Product Update

Is Solar Buddies Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Is Solar Buddies from Dragons’ Den still around in 2026? The deal it made, the dragons who invested, and where to buy Solar Buddies today.

Dragons' Den IndexUpdated 29 January 20266 min read

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Solar Buddies is one of the tidier Dragons' Den success stories on record. The suncream applicator for children pitched in series 20 and left with a deal from two Dragons at once, and years on the product is still on shelves. If you found this page trying to work out whether it survived, the short answer is yes.

The Short Answer

Solar Buddies is still in business. The roller ball applicator, designed to let children apply their own sun cream without getting it in their eyes or all over the sofa, is still being sold through the brand's own website and through pharmacy retailers including Boots, Mulligans and Meaghers.

That is a good outcome for a product this specific. Single purpose baby and kids' gadgets either become a staple in the changing bag or disappear within a couple of summers, and Solar Buddies has clearly landed in the first category.

The applicator itself has barely changed in concept since launch, a roller ball head on a squeezable bottle that a child can grip and use unsupervised, and that simplicity is likely part of why it has been easy to keep manufacturing consistently rather than needing constant redesign.

The Pitch

Solar Buddies appeared in series 20, episode 14, pitching in the Kids & Education category. The idea came from two mums who had lived through the daily fight of getting sun cream onto a wriggling toddler and built a mess free applicator to solve it.

They asked the Den for 80,000 pounds in exchange for 20 percent of the business, a straightforward valuation that left plenty of room for the Dragons to negotiate on equity rather than cash.

The pair had already been selling the applicator through smaller channels before the pitch, and used the Den appearance to accelerate distribution rather than to launch from a standing start, which gave the Dragons a genuine sales record to look at rather than just a prototype.

The Deal That Got Done

Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden joined forces on this one, together putting up the full 80,000 pounds asked for at the 20 percent on the table. No haggling on the numbers, which is rare enough in the Den to be worth noting.

A joint deal from two Dragons with very different specialisms, Jones in consumer products and retail, Meaden in sustainable and family focused brands, gave the founders a strong bench of support heading into their next few summers of trading.

Deborah Meaden in particular has a long track record of backing family focused products that solve a genuinely annoying daily task, and a suncream applicator sits comfortably within that pattern, which likely made the pitch an easy yes for her once the product itself proved out.

Why Staying on Shelves Matters

A children's product with a narrow use case lives or dies on repeat purchases and word of mouth among parents, since there is no way to force demand outside of the season it is meant for. Sun cream applicators only really sell in spring and summer, which makes year round survival harder than it looks.

Solar Buddies has managed it by staying stocked at recognisable pharmacy chains rather than relying purely on its own site, which is usually the difference between a product that fades after its TV moment and one that becomes a genuine staple.

It also helps that the applicator solves a problem parents run into every single summer without fail, rather than a one time inconvenience. Products built around a recurring seasonal pain point tend to earn a place in the changing bag once, and then get repurchased or gifted onward without much further marketing needed.

Where Things Stand Now

To recap, Solar Buddies pitched in series 20 for 80,000 pounds at 20 percent, and Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden took the deal together at those terms.

The verdict today is simple. The product is still being made, still being sold, and still stocked at recognisable UK and Irish pharmacy chains as well as through the brand's own website. If you came here wondering whether it survived past its Den appearance, it did, and you can still buy it.

For anyone weighing up whether to buy one now, the fact that independent pharmacy chains across two countries continue to stock it, rather than just the brand's own site, is a reasonable proxy for ongoing demand. Retailers do not keep restocking products that stop selling.

Where to buy Solar Buddies

Still selling as of 29 January 2026. Check today's price and availability.

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See the full Solar Buddies deal breakdown and term sheet →