I would love to sell sunscreen

I really would.

Renee,

I'm interested to know if you sell natural, safe sunscreen products. If you do, what is the SPF range? Is it water repellent for sports? What is the cost?

Thank you,

Claude

Here's the deal: while there are some great sunscreen products on the market, I know my readers well. They prefer something where they fully understand the ingredients going into the product, and they’d like to know that they could make it themselves if they wanted to. Most importantly, they want to know that it works at least as effectively as store-bought sunscreen. In a nutshell, they want to know it's a safe sunscreen.

homemade, safe, mineral liquid and cream sunscreen

If I sold safe sunscreen, what would the ingredient list look like?

Zinc oxide. The Environmental Working Group included zinc oxide as one of the safest ingredients to use in a sunscreen, citing that it gives “excellent UVA protection”, very little chance of an allergic reaction, no hormone disruption, and hardly any skin penetration.
Coconut oil. It certainly doesn’t have to be coconut oil, but it’s what I’ve used in my family’s sunscreen and I’m sticking to it. It’s a good oil to blend the zinc oxide with, and because it’s liquefied in warmer weather, it will create a nice creamy texture to your sunscreen.
Shea butter. This butter is so nourishing to the skin. Your sunscreen will not only act as a protection from UVA but it will act as a lotion to condition your skin. (It's optional... if you don't want the extra lotion-y feel, it can be left out.)
Beeswax. Your sunscreen needs something to emulsify the ingredients into one cream, and that’s the job of the beeswax. Beeswax is also a thickener, keeping it thick enough to hold together in your beach bag without turning it into liquid form.

That's it!

No need for oxybenzone, or octinoxate, or the common sunscreen preservative methylisothiazolinone (named “allergen of the year” by the American Contact Dermatitis Society).

So if I create the recipe that my customers approve of, and follow the SPF requirements set by the FDA, I’ve got the perfect product, right?

Not so fast, Surfer.

(Don't give up hope, though. You can use our Simply Soothing Rash Cream in a pinch because the ingredients are all there... it's on YOU to make sure you don't burn.)

I dove into the research with the hope of having something ready for you to buy (this was back in 2015).

Here’s what I found about safe sunscreen regulations:

Prior to 2012, FDA regulations for sunscreens dealt almost exclusively with protection against sunburn, which is primarily caused by ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation from the sun. Now the FDA regulates for warnings about skin cancer and early skin aging as well, which is contributed by ultraviolet A (UVA) radiation. When you read a sunscreen label offering “broad spectrum” sun protection, that product has been tested for both UVB and UVA.

If I wanted to sell a sunscreen online, here’s what I would need to do:

I would need to send in a batch of sunscreen to be tested at an FDA approved test facility. I checked around and found that these cost several thousand dollars. This shouldn’t stop the savvy business person if there’s a good return on investment, but…
Testing one batch does not mean automatic approval. I would have to send in batch after batch, and pay for each one, until one was approved. Ouch. That would require some serious leg work first, which can be done… but what about the hiccups like…
Blending zinc oxide into your batch of sunscreen does not mean that the zinc oxide is equally blended throughout the cream. This is something to consider when you make it at home. Although you may have a fairly consistent blend, your SPF could vary (albeit slightly) within the same batch of sunscreen. There’s a risk with each batch. Bwaaah… back to the drawing board, or investing in a very powerful blender.
Zinc oxide is zinc oxide, which does leave a bit of whiteness on the skin. The more zinc that is blended in, the higher the SPF, but who wants to look like a ghost? While I might be fine with an SPF of 15, someone else might insist on a 50, which brings on an even greater amount of FDA regulation. It comes down to what my customers want…
Finally, there’s the whole waterproof claim. Even if I could prove the sunscreen is waterproof, the FDA does not allow me to say that it’s waterproof. I can’t call it sunblock, either. I could call it water resistant, if I’m willing to test the length of time the sunscreen is water resistant, and pay for that test, too.

