Have you thought about making your own sunscreen? Once I learned how easy it was to make my own organic & all natural sun protection I didn’t see a reason to buy expensive and toxic sunscreen from the store. Get the benefit of my time and research, take a look at my experiment and decide for yourself!
There were several FABULOUS alternative recipes shared in our blog post Organic & all natural sun protection, and here are a few more ideas to consider. SPOILER ALERT: ‘The EASY button’ is in THIS blog!! But if you have not read that blog, please read it first so you don’t miss out on important safety tips and great recipes! Thanks again to TLC One Drop At A Time for the ideas and support!
If you’re not sure why anyone would bother making their own sunscreen, grab your bottle now or look it up online and take a look at the ingredients. Are any of THESE ingredients in it? Research this for yourself at Environmental Working Group. If you want the cliff notes though, those ingredients are hormone mimickers. That means they trick our bodies into thinking they are things like estrogen. Hormone mimickers, AKA endocrine disruptors, are linked to awful things like reproductive issues, cystic acne, thyroid and autoimmune conditions, cancer and – man boobs!
*Photo from gardengoddess.com*
You might want to rethink using any of these ingredients on your body, because your skin absorbs them and they’re in your bloodstream in under 30 seconds. If you’re thinking that doesn’t matter, it does. These ingredients are found in our water supply! And a little piece of information you need to have repeated to you is big businesses sho aint gonna make any changes as long as people buy their product! C’mon! We’ve been asleep at the wheel for a few decades and people are sick and tired of being sick and tired!!!
The good news is… you can still do better for yourself, your family and the planet AND BE LAZY. Read on…
Did you know you can make your own sunscreen with as little as TWO ingredients… and NONE of the toxins??? I didn’t either until I became a member of Young Living Essential Oils and began to research the costs involved with toxins healthwise, and in dollars and scents. (Snort! Ya see what I did there?!?) I was really surprised how easy it was to make things for my family that were not only non-toxic for us and the planet, but were also health-promoting, and they’re extremely effective and cost us less too!
Did you know that many natural oils in general may provide some SPF?
*Note for you oil savvy people – carrot seed oil is NOT carrot seed essential oil!* This photo shows some approximate Sun Protection Factors of many natural oils, although I’m not sure how accurate it is. But, I discovered that when protecting myself from the sun it didn’t really matter.
My own experiment in 2016 using carrot seed essential oil mixed with coconut oil proved to me that the two of them alone are not even close to enough protection for my fair skin. So this year I wanted to test…everything! And I did test a bunch, and learned one important thing: The majority of sun protection will come from adding non-nano zinc oxide. 🙂 If nothing else, you need to get that product!!!
My experiment…
I had a little reading to do one morning, so I sectioned off my stomach into 9 areas to conduct some seriously “official research”. My husband laughed his @$$ off, BTW. And he is still laughing…
Instead of playing tic tac toe like he wanted, I labeled each section and applied the corresponding sun protection. Numbers 1-4 had the zinc oxide. 😉
After an hour and a half in the sun, I peeled the tape off. Take a good look… cuz I did it FOR YOU!
After 15 minutes I wiped off any excess. All for you…
Aaaand 4 hours later this is what we have. I bet you’re wondering what was used! (still, for you) Scroll down…
Left side, top to bottom:
#1 DIY Body Butter + non-nano zinc oxide
#2 Solid body balm (we used our lip balm recipe!) + non-nano zinc oxide
#3 Coconut oil + carrot seed essential oil + non-nano zinc oxide
Middle row, top to bottom:
#4 Olive oil + non-nano zinc oxide
#5 straight Carrot seed Essential oil (item #3081)
#6 straight Helichrysum Essential Oil (item #3563)
Right side, top to bottom:
#7 straight carrot seed oil (not carrot seed essential oil – and this tested the worst!)
#8 straight red raspberry seed oil (will use this in other skin recipes)
#9 Coconut oil + Carrot seed Essential oil
So, what I learned from this experiment and LOTS of hours of research is:
A) You do not have to spend a lot of money for safe and natural protection from the sun! The simple addition of non-nano zinc oxide to ANY natural carrier oil is all that we really need. So, get you some NOW!
