Your Solmate will be empty when you receive it - just fill and refill with your favourite sunscreen. For more information on compatible sunscreens please see here.

Solmates applicators  are designed to transport and apply a small amount of sunscreen that you decant from a larger bulk sunscreen bottle, so you can conveniently carry the sunscreen on your sunny adventures.  

Solmates are NOT designed for the long term storage of  sunscreen.  Removing any sunscreen from its original packaging may affect its efficacy over a given period, so please ensure you regularly empty your Solmate and thoroughly clean the applicator.  See cleaning and care instructions below and refer to our full Terms and Conditions before use. 

Unscrew the base of the applicator, fill with your choice of sunscreen, replace the base of the applicator and you are ready to go! 

Your Solmate can hold up to approx 50ml of sunscreen.  As Solmates are not designed for long-term storage of sunscreen, we recommend you only fill it with the amount you need to minimise any wastage (see Cleaning & Caring for your Solmate below for more details).

Note:  Please only fill your Solmate to below the screw lines on the inside of the body.  Overfilling may cause a small amount of temporary leakage when the base is screwed on, as any excess sunscreen will be pushed out of the gap around the ball, and the base as you screw it in.

Absolutely! All Solmates are the same so if you buy more than one you can mix and match the parts to make your own personalised Solmate (think Sky Blue lid, Sunshine Yellow body & Desert Orange base)! 

Solmates work best with creams and lotion based sunscreens, however while we have tested the applicator functionality with many types of sunscreens, we haven’t tested all of them.  

Solmates however do not function well with the following sunscreens: 

• Liquid based sunscreens (similar to those found in spray bottles), as the consistency of these sunscreens is too runny for our seals and the gap around the ball and you will experience leakage.  
• Extremely thick paste / butter sunscreens.  The consistency of these sunscreens is too thick and tend to stick to the inside of the applicator and not fall well on the roller ball. 

A list of the sunscreens we have tested and work well in our Solmates is available here on our website.  

If your Solmate has been standing upright for a while the sunscreen may settle in the bottom.  Turn the applicator upside down (so the roller ball is facing down),  give the applicator a good shake (think getting ketchup out of the bottle) and the sunscreen will move back to the roller ball end - ready to apply!

If the roller ball on your Solmate has stopped rolling, it's likely clogged with dried old sunscreen.  Make sure you discard any old sunscreen and give your Solmate a thorough wash (see cleaning and care instructions below). 

A small amount of sunscreen pooling around the ball on your Solmate is normal - it is not leaking.  As you apply sunscreen the roller ball picks up sunscreen from inside the body, once you have finished applying any excess sunscreen that is still on the ball may pool slightly around the ball.  This can just be wiped with your finger and applied or cleaned with a tissue / cloth.

There are a number of reasons why you may see leakage in your Solmate:

• The consistency of sunscreen you are using is too runny / liquidy for our seals and the gap around the ball.  Please see a list of tested sunscreens HERE 
• You may have overfilled your Solmate - if you overfill your Solmate (past the screw lines on the inside of the body) any excess sunscreen will be pushed through the gap around the ball and also onto the base, when you screw the base in.  If this occurs, you can clean up the excess sunscreen, and following the use of some sunscreen from the Solmate this should fix the issue. 
• Your sunscreen has gotten too hot - when certain sunscreens are heated their consistency changes and becomes more liquid.  This change in consistency can cause some leakage, especially when combined with movement of the Solmate in a bag etc.  If this occurs you can clean the leakage from the Solmate and once the sunscreen has returned to a normal temperature you should not see the leakage again.  

Please ensure your Solmates are not kept out in the sun or anywhere the sunscreen can overheat - overheating of sunscreen can also affect its efficacy.  

Your Solmate should be thoroughly cleaned on a regular basis.  Solmates are designed for the immediate transport and application of sunscreen within a short period of time, not for long-term storage of sunscreen. 

