Homemade Sunscreen

'Tis the season! I made my own sunscreen. I used to think it was a total waste of time to do it but, since reading many different blogs about the horrendous toxicity of brand name sunscreens I gave it a try.

 'Aint she cute?

I got the recipe from a gal in one of my moms group's blog My Merry Messy Life - Thanks Sara!

She goes into great detail about why store brand sunscreen is horrible for you and your babies! There are many chemicals in them that aren't even necessary to protect you from the sun! Nuts.

EWG.org also explains some Surprising facts about sunscreen that I find incredibly interesting. The scariest fact to me is that sunscreen doesn't necessarily protect you from getting skin cancer. Although scientists conclude that you can cut your risk in half by avoiding tanning beds and severe sunburns. 

What's very interesting though is that sunscreen sales have exceeded 1 billion dollars in the past five years but the numbers of deadly melanoma have more than doubled in the last 30 years. How does this even make sense?? It doesn't. So I have resulted in making my own!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup raw, unrefined shea butter or cocoa butter ( I used shea butter from Amazon)
1/2 cup raw organic coconut oil (I but mine in bulk from Costco or SAMS)
1/2 cup sweet almond oil (other carrier oils are fine to use as well)
2 tbsp beeswax (for waterproofing)
8 tbsp non-nono zinc oxide (this makes the sunscreen about 40 spf)
2 tbsp of water
OPTIONAL- Essential oil for fragrance. ( I used lavender only and it smells heavenly-about 20 drops)
*** DO NOT USE ANY CITRUS IT ATTRACTS THE SUN***

 Instructions from My Merry Messy Life

1. In a double boiler (or a smaller pot inside of a larger pot that has water in it), melt together the shea butter, beeswax, coconut oil and almond oil together.
2. Once it all turns to liquid, let the oils cool in the fridge (I put the pot in the fridge once it returns to room temperature so I don’t have to clean more dishes)
3. Once it has returned to being hard (an hour or more), whip it with a hand mixer or a standing mixer for a few minutes.
4. Then, add the water, zinc oxide and optional essential oils.
5. Whip for about five minutes to emulsify the ingredients.
6. Scoop into a jar and you’re done!

I used an almond butter jar and a Clinique body butter jar to keep all of it in.

I LOVE THE RESULTS

My sunscreen smells so much better than the store bought kind, its more moisturizing, and its not toxic :D I love it I love it I love it!! I've used it on a 1 year old on up to a 6 year old and none of them were burned or complained that it burned their eyes!

ENJOY

xoxo GG