Sara Hughes Talks SPF, Beauty, and the Olympics: Interview

For professional beach volleyball players, “Sunscreen is part of the culture,” Sara Hughes, who will be competing in the sport for Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics later this month, tells PS. “It’s an important part of who we are.”

Hughes started playing volleyball when she was just eight years old, thus starting a lifelong relationship with SPF. “My first memories of sunscreen are of my mom slathering the most SPF 50 you can imagine all over my body,” she says. “I’ve always been a beach girl and have always been playing on the beach, and when I was younger, [I] would be in the sun, play in tournaments from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., so it was really important to have protection on.”

As she got older, she became a bit more lax with her application in favor of a beach-bronzed glow on the court, but in the last three years, she’s upped her commitment to defending her skin from UV damage — mostly because she found a sunscreen she actually wanted to put on every day. The product that changed the game for Hughes? Bliss Blockstar Tinted SPF 30 ($25).

Hughes, who is an ambassador for Bliss, says the brand’s tinted sunscreen is “buttery soft and smooth,” and in addition to its mineral sun filters, it’s jam-packed with skin-loving ingredients like antioxidant-rich green tea, blueberry, acai extract (which protects against environmental stressors), and rosa canina fruit oil (which controls excess oil production). What’s really made Hughes fall in love with it, though, is how she feels when she wears it.

“Tinted sunscreen has changed the game for me because sometimes I have breakouts or redness in my face, and it just gives me a nice layer of coverage to take down the redness while still protecting my skin,” she says. “Obviously, I want to be recognized for who I am and my athletic ability, but I still want to look good and feel good while I’m playing.”

As someone with acne-prone skin, Hughes had long struggled to find a formula that wouldn’t break her out. “Some sunscreens are really pore-clogging, and I would get those annoying under-the-skin pimples when I wore them,” she says. “So it’s been really important for me to find something with a little bit of coverage that doesn’t break me out.”

Whether she’s on or off the court, Bliss Blockstar — which is both noncomedogenic and has a subtle peach hue — is on her face every day. But every once in a while, she adds a little something extra, like a dab of concealer on her blemishes or a swipe of mascara on her lashes, so that she can feel her best while she’s bumping her way to a win.

“We’re playing on the world’s greatest stage, and cameras are on you, and there are close-ups,” she says. “[But athletes are] humans, and sometimes we have bad days and get breakouts and clogged pores. To have a product that doesn’t feel greasy, doesn’t leave a white cast, and just makes me feel good in my own skin is so important to me.”

The first-time Olympian joins a growing cohort of athletes who have crossed over into the beauty world. And much like an Olympic swimmer partnering with a razor brand (like Anastasia Pagonis and Venus) or a competitive gymnast working with a foot-care brand (like Gabby Douglas and Dr. Scholls), tapping a beach volleyball player to be the face of a sun protection product just makes sense. Because, really, who better to ensure a sunscreen truly holds up to the elements than an athlete whose job is — literally — beach?

Zoë Weiner is a freelance beauty and wellness writer. Her work has appeared in Bustle, Byrdie, Cosmopolitan, PS, GQ, Glamour, Marie Claire, Allure, Self, Brides, and Teen Vogue, among others, and she was the senior beauty editor at Well+Good.