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Monday, June 3, 2013

Safe Sunscreens

As you know from this post and this one, I have recently been exploring safe skin products in more detail. Knowing how many chemicals cosmetics and sunscreens have in them has finally pushed me to make the transition from mainstream products to safer ones--products without cancer-causing ingredients.

I tried to find a sunscreen at my local stores that rates well on EWG's Database, but had no luck. All the sunscreens I found (advertised in huge displays, now that school is out) rate at least a 7 on the Database. (1 is super safe, 10 is the highest toxicity.) And knowing what I now know, I didn't feel comfortable with that. Especially if we're going to have to keep applying the product throughout the day! So I am now anxiously awaiting the sunscreens I ordered from drugstore.com, crossing my fingers they arrive before we leave for our camping trip. (When I did the price comparison, it was cheapest to order from them and get free shipping, rather than order from Amazon.)

After experiencing a continuous spray sunscreen last summer, I really don't want to go back to the regular lotion kind. The spray kind is so much faster to apply on arms and legs, and time is often of the essence when you've got three young children and yourself to cover. But when I looked things up on EWG, I despaired of finding a safe continuous spray, as all the safe products I looked at there were the typical lotion.

Then I found SafeMama.com. Looking through that great list of safe sunscreens, with details for each one, I found what I was looking for! I also found what looks like a great face stick sunscreen--which is another wonderful invention for children. I am so grateful for people who do all the in-depth research on these products and then lay it all out for the rest of us to make our own informed choices!

2 comments:

Rob & Emily Willardson Family said...

Thanks for sharing Katrina! I have heard the spray on kind (which I like for convenience) isn't very good because you can't see which areas are covered or how thick, so you don't necessarily get enough coverage to do good,, especially for kids. The stick, I could go for!

Katrina said...

That's a good point, Emily, and one I'm sure it's wise to be careful about. But after a week with this particular spray kind, I can tell you that it sprays pretty thick. And it sprays white so you can see exactly where it is. In fact, you really have to rub it in for it to soak in, so your concern wasn't an issue, fortunately. And, best of all, none of us got badly (or even moderately) burned on our 5-day camping trip! So I know it works. :)

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