These days, the importance of wearing sunscreen goes unchallenged. Regardless of whether you are planning to sunbathe on the beach or just doing errands around town, products with a solid SPF are a vital part of your skincare routine.
Sunscreen doesn’t just protect against sunburn and skin cancer. By preventing harmful UV rays from damaging the skin, sunscreen can help prevent visible signs of aging as well. This is why these days SPF isn’t just for holidays, but for everyday use as well.
However, not every sunscreen is the same, and there are plenty of products out there which can have some pretty dubious stuff in them. From environmentally-unfriendly microplastics to chemicals which can actually cause damage to your skin, it is important to understand a little more about what goes into your bottle of sunblock, and what the best products you can find are.
Let’s take a look at what goes into regular sunscreens, what you should be on the lookout for, some sunscreen ingredients to avoid, and what some of the best alternative options are!
Physical/Mineral vs Chemical Sunscreens
The biggest difference to take into account when choosing your sunscreen is whether you want a physical/mineral sunblock, or a chemical sunscreen.
Mineral sunblocks contain physical ingredients that literally block the sun. They use minerals like zinc oxide and titanium oxide, which form a layer on your skin and reflect the damaging UV rays of the sun. These minerals are natural, and non-toxic.
Chemical sunscreens use, you guessed it, chemicals like oxybenzone or octinoxate, which are absorbed into the skin, and then in turn absorb the radiation from the sun and convert it into heat. These are also usually non-toxic, but as they are absorbed they do enter the bloodstream, and also the ecosystem, and can have unwanted secondary effects.
Mineral sunscreens
Mineral sunscreens are physical blockers, using naturally-occurring substances to form a protective layer on your skin to block UV radiation and reflect the sun’s rays, stopping them from penetrating the skin in the first place. Mineral sunscreens are more of a prevention tactic than a mitigation tactic, avoiding the issue of the sun’s effects on your skin at all by literally blocking it.
Mineral sunscreens use two major ingredients, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, to provide an effective and safe layer that blocks UV radiation. These naturally-occurring minerals have been tested and deemed safe by the FDA, and have the extra-added benefit of being gentler on your skin. As they are not absorbed, they are less likely to irritate sensitive skin or cause unwanted reactions.
Chemical sunscreens
Chemical sunscreens are a more complex prospect, as they use non-natural and (supposedly) non-toxic chemicals to absorb the sun’s rays, using a chemical reaction to break down the harmful radiation and release it as heat. This reaction uses up the molecules of the sunscreen as it works, which is why reapplying sunscreen after a certain amount of time is necessary.
Some of the ingredients that are often found in chemical sunscreens are controversial, and are thought to be potentially damaging to the skin or the environment. Here are a few of the most common, and the potential impacts they can have.
Benzophenone-3, also known as Oxybenzone
One of the most concerning ingredients in chemical sunscreen is benzophenone-3 or oxybenzone. Research has shown that it can be a direct cause of coral bleaching, which is not great if you are planning on swimming in the sea after a quick sunbathe. Oxybenzone has actually been banned in Hawaii, and it is not considered reef-safe. Sunscreens containing oxybenzone have also been shown to cause irritation to eyes, as well as containing synthetic estrogen, which can affect your hormones!
Octinoxate
Octinoxate is another ingredient that has fallen foul of the authorities in Hawaii, again for its potentially damaging effects on coral reefs and marine life. Some tests have found that it can cause intense skin irritation, and even provoke allergies, as well as showing signs of hormonal impacts in some animal studies.
Avobenzone
Not quite as bad as the first two ingredients, avobenzone can cause severe irritation in some people. It is also often mixed with an ingredient called octisalate in order to make it sun-stable, which can be toxic for underwater environments.
Nanoparticles
Nanoparticles (also known as microplastics or microbeads) are increasingly in the news these days, as one of the most problematic causes of damage and pollution to the oceans. Microplastics are tiny plastic particles found in exfoliants and some sunblocks, as well as derived from broken-down plastic waste. These microbeads can be toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic, and can last for hundreds, even thousands of years before being broken down.
Retinyl Palmitate
Retinyl palmitate is actually a type of vitamin A, an antioxidant. ‘Great!’, you might say – antioxidants are super important for our skin health, and vitamin A compounds and foods are a vital part of a serious skincare routine. However, the problem with retinyl palmitate is that when it encounters UV rays, a reaction occurs and it is broken down into molecules known as ‘free radicals’. These molecules have been shown in certain studies to cause cancerous growths – quite literally the last thing you want from a sunblock or an antioxidant!
Are chemical sunscreens safe?
