Thursday, May 3, 2007

Oh Mister Sun, Sun, Mister Golden Sun....


Sorry about the lack of posts. My daughter has been keeping me busy! Our worms are doing great and hopefully multiplying so they will be able to eat all of our scraps soon. We have been giving them probably only 30% of our scraps now.

The sun is shining more and more and it's getting warm! After a bad sunburn (and I mean BAD...) two years ago, I am always careful about not being in the sun too long. The sunscreen I have had for years is getting too old and needs to be replaced. Plus, I looked on the label and couldn't pronounce any of the ingredients, so that was a red flag that I needed a new product!

Did you know that skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States?? 1.3 million cases reported each year? So I guess all those times my mother begged me to put on suncreen and told me not to sun bathe like all of my friends did, I should have really listened to her! So if sunscreen is supposed to protect us from getting cancer, how come it's loaded with suspected carcinogens like diethanolamine and other ingredients similiar (DEA, TEA). Suspected endocrine disrupters make up a large portion of the suncreen too. I'm not saying that wearing sunscreen is going to give you cancer, but just keep in mind that our skin absorbs everything. I wouldn't eat those chemicals, so why would I put them on my body?

Both my daughter and I have very fair, sensitive skin. I didn't know that the AAP says you shouldn't put sunscreen on babies less than 6 months old! Luckily, my daughter was born in the fall so we never had the need to. But now that it's getting sunny, I had to find sunscreen for both of us.

Now, I don't get any money from the companies I recommend. I simply advertise their products because I have them, like them and use them. A lot of people are overwhelmed with products on the market today, or some people who are switching over to more natural products might be wondering which ones people enjoy the most.

For sunscreen, I chose the California Baby No Fragrance sunscreen for my daughter. Their products are chemical free and free of common allergens. Since both my daughter and I have allergies, what I put on our skin is just as important as what we put in our bodies.

For myself, I love Aubrey Organics products. They are a great company. A while back my blonde hair was turning green from the copper in our water, so I used their "swimmer's shampoo and conditioner" and it helped. Their products are organic, not tested on animals, vegan and the best thing about them is you can pronounce just about every ingredient on the label. Just pick up a bottle of their shampoo and compare to the next natural shampoo. The more you can pronounce, the better! I picked up a bottle of their unscented sunscreen. Just to reiterate my point, look at the ingredients in the sunscreen I bought:

Active Ingredients: Padimate O (PABA Ester), Titanium Dioxide.
Inactive ingredients: Coconut Fatty Acid Cream Base, Organic Aloe Vera, Organic Jojoba Oil, Aloe Vera Oil, Organic Rosa Mosqueta® Rose Hip Seed Oil, Canadian Willowherb Extract, Aubrey’s Preservative (Citrus Seed Extract, Vitamins A, C and E), Silica, Lecithin.


Compared to Coppertone's sunblock SPF 30:

Ingredients: (from retailer or packaging) Active Ingredients: Homosalate, Octocrylene, Octinoxate, Octisalate, Zinc Oxide Inactive Ingredients: Water, Propylene Glycol, PVP/Eicosene Copolymer, Dimethicone, Arachidyl Alcohol, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, Behenyl Alcohol, Arachidyl Glucoside, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Cetearyl Sulfate, Diazolidinyl Urea, PEG-30 Dipolyhydroxystearate, Methylparaben, Propylparaben

I think I'll stick with the Aubrey Organics :)

I urge you to think twice about what you are putting on your skin. The fact that sunscreen is put on skin, then exposed to heat and the sun which opens pores and allows it to absorb more easily should be enough to change your mind!

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