The verdict
A genuinely useful brand built around a genuine constraint. SOS Daily Rescue Spray is a properly considered product with clinical backing, and the colour range is comfortable, accessible and fairly priced.
What works
- Every product carries National Eczema Association seal of acceptance
- SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray uses hypochlorous acid, which has actual clinical use behind it
- ShineOn Lip Jelly is non-sticky, non-drying and $20
- Prices genuinely accessible for an independent clean brand
What does not
- Colour payoff is modest by design — intense pigment is not what this range does
- Bronzer and contour options are thin, which limits deeper skin tones
- The Tower 28 name and beachy branding undersell the clinical positioning
- SOS Spray needs refrigeration and has a short in-use life that is easy to miss
Amy Liu founded Tower 28 in 2019 after years of working in beauty and being unable to use most of what she sold, because she has eczema. The brand's organising principle is not an aesthetic or an ingredient philosophy — it is a medical constraint, and that turns out to produce a more disciplined product range than an aesthetic does.
Every product carries the National Eczema Association's Seal of Acceptance. That is not a marketing badge you buy; it requires ingredient review against the NEA's criteria and it means something specific about irritant and allergen content.
SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray
The most interesting product here and the one least likely to be understood from the packaging.
It is a hypochlorous acid spray. Hypochlorous acid is produced by human neutrophils as part of the immune response and is used clinically in wound care and, increasingly, in dermatology for inflammatory skin conditions. It is antimicrobial without being an irritant, which is a rare combination.
Tower 28's version is a 0.015% solution in a fine mist. It is used as a post-cleanse step on irritated, broken-out or reactive skin, and the evidence base behind the active is substantially better than behind most things in a clean beauty range.
Two practical points the packaging underplays. Hypochlorous acid is unstable — the bottle should be kept out of heat and light, and it loses potency over months rather than years. And it is not a moisturiser; it needs something after it.
Around $28 for 4 oz.
The colour range
ShineOn Lip Jelly is the bestseller and deserves to be. It is a non-sticky, clear-to-sheer lip gloss with no fragrance, no flavour and no plumping tingle — which sounds like a list of absences and is exactly what makes it wearable for people whose lips react to everything. At around $20 it is well priced.
BeachPlease Luminous Tinted Balm is a cream blush in a pot with a comfortable, blendable texture and a moderate pigment load. SuperDew Highlight Balm is a soft, non-glittery highlighter.
Swipe Serum Concealer is the most recent serious addition and is decent, with a reasonable shade range.
The consistent character across all of it is restraint. These are not high-pigment products. If you want a blush that reads from across a room, buy Rare Beauty. If you want one that will not make your cheeks itch, buy this.
Where the range is thin
Bronzer, contour and anything requiring depth. The shade ranges in the complexion and bronzing products are narrower than the lip and cheek ranges, and deeper skin tones are less well served than they should be for a brand this thoughtful in other respects.
Transparency
Good. Full ingredient lists, a published exclusion standard, and — importantly — the NEA seal as third-party verification rather than self-certification. The brand explains what hypochlorous acid is and what it does rather than hiding behind a trademarked name.
What it does not do well is flag the SOS spray's stability constraints clearly enough at point of sale.
What the NEA seal actually means
Because it is the brand's central credential, it is worth knowing what it does and does not certify.
The National Eczema Association's Seal of Acceptance requires a product to be submitted with its full formulation and safety data, reviewed against criteria covering known irritants, sensitisers and allergens relevant to atopic skin. Products containing common problem ingredients — certain fragrances, strong surfactants, particular preservatives — do not pass. The manufacturer pays a fee for review, which is worth stating plainly.
What it is not: a clinical claim, a guarantee that the product will suit you, or a statement that anything without the seal is unsafe. Plenty of excellent products have simply never been submitted.
What makes it meaningful for Tower 28 specifically is that it applies across the entire range rather than to a hero product. A brand that submits every SKU has accepted a formulation constraint on all of it, and constraints are what produce disciplined ranges.
Ethics
Independent, cruelty-free, and the brand runs the Clean Beauty Summer School programme providing internships and mentorship for underrepresented candidates entering the beauty industry — a substantive commitment rather than a donation line.
Price
$12 to $34, which for an independent brand with this level of formulation discipline is genuinely reasonable.
The verdict
If your skin reacts to things, this is one of a very small number of makeup ranges designed from the start around that problem, and SOS Spray is worth trying whether or not you wear makeup at all.
If your skin is robust and you want intense colour, this range will feel underpowered — and that is the trade it deliberately made.
Prices, formulas and ownership were checked against the brand's own site on May 1, 2026 and change without notice. Screenshots in this review were captured by Shelfproof from public pages. Cosmetic ingredients affect people differently — this is consumer research, not medical, dermatological or legal advice.
