There are a lot of sunscreen brands out there that say they’re “safe”, but how do you know if they are really safe? Sunscreen is supposed to protect your skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays and even prevent cancer. But, many ingredients used in sunscreen penetrate your skin and could be doing more harm to your health, than good.

Maybe you’ve seen labels advertising “safe sunscreen,” “natural sunscreen,” “reef-safe sunscreen” or “for babies or kids.” These words make you feel like you are choosing a safe option for your family, but most of sunscreen brands that you’ll find on a store shelf actually do contain toxic ingredients.

We’ve done the research, so you don’t have to spend countless hours glued to your computer screen and reading “sunscreen guides” that might not be accurate.

Here’s are five things to consider when choosing safe sunscreen:  

• A truly safe sunscreen will contain a “physical barrier” (a mineral SPF blocking ingredient), NOT a “chemical” SPF blocking ingredient
• A higher SPF does not necessarily mean better protection
  
• Make sure your Zinc oxide and/or Titanium Dioxide are “non-nanoparticle”
• All ingredients in a sunscreen matter, not just the “active” ones
• Ignore marketing buzzwords (“reef-safe”, “organic”, “natural”, “mineral”, etc.) meant to make you think you’re choosing the natural option

 Chemical Sunscreens vs. Mineral Sunscreens

There are two types of “active ingredients” that provide sun protection (ingredients that block sun rays from reaching down into the layers of your skin) – chemical ingredients (there are 15 approved by FDA) and mineral ingredients (there are two approved by FDA).

Chemical barriers are ingredients like octinoxate, oxybenzone, octycrylate, retinyl palmitate, and homosalate (among others) – found in most of the sunscreens that you’ll buy in stores and online. They easily penetrate skin (which is why they rub in so well and so quickly), but this isn’t a good thing.

Nine of the 15 FDA-approved chemical sunscreen ingredients are known “encodrine disruptors,” harmful chemicals that alter the natural function of our hormones such as estrogen, testosterone, progesterone, thyroid and more. Endocrine disruptors have been shown to cause abnormal development in fetuses and growing children, early puberty and premature breast development in girls, low sperm counts in men, and infertility. As if that’s not bad enough, some of these endocrine disruptors may generate DNA-damaging chemicals called “free radicals” in the body, and they can lead to cancer. Some studies have found that chemical sunscreen can promote indirect DNA damage, which causes the most lethal form of skin cancer: malignant melanoma.

Just two of the 17 FDA-approved ingredients for sun protection are “mineral” ingredients, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. These two ingredients provide a physical barrier between your body and the sun and they offer broad-spectrum UVA/UVB protection without the harmful potential disease implications that the chemical ingredients mentioned above carry. 

Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are also the only two SPF ingredients that are  “reef” safe, meaning they don’t contribute to coral bleaching. According to the National Park Service of Hawaii, 14,000 tons of toxic sunscreen enter coral reefs every year. This effect contributes to stress and mortality of the coral. For this reason, Hawaii is the first state in the US to ban the sale of sunscreen containing octinoxate or oxybenzone. So, choosing a physical/mineral sunscreen helps you, but also helps the environment.
NOTE: just because a product is marked as being “reef-safe” does NOT necessarily mean that it’s non-toxic and safe … it just means that the active ingredient is either zinc or titanium rather than the 15 chemical SPF ingredients mentioned above which do known damage to coral reefs..

 SPF Number is Not “The Holy Grail” 

You want “Broad Spectrum Coverage.” Most people have no idea about this, but the “SPF” number on a sunscreen only rates protection from UVB rays, the ones that cause sunburn – think “B” for burn.

UVA rays, those that cause long-term damage, leathering, wrinkling and aging of the skin – think “A” for aging, aren’t included in the SPF number. It’s possible to be out in the sun and not burn, yet expose yourself to long-term cellular damage and skin cancer.  

UVB-protecting sunscreen does not protect you from all the harmful effects of the sun. It’s important to protect against both UVA and UVB rays because both types cause melanoma.

Choose a “broad spectrum” sunscreen with SPF 30+. As for the number, anything above SPF 30 is really just marketing. SPF 30 blocks 97% of UVB rays and SPF 50 blocks 98%, so the increase in protection with those higher numbers is virtually nothing.

 Say NO to Nanoparticles

Did you know that all zinc oxides and titanium dioxides are not the same? In recent years, traditional sunscreen manufacturers have pulverized zinc and/or titanium into microscopic particles called “nanoparticles”.

They do this for 2 reasons: 1) it allows them to still call themselves a “mineral sunscreen” using either zinc or titanium dioxide (which sound more “natural”), and 2) because of their microscopic size, these particles rub in very quickly and leave a clear finish on the skin.

Here’s the problem though: zinc and titanium are metals, and when they’re microscopically-sized (“nanoparticles”), they now are able to pass through the layers of your skin and accumulate in the body. You don’t want these metals inside of your body! You want your zinc or titanium-based sunscreen to remain just under the surface of the skin to provide safe sun protection. Size matters!

Look for the “non-nanoparticle” or “non-nano” distinction on your mineral sunscreen – and if it doesn’t specifically say “non-nanoparticle” or “non-nano” zinc or titanium, you likely DO HAVE harmful nanoparticles in the product you’re looking at.

ALL Ingredients Matter, not just the “Active Ingredients” 

Be sure to read the full ingredient panel of the sunscreen that you’re about to purchase, because many manufacturers like to highlight just the “active” ingredients.

It’s not enough to just have non-nanoparticle zinc and/or titanium as the active ingredients, the inactive ingredients must be clean as well. Whether they’re considered active or inactive, those ingredients are being rubbed into your skin.

Your skin will absorb all of the ingredients even if they are considered “inactive”. In the case of spray sunscreens, the ingredients will also be inhaled into your lungs. 

A great way to determine if your sunscreen is safe for you and your family is by looking at the full ingredient list and cross-referencing it against our “List of Ingredients to Avoid”.

It’s all about the Ingredients, the Rest is just Marketing! 

IIsn’t that what it always comes down to? We get it – there’s a lot of marketing out there – powerful, beautiful branding, and magical “buzzwords” proclaiming “natural”, “safe for babies”, “organic.”, “sensitive skin”, “reef-safe” and others. These are all of catch-phrases that get us to buy.

But, it always comes down to the ingredients inside the bottle or tube. Reading the backside of your sunscreen (both the active and inactive ingredients) is the only single way for anyone to know if a product is truly safe and 99% of people don’t know how to do that, and/or don’t want to learn how to do that.

It doesn’t have to be difficult, stressful, or super expensive either, to choose the very best for yourself and your family … that’s why we created our company. We remove toxins, so you can protect yourself and your family.

Pure Haven Sunscreens are your Solution!

Pure Haven offers products that will work without worry! 

Our sunscreens rub in better than any other truly non-toxic formula that we’ve ever tried (and that’s a lot) – and they protect for hours! Safe for babies, kids, too of course, with no scent.

We can help you make your home a Pure Haven!

Pure Haven is the only company in the USA (that we know of), making a full line of products that are 100% free of toxins, guaranteed … they work without worry! 

Learning about ingredients and what brands are safe (most aren’t) can be overwhelming. This is why we make Pure Haven products – we do the research and obsessing over ingredients, so you don’t have to! 

Reach out to our team if you’d like to learn more about Pure Haven products, to order, and/or learn more about joining our team of Consultants (earn 20-40% commission/discounts and so much more).