Removing any sunscreen from its original packaging may affect its efficacy over a given period, so please ensure you discard any old sunscreen regularly, then fully clean out all parts of your Solmate as follows:

• Remove the lid and base from the middle part of the applicator (please do not try to remove the roller ball)
• Using detergent and a brush or similar, thoroughly scrub and clean all parts of the applicator (including around the roller ball) to remove all residue
• Rinse off detergent  (repeat these steps until the applicator is thoroughly clean)
• Leave your Solmate to drain and fully dry before using again 

Note:  Please don’t put your Solmate in the dishwasher - whilst the Solmate will survive a washing cycle we’ve found it doesn’t do a thorough cleaning job and sunscreen residue may be left.

• Make sure you discard any old sunscreen regularly.  Solmates are NOT designed for the long term storage of  sunscreen.  Removing any sunscreen from its original packaging may affect its efficacy over a given period, so please ensure you regularly empty the Solmate and discard any old sunscreen.
• You need to clean your Solmate regularly  (see instructions in the ‘When and how should I clean my Solmate’)
• Don’t leave your Solmate in direct sun for extended periods of time - this may cause the colour to fade and the plastic to become brittle. Overheating of any sunscreen inside the Solmate may also affect its efficacy. 

The body, base and lid is a combination of recycled ocean-bound plastic and mineral talc. The roller ball is teflon and the tether is silicone rubber. 

Sydney, Australia!

We hope that your Solmate will be your trusted companion for many years. But when you are ready to move on you have two options.

1. Send it back to us.  We would love to receive it and turn it into something new! We are passionate believers in the circular economy and want to reduce our waste as much as possible. Just send us an email at hello@solmates.com.au and we will arrange for its return to us. (Plus as a little thank you we will send you a 10% discount code!)

2. You can recycle it yourself. You need to break it down into its separate parts first. The middle section, lid and base can all go in your local council recycling. However you do need to remove the roller ball and tether - these need to go to a specialist recycler (Or just send them to us and we’ll repurpose them - email us and we can sort it out!). 

Wherever possible we’ve cut down the packaging we use, but we also want your Solmate to get to you snug and safe. Our packaging is made from 100% recycled material, is printed with plant-based inks and is fully recyclable.  Our stickers and labels are fully compostable. 

Every Solmate varies slightly in colour / finish due to the recycled ocean bound plastic we use to create it - no two Solmates are ever the same.  Recycled ocean bound plastic is awesome but its inherent imperfections make it almost impossible  to manufacture and colour consistently  - so please embrace any slight differences, your Solmate is a unique ‘happy planet’ hero!

Our applicators are made with recycled ocean bound plastic through an injection moulding process. The recycled materials make it very difficult to hide the injection point without a lot of wastage and a significant increase in carbon emissions - two things we wholeheartedly want to avoid! So we chose not to hide it.  As a result some applicators may have a tiny but visible raised dot on the body. This isn’t a defect, and what your Solmate may lack in smooth perfection is made up by ‘planet saving’ awesomeness! 

We try our very best to ensure that there is absolutely no wastage in the manufacturing process, we even save all the offcuts from the production of our applicators to make ‘limited run’ applicators and other products. 

Please email us immediately and include your order number to hello@solmates.com.au 

All orders are shipped from our Sydney headquarters. 

We currently ship to Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the UK and select European countries.

Please see our Shipping Policy for details of our shipping fees and transit times to your country. 

Product and shipping pricing will be displayed on our website in your country's currency.  Please note: you are responsible for paying any import duties, taxes and clearing fees you may be charged when your parcel arrives in your country.

We’d be sad to learn you haven’t found your Solmate. Please make sure you choose carefully as unfortunately we don’t offer exchanges for ‘change of mind’.   As a sustainable business we try to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible, and placing this limit on ‘change of mind’ returns and exchanges helps us do this. 

We’re hoping for a perfect match but if there’s something wrong with your Solmate when it reaches you, please email us at hello@solmates.com.au within 7 days of receiving the faulty item to arrange a refund.  Please include a photo of the unused faulty item, details of the issue and your order number / proof of purchase.  Once we have assessed the refund request, any refunds will be made in the form of the original payment. Please see our Refund Policy for further details.