VACATION INC.
The sunscreen that time-traveled.
It smells like your childhood.
It looks like 1986. It’s technically SPF 30, but functionally… it’s a time machine. Vacation® didn’t enter the sunscreen market. It built a portal. A sun-drenched, pastel-soaked, retro-futurist resort where everything — from product copy to playlist to pool boy aesthetic — is dripping with intention. This is not just a skincare company. It’s an alternate universe. And that universe is winning.
Most sunscreen brands sell protection. Vacation sells nostalgia. Atmosphere. Vibe. Every single detail — the bottle design, the fake endorsements, the hotel-style voicemail on their customer service line — is there to transport you. To give you a feeling before they give you a function. That’s what makes it unforgettable. It’s not about what it does, it’s about what it invites you into. This is branding that doesn’t stop at packaging — it permeates culture, behavior, even memory. It’s not a product you use. It’s a place you visit.
Vacation could have tried to be “modern.” It could have gone the way of minimalist design, clean clinical language, and broad-spectrum anxiety marketing. Instead, it chose maximal specificity. This brand is unapologetically Miami Vice meets Sandals Resort. It leans hard into coconut-scented fantasy, poolside radio ads, and copywriting that sounds like it was stolen from a vintage Club Med brochure. The specificity is the strength. It filters out the uninterested and becomes magnetic to those who get it. This isn’t just targeting — it’s taste-making.
Vacation is funny — and not in a try-hard way. It’s in the legal disclaimers. The product descriptions. The “official” approval of the International Leisure Organization™. It’s in the fact that they have a sunscreen for accountants and a product called 'After Sun Bomb' that sounds like it belongs in a Bond movie. But it’s never hollow. The humor builds trust. It disarms. It shows care through absurdity — and by taking the joke seriously, the brand creates something consumers want to belong to, not just buy from.
There’s a difference between aesthetics and immersion. Vacation doesn’t just slap a retro label on a modern bottle. It recreates an entire experience — through scent, typeface, language, tone, and emotion. The result is something immersive, not imitative. It’s not nostalgia for its own sake. It’s nostalgia as transportation. This kind of design requires restraint, commitment, and a deep understanding of the emotional undercurrent behind a time period — not just its colors and fonts.
You can’t build a brand like Vacation unless you take the idea of fun very seriously. The dedication to concept is unwavering. It runs through every product release, playlist, campaign, merch drop, and customer interaction. The commitment to a singular creative world is almost theatrical in its intensity. And that’s why it works. Because in a sea of “clean,” “safe,” and “science-backed” brands, Vacation is a sunburnt escape — complete with lifeguards, leisure officers, and tanning oil you don’t even have to use to enjoy. The creativity is the value.
Yes, the products work. Yes, the ingredients matter. But they’re not the headline. What people come back for isn’t just UV protection. It’s permission. Permission to relax. To play. To romanticize the mundane. To be ridiculous — and moisturized. That emotional value — that sense of transformation — is what creates loyalty that no discount code ever could. People don’t just love Vacation. They love being the kind of person who uses Vacation. And that distinction? That’s everything.
Vacation isn’t just a brand you notice — it’s one you want to live in. It turns sunscreen into storyline. SPF into spectacle. Routine into ritual. And while most brands are yelling into the void for attention, Vacation is sipping a Mai Tai by the pool — knowing the right people will come find them. Because when you build a world instead of a campaign, you don’t need to chase culture. You become it.
WHAT’S
WORTH NOTING
They sell the vibe, not the lotion.
Vacation doesn’t position itself as skincare — it sells a feeling: poolside leisure, 80s nostalgia, and an endless summer. The product is the portal, not the point.
World-building, not product marketing.
Everything — from their website to their hotline to the copy on the box — builds an alternate reality where sunscreen is glamorous, ironic, and fun. It's less brand and more time machine.
A brand with a soundtrack.
The inclusion of original music, curated playlists, and vintage aesthetics gives the brand a multisensory texture. It’s not just what you put on your skin — it’s what you hear, smell, and feel.
They don't chase SPF buyers. They gather sun worshippers.
Vacation® appeals to people who identify with a lifestyle, not just a need. That’s why fans don’t just use the product — they celebrate it, gift it, and photograph it.
Language is everything.
Their tone of voice is distinctive, cheeky, and consistent — whether on packaging or customer service emails. The writing is brand-building on its own.
Humor with intent.
The irony is smart, not shallow. The vintage aesthetic isn’t a gimmick — it’s a deep narrative layer that makes the brand feel timeless, not trendy.
They turn protection into a party.
Vacation flips the typical "serious SPF" narrative and makes sunscreen aspirational. It’s not about avoiding sun damage — it’s about embodying a state of mind.