‘Is beach face paint an Aussie thing? Where can I get some?’

A US mum watching Bluey has been left completely confused after witnessing Chilli's "strange ritual" with her two kids when the Heeler family hit the beach

With the New York Times naming Bluey the biggest Aussie export since The Wiggles, that loveable blue heeler family is being streamed in lounge rooms across the world.

Which of course brings to light a lot of cultural differences between Australia and the rest of the world.

For example, why does Dad call the kids “grubs” all the time (that’s not very nice)? What’s a bin chicken? What about “sat nav”, “dibba dobba” and “chook”?

So many things are lost in translation.

Recently a mum from America posted to social media, completely confused about why Chilli would be painting Bluey and Bingo’s faces at the beach.

“Okay mommas, US momma here,” she said in a post. “Is the beach face paint just an Aussie thing? And what is it? I’d love to get beach face paint for my kiddos.”

The beach face paint she’s talking about is of course coloured zinc, and the act of slopping on sunscreen the second you hit the sand is an important Australian pastime.

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American viewers were confused about the coloured zinc Chilli put on the kids. Photo: ABC

US mum confused by beach Bluey episode

Aussie mums were quick to head to the comments to dispel the myth of “beach face paint”.

“It’s coloured zinc sunscreen,” one woman said. “We wear it on top of normal sunscreen for extra protection.”

Another person elaborated further. “Thick, strong sunblock. The coloured ones come in a stick, like lip balm that winds up – and are used in high affected areas of sun damage to prevent sun burning.”

One person said that cricketers wore white zinc on their faces all the time, but the comment probably confused matters further as cricket isn’t a big sport in America.

“I’m basically translucent and I remember my mum telling me [zinc] would make me a Ninja Turtle to wear it,” one person shared.

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Some viewers thought the zinc was stickers. Photo: ABC

Coloured zinc can be found around the world

The US mum wasn't the only person wondering what the coloured paint was about. One woman took to Reddit wondering if Australians put stickers on their faces as sun protection.

"I'm confused whether the sunscreen looking like stickers is an animation style thing, or an Australian thing?" she asked. 

"That's zinc. Probably uniquely Australian as far as sunscreen goes," one person responded. 

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Invisible zinc is used on top of sunscreen for extra protection. Photo: Sports Day Essentials

But others said that coloured zinc could be found around the world, not just in Australia.

"I'm American and when I was a kid my mum would buy these coloured zinc sunscreen tubes/sticks and give us warpaint. I can't find them anymore," one person said. 

“Definitely not an Aussie thing – growing up in the 80s in California, if you weren’t wearing a few different colours of zinc, you weren’t cool,” said another.

“I’m South African and we had zinc sunscreen sticks in neon colours,” a third person added.

Originally published as ‘Is beach face paint an Aussie thing? Where can I get some?’