B) We don’t have to do much for the base product, either. If we want to create a body butter for it, great! A solid balm, woohoo! But we don’t have to. We can mix non-nano zinc oxide into coconut oil (which liquefies at 74-76 degrees, anyway) or we can put it into ANY liquid oil. I have used everything from olive oil to sweet almond oil with excellent results!
C) making a balm with beeswax offers WATERPROOF protection. (You go, Mother Nature!)
D) Reapply as often as you would any other sunscreen (But, ugh on reapplying the toxic stuff!)
You can make any product you feel works the best for you. I added about 20 drops of lavender to my Sun Protection Body Balm Solid (in the deodorant tube below) and it’s SUCH a delight to smell, as well as effective WATERPROOF protection from the sun! Click here for that recipe
Here’s a recipe so simple a child could make it. Men, too:
When I added a liquid oil to the repertoire I first put it into a dropper bottle (it was number 4 in the experiment) and that worked great, but found it to be much more convenient to apply in a roll-on bottle. 😉 You can make that a shatterproof roll on bottle with simple duct tape.
OR go for plastic if you’re not using many essential oils in your recipe. This 1.7 ounce plastic roll on bottle is a good option, but be sure to adjust your non nano zinc oxide to 2 tsp for the difference in the ounces!
And here is the easiest recipe yet!!!!
So, there you have it. NO toxins, people! It’s SOO easy. Just TWO ingredients and none of that oxy… benzo… yucky stuff. Add optional Young Living lavender if you want it to smell like heaven!! You can add Young Living Essential Oils to ANY skin recipe to provide additional skin support. (PS…I was able to easily pour the extra oil back into the container)
Be sure to adjust the Non Nano Zinc Oxide to the level YOU need…
NON NANO ZINC OXIDE CONVERSION KEY
The way to gauge your non-nano zinc oxide to balm/butter/oil ratio is @ 25% of the weight of the product.
*Ex 1: If you make an 8 oz. body butter, add in 2 ounces of non-nano zinc oxide for a sun protection factor of about 20.
*Ex 2: For the all natural lip balm recipe above (each tablespoon weighing about 1/2 oz) you’d want to mix 3 tablespoons of non-nano zinc oxide into the balm while in it’s liquefied state, for approximately 20 SPF.
*Ex 3: For a 16 oz bottle of liquid oil, add 4 ounces or 1/4 cup or 4 Tablespoons for approximate SPF 20. Add more NNZO if you need more SPF.
You can always add more NNZO depending on your needs (said the lady of Scandinavian descent!)
The following links connect you to Amazon to buy everything you’d need to DIY your own natural sun protection, however you choose to do that:
Non-Nano Zinc Oxide This is the KEY ingredient to making sunscreen, folks. NO oil can offer you a guaranteed protection from the sun. You need this!! And I learned a lot by reading the Q & A section on the non nano zinc oxide. 😉
Optional Young Living lavender If you have a friend doing Young Living as a business, they will appreciate you reaching out to them. And if not, we’re glad to help.1 ounce glass roll on bottle Make it shatterproof easily (and cute!) with duct tape
Plastic roll on deodorant bottle 1.7 ounce Good choice if you are making sunscreen without essential oil
For any solid balms or butters:
(Click here to link to those recipes)
Organic Shea butter If you are making a balm or butter of any kind – lip balm, balm in a tube or body butter, you need shea!!
Beeswax nature’s waterproofer!!
If you have questions about making body butter or balm products, I suggest re-reading the first all natural sun protection blog.
Just remember…I DID ALLLLL OF THIS – FOR YOU!
**cue the martyr music**
BE part of the shift away from lab-created junk, and toward all that is naturally, instinctively good! Join Young Living as part of the Anointed By Abba team. It’s less expensive and easier than you think, and we are helping to change statistics, friends! We are taking money out of big businesses’ hands, supporting small businesses (I am growing a team of TEACHERS who would very much appreciate your business!!) while we learn to make better things for our families and the Earth!! But if you’d just like to hear about our $25 back offer when you order your Young Living Premium Starter Kit (gets you 24% off any future orders) I totally understand! It’s also a great place to check out why the quality of essential oil matters and why our’s is unmatched.
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Organic & all natural sun protection part 1