Safe Sunscreens…
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011I’ve just spent the last week studying sunscreens. My son has such light skin, he just keeps burning, even when the bottle states SPF 90-100. How is this possible? How do all those chemicals work, anyway?
Take Banana Boat’s baby formula – it would probably come as a great surprise that a baby formula would rate 7 (red) in the cosmetics database. It contains retinyl palmitate, which is a form of vitamin A that should never be used in the sun, since it can actually stimulate tumor growth when exposed to sunlight.
Oxybenzone is another chemical that shouldn’t even be used on children at all, since it is a hormone disrupter…
Next, there is octocrylene, which breaks down and produces free radicals in sunlight, (free radicals are unstable molecules that can damage normal skin cells and turn them into cancer cells) and avobenzone, which also breaks down in sunlight and produces unknown chemical compounds (all FDA approved, of course!).
In addition I can also mention two toxic pegs, and two different parabens. Need I say anything more??? Would you put this sunscreen on a baby, or in a toxic waste dump? I certainly wouldn’t touch it…
So, what is the alternative? Photostable zinc and titanium mineral sunscreens? They may be safe to use, but who wants to look like Casper the Friendly Ghost? If you are like me, you would like to be safe, without the ghosty look. So, how would you know what to buy?
With a jungle of choices out there with more or less of a hefty price tags? How do you know what to choose?
Here is a hint: I just came across this awesome natural sunscreen review (with pictures!). This woman has put so much energy into her reviews that I want as many people as possible to know about her work. So, make sure you go and check out her natural sunscreen reviews!
Tags: safe sunscreens