4 ingredients you should avoid in sunscreens

Wearing sunscreen is one of the best ways to protect your skin all year round from harmful UV rays.  But did you know that many ingredients in non organic sun care creams can also cause irritation and health problems?  Plus with Hawaii taking the radical step to actually ban some chemical sunscreens because of the damage they're causing to their coral reef and seagrass, it's time to take a look at the kinds of ingredients that you'll want to avoid in sunscreens. 

In this blog, we look at the key sun cream ingredients that are conerning, and why choosing an organic sun lotion can be the best choice for your skin, and our planet. 

Silicones and mineral oils

Chemical waterproof sun lotions containing silicones and mineral oils that can block the pores in your skin, so your sweat becomes trapped in your skin's epidermis, leading to prickly heat - an uncomfortable burning and itching, producing tiny blisters over your skin.  Using a natural sun protection milk with mineral sun filters and plant based ingredients, allows your skin to breathe, and avoid the likelihood of prickly heat.  Mineral oils, as the name suggests, come from fossil fuels like petroleum and paraffin and many of us choose to avoid these for environmental reasons too.  Look for mineral oil, paraffinum liquidum, paraffin, isoparaffin, or ingredients like butylene glycol or silicones such as dimethicone on the labelling.

Synthetic fragrances

Often listed as ‘parfum’ or ‘fragrance’ on products, synthetic fragrances can contain 100s of synthetic ingredients that manufacturers are not required to list on their labels. Not knowing what’s in a product is usually enough for people to avoid them, the term fragrance is one of the most common causes of skin sensitivity. So avoid them because you just don’t know what’s in them. Fragrances can contain ingredients like phthalates to help the scent last longer, which are known to be endocrine disruptors. Many people with sensitive skins or issues like eczema choose to avoid them as they contain allergens.

Nanoparticles

Nanoparticles are extremely small particles of any given substance.   In sunscreens, nanoparticles of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are added and sit on top of the skin to reflect the suns rays and prevent burning and skin damage.   These types of sunscreens used to leave white residues on your skin, so nanoparticles were introduce with the idea they would still reflect UVA and UVB, but without the white residue.   There is speculation that particles at this size may stress and cause damage to our cells, and it's already know that inhaling these particles is damaging.   Overall, the long term effects of using nanoparticles is unknown, and if in doubt - leave it out!  

Organic sunscreens also use titanium dioxide and zinc oxide as a physical barrier to harmful UVA and UVB, but at non-nano level.   Today's formulations are easily rubbed in and don't leave a white chalky look on your skin. 

Oxybenzone, octinooxate and octocrylene

These 3 ingredients are popular in synthetic sunscreens, and used as chemical UV filters.  However there is now concern about the impact of these ingredients on our health, and also marine life.

Oxybenzone is being currently investigated as an endocrine disruptor, whilst octinoxate has already been linked to endocrine and reproductive disruption. Given that we absorb up to xx% of what we put on our skin, these are sunscreen ingredients you might want to avoid.  These synthetic ingredients have also been found to cause damage to marine life and precious sea ecosystems including coral reefs, seagrass and wildlife, as the sunscreen you apply will start to wash off once you go for a swim.   So much so that Hawaii has now banned sunscreens containing octinoxate and oxybenzone due to the damage they were having on its marine wildlife, coral reefs and seagrass. Oxybenzone and octocrylene (another synthetic sunscreen ingredient) have also been found in many species of fish, not great for them - or for our food chain.

So how do organic sunscreens work? 

Organic sunscreens do not contain any of the above ingredients - mineral oils, nanoparticles, sythetic colours and fragrances are all banned.   Chemical UV barriers are also banned, whether they've been proven to cause issues for human health, or our environment, or if we just don't know.  

Organic sunscreens contain zinc oxide and titanium dioxide (at non-nano particle levels) that sit on top of the skin, reflecting the sun’s UVA and UVB rays and creating a protective barrier from UVA and UVB rays.  Organic sunscreens also contain plant based ingredients with nourishing and moisturising properties.  Our range of organic suncare products from Organii, includes medium and high factor sun creams that contain skin nourishing organic argan, jojoba, sunflower, olive, karanja oils and rice bran, along with chamomile to work as an anti-inflammatory, mallow leaf extract to soothe and natural vitamin E to defend against free radicals.