As shown above, plenty of the ingredients regularly used in chemical sunscreens can be unsafe, both for your skin, and for the environment. They have generally been more popular as they absorb more easily and don’t leave a white cast, but while brands are increasingly moving away from using these controversial chemicals, many people find that mineral sunblocks are a better choice. Aside from the potentially damaging effects of some chemical sunscreens, they just aren’t as effective as their physical alternatives!
So if you want to avoid potential skin damage, and want to protect the natural world, avoiding sunblock that contains the chemicals listed above is a great step.
Sunscreens to try
Here are a few of my favorite sunscreens that avoid the harmful ingredients mentioned above, are environmentally friendly, while being easy to apply and pleasant to use.
Drunk Elephant Umbra Tinte Physical Daily Defense Broad Spectrum Sunscreen
Price – $36.00
SPF – 30
Type – Mineral
Drunk Elephant offers 30 SPF (the minimum I’d recommend to ensure solid protection) with 20% zinc oxide, alongside some excellent additional ingredients like astaxanthin, an antioxidant which prevents sunburn and reduces wrinkles, and grape extract, which is great for the skin.
It’s a good choice for almost any skin type – Normal, Dry, Combination, or Oily – and even offers protection against damaging free radicals thanks to the inclusion of sunflower shoot extract.
Versed Guards Up Daily Mineral Sunscreen
Price – $22.00
SPF – 35
Type – Mineral
A neat little 1.7 oz package makes this delightfully branded, award-winning sunscreen a perfect choice for your face, and its broad-spectrum 35 SPF mineral filters aren’t a bad reason either. It’s extremely environmentally-friendly thanks to its main ingredient – non-nano zinc oxide, which is considered to be the most eco-friendly sunscreen option, particularly when it comes to protecting corals and marine life.
Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare All-Physical Lightweight Wrinkle Defense Broad Spectrum Sunscreen
Price – $42.00
SPF – 30
Type – Mineral
Another sunblock that uses zinc oxide, this excellent option from Dr Dennis Gross is a superb choice for your go-to, day-to-day sunscreen. It leaves almost no white cast, meaning it looks and feels great, and is oil-free, phthalate-free, paraben-free, and cruelty-free. Formulated with sea buckthorn, ferulic acid, and lingonberry it is fantastic for your overall skin health, and it is so sheer you can even layer it under your make-up.
Banana Boat Sport Mineral
Price – $11.00
SPF – 50
Type – Mineral
While the best, fanciest, most boutique mineral sunblocks are undeniably excellent, that excellence comes at a price. While fantastic for your everyday skincare, that 1.7 oz tube of sunscreen will disappear before you’ve gotten through your first mai tai. That’s when you need a bigger option, and this mineral sunblock from Banana Boat is the answer. Coming in a family-sized 9 oz tube, it will last multiple beach days, and is sweat- and water-resistant to prevent immediate burns after a dip in the ocean. It is also an excellent choice for those of us with sensitive skin, as it comes with a seal of approval from the National Eczema Association!
Neutrogena Sheer Zinc Mineral Sunscreen
Price – $11.00
SPF – 50
Type – Mineral
Another surprisingly excellent budget find that is available in most drugstores (and found at rock-bottom price on Amazon), Neutrogena’s Sheer Zinc sunscreen combines protection against UVA and UVB rays with a wonderfully non-greasy formula. It also gets the nod from the National Eczema Association, and is free of fragrance, parabens, phthalates, and dyes.
Supergoop! Mineral Matte Screen
Price – $38.00
SPF – 40
Type – Mineral
People with larger pores often suffer with thicker sunblocks as they can enhance the look of bigger pores and draw unwanted attention. Luckily, Supergoop! is on the case. Their Mineral Matte Screen is super-light and totally translucent, which creates a matte finish when the cream dries, blurring larger pores and smoothing out the look of your skin. Of course, it also has a more practical job to do, which it does excellently, thanks to butterfly brush extract, zinc oxide, and titanium dioxide.
Dr. Brandt Skincare Liquid Sun Shield Daily Brightening Mineral Sunscreen
Price – $65.00
SPF – 50
Type – Mineral
This luxe serum is truly special, with non-nano zinc oxide doing the heavy lifting in the sun protection department, and a whole host of other ingredients offering awesome benefits for your skin. Plankton extract helps prevent hyper-pigmentation, clary sage ferment adds brightness and vitality, and it is one of the sheerest options out there, meaning no white cast and making it an awesome base for make-up.
Conclusion
Protecting our skin against the sun’s rays is one of the most important parts of skincare, and so sunscreen is vitally important. When we are choosing our sunblock we need to find a balance between protection, look and feel, and skin safety, which is why some of the harsher ingredients in chemical sunscreens make them worth avoiding. The mineral sunscreens above are a small selection of the wide variety of environmentally-friendly, skin-safe sunblocks out there that help you enjoy the sun safe in the knowledge that you are protecting your skin and the planet!
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