And so, while I used to make sunscreen for our family, now I just grab our Simply Soothing Rash Stick and keep that handy. If you do make your own, remember about the blending aspect of it (#3 above). When you make sunscreen, you are making it at your own risk. As always, be aware of the dangers of overextended exposure to the sun and cover when necessary… with clothing, or sunscreen.

A Safe Sunscreen Company I Recommend:

While I use our Simply Soothing as a back-up, if I know I'll be at the beach for an extended period of time (especially in the beginning of the summer), I pack my 3rd Rock Sunscreen. I love the smell, it acts somewhat like a lotion, and it's extremely effective. Find it here (affiliate link) and/or read my experience with it here.

An Extensive Review of Safe Sunscreens by Katie from Kitchen Stewardship

If you're really into sunscreen but don't have time to dig in and find out the pros and cons of all the various companies, I highly recommend following Katie of Kitchen Stewardship. She's sacrificed years of deep research, experimentation, and her family's skin to bring you her top choices. Read those here: https://www.kitchenstewardship.com/natural-mineral-sunscreen-reviews/

Renee Harris, owner

MadeOn Skin Care

P.S. Are you interested in even more research? Here are some links to read up on:

Regulatory Explainer: Understanding the Regulation of New Sunscreen Ingredients - Published March 2014. Explains which sunscreen ingredients are approved now, and why there’s a hold-up of having other sunscreen ingredients approved.

Labeling and Effectiveness Testing: Sunscreen Drug Products for Over-The-Counter Human Use – Published December 2012. Everything you want to know about labeling and testing, straight from the FDA.

The Trouble With Sunscreen Chemicals – Published 2015. The Environmental Working Group’s research on sunscreen ingredients and their safety levels.

More Help for Sun-Parched Skin

Simply Shea Facial Emollient

Simply Soothing Rash Cream

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Simply Soothing Rash Cream Testimonial

Jane W:

This rash cream is wonderful!!!! It works on all of my family’s skin rashes, irritations, itches - we use it for everything. And it works!!

Only cream I use on my baby’s bum

Love that this cream is safe for babies and it really works! Rashes clear up so quickly! Good on mosquito bites too!

Thumbs up!

Love it like all the other products I've purchased from you.

So impressed!

I am a notoriously slow healer. Recently I had a very light brush with the oven door and didn't think anything of it - just hot, no pain. But still I had a burn. Because I'm not used to thinking outside the box I didn't try the rash cream for almost a week. A slight burn that others would have shrugged off in that time was not getting any better. Finally I thought of trying it, and it _rapidly_ healed in just a very few days, and now I only have a slight pink spot where the burn was. I am very impressed.

Wow!

I was so excited that this worked! I have a patch of eczema on one finger. It has been red and itchy for a month. After using the rash cream once, it started improving. The cream takes the redness and itchiness away if I use a little cream on it daily.

Soothing

It's very soft and goes on gently. Immediate relief. (I didn't have a severe rash.) No scent, which is nice.

Love the clean simple recipe🩷

I like this product and use it for eczema & allergic reactions. Helps with itchy skin as well. Over the years if I use a brace that has neoprene in it, even for a short time my skin turns red like a burn, redder for more contact, and even blister like a burn. Of course the less time exposure, the quicker it will heal. I had some small red areas from a leg brace 8-10 hours of exposure(forgot to wear brace over a cotton sleeve). Stopped the itching and in the am the redness much less, gone in 3 days. When my daughter was a baby, desitin was my go to, it also worked well for skinned knees. One thing about it always bothered me was that you could not just wash it off, well maybe you could but with much scrubbing, skin damage & pain, defeating the purpose of its use. This is one reason I like the clean simple recipe for use. You don’t want to provoke a reaction on top of what you are trying to treat. Good to have it on hand for the multiple uses it has, and you will be able to treat a skin issue sooner than later.

Soothing Rash Cream

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Rash Cream

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Simply soothing Rash lotion

I purchased this in the stick form for my daughter-in-law to use on our seven month old grandson who has eczema on his back and ankles. I just saw him yesterday and took a look at his eczema and it is so so much improved. She is very pleased and thankful. Thank you for such a great product.

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