The Environmental Working Group just came out with their Sunscreen report, so I decided to stop being a lazy blogger and say something informative about the sunscreen issue.
It seems I’m the last natural/crunchy mamablogger to do so. LOL! But, I have a good reason. You see, I so very rarely wear sunscreen myself. Mostly I just stay out of the sun. Or if I’m going to be in the sun, don’t go during the peak hours and don’t stay out long enough to burn.
But next month I’m going to visit a friend who lives in Florida, and she is the kind of gal who sports a year round tan due to her beachy lifestyle. She’s always outside and she’s always exercising and she’s surfing and stuff and therefore always tan.
photo credit: Ordered Chaos
I was thinking of donning a huge sombrero, but I’m so not a hat person. So I will be having to purchase some sunscreen soon. 
Healthy and Safe and Effective Sunscreen Choices
The bad thing about sunscreens is that many of them can be very toxic and others, not effective. And some are both ineffective AND toxic. Two for one!
Seriously though, some common ingredients found in sunscreens are suspected carcinogens. Really yummy stuff like: triethanolamine, diethanolamine (TEA, DEA), padimate-o, octyl dimethyl PABA, benzophenone, oxybenzone, homosalate, salicylates and parabens. Woo! Say that ten times fast!
Also disturbing is that many commonly used sunscreens contain chemicals that have estrogenic actions. What does that mean? It means that it can interfere with normal sexual development and can cause reproductive problems. Some studies have also shown that chemicals found in sunscreens can be absorbed into the bloodstream.
The really funny part is that all this chemical soup is not even regulated. The FDA has no strict standards for sunscreen. Among other things, a sunscreen can claim to be “broad spectrum” when it’s not.
Thankfully there are sunscreens on the market that are safer. Zinc oxide is a mineral that provides complete UVB and UVA protection. It also has anti-inflammatory properties and is considered a safe sunscreen.
The list on Skin Deep has some recommendations, including California Baby SPF 30 + Sunblock Stick – No Fragrance
So what do you use for sunscreen?
We use Badger around here. My husband is a sunscreen maniac – lots of skin cancer in his family. I tend to let our kids, 2 and 4, play longer with out but he is always on me to put it on. I did not want to bath them in chemicals to protect them from the sun so we did lots of research and our own testing. Badger goes on smooth and has the best feel of the “natural” ones we have tried. It’s not so white and pasty. We also liked California Gold but the manufactuer has been out for awhile now. They also both wear SPF sun hats. My husband works outside and also uses Herbal Armor sunscreen with bug repellent.
We only use sunscreen at the beginning of the season to prevent burning before a base tan is acquired. I feel the dangers from lack of vitamin D outweigh the dangers of careful sun exposure. Getting enough safe sun exposure (thus enough vitamin D) actually prevents cancer according to studies cited on mercola.com. My dh says I love to speculate, but I personally wonder if it isn’t our chemical exposure combined with sunlight that causes skin cancer, and not the sun alone.
I’m as pale and pasty white as you can get- so is my 4 year old son. If he doesn’t have sunscreen on he will BURN and it’s all season long. In the beginning of the summer season or if we are on vacation at a beach everyone gets lathered up at the beginning of the day and then again after long swims. Towards the end of the summer we really only use the sun screen on my face and my 4yr olds face. By then we’ve got a nice farmer tan going
We use Avalon Organics
Hey Carrie,
Great to see you addressing this issue! I actually have both a natural sunscreen and a natural insect repellent now! My sunscreen does have zinc oxide in it, along with avocado, coconut and seabuckthorn oils which all have natural sunscreen properties.
I just wanted to also say that micronized zinc oxide or titanium dioxide are NOT safe-they are super tiny particles, and can be absorbed right into the bloodstream!
Isn’t it irritating that we have to be so careful about these things?
The worst part of this, is that the US government is trying to close-down “cottage” cosmetic businesses, which means that if we allow this to happen….we could be very very limited in what we have access to!
Soooo……scary!
Marcie
I love love love the California Baby sunscreen!! This year I couldn’t find any good deals on it so we tried the Badger Balm and it is pretty nice as well.
As a side note, we also use the CVS brand baby toothpaste (it comes with a finger toothbrush) – it has pretty good ingredients, no flouride, and only natural flavors added. I was pleasantly surprised by this when I found it!
Thanks ladies for all your recommendations and comments
We live in Florida, we tend to stay inside alot during the summer, we use Natural Sun by Aubry Organics but its only a SPF 25 so we are looking at our options. There seem to be more and more these days so that’s a good thing. Years ago when I went looking for a safer alternative this was all I could find.
Thanks for sharing!
I use TruKid Sunny Days SPF 30 sunscreen! It comes in both a lotion and a stick- I discovered it through the EWG as well, it was rated above California Baby which was why I chose it. I tried CB before and neither my kids nor myself were fans of the smell (unscented and scented both!) TruKid sunscreens are great- natural and organic ingredients and really effective! My family used both products while swimming, snorkeling, surfing etc. in Hawaii earlier this summer and none of us got burned at all (that was a first- seriously!).