturizer, then under makeup.

What matched

  • Smoothness was there. Spreads cleanly, no drag.
  • Visual look in the tube and on first application was indistinguishable from the import.

What didn't, yet

  • The finish was shinier than the reference. Some of it comes off with extended rubbing, but not all of it. We want it to disappear the way the import does.
  • The scent isn't where it needs to be. The chemical filters are doing what they're supposed to, but you can smell them. The reference has no smell at all.

These are real gaps, not nitpicks. A sunscreen people will reach for daily has to read invisible — both visually and to the nose. So we wrote it all up and sent it back to our manufacturer this evening, with our read on why the gaps are there and what we'd like to try in the next iteration.

The next round of samples will go to Hyderabad first, where family on the ground will run them through Indian heat, Indian humidity, Indian commute conditions — the test environments we can't fake from where we are. Two of us looking at one tube isn't a study. A handful of testers across cities is closer.

Where this leaves us

Honestly, exactly where we expected. First samples rarely walk in finished. The work between version one and the version we'd actually put our names on is real, and it's the part we'd rather get right than rush. We told you when we started that we'd be patient about launch. This is what patient looks like.

Next update lands when we have something worth saying — either when revised samples arrive, or when our India panel weighs in on whatever ships next. We won't post for the sake of posting.

— Aashish & Rishitha, 78 Labs

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