It’s that time of year! Pools, hours of fun, and…sunscreen! Time to lather up!
I was watching the news tonight with my husband and saw an interesting feature on sunscreen. This special feature didn’t surprise me in the least. I’m just glad the news is finally airing something we have talked about for years!
We have always been extremely careful that our sunscreens are natural and free of harmful ingredients. Our early research of sunscreen showed us that people who apply loads of sunscreen on, thinking they are protecting their skin, are actually doing it more harm in the long run!
Most sunscreens contain harmful additives and are made of entirely synthetic ingredients. When you bake in the sun for hours, you are baking synthetic and harmful ingredients into the largest organ of your body…your skin. The toxins don’t stop at the skin level though. They begin to circulate throughout the body as well.
Before you go in the sun for a few hours, you have had it ingrained in your head (by your mom, I’m sure!) to lather yourself up with sunscreen. Have you ever felt nauseous or sick after a day at the pool? This could largely be due, not to sun poisoning as I’ve heard it said, but to a toxic overload in the system from the very thing we are trying to use to protect ourselves with!
On tonight’s news cast, they showed how most sunscreens contain a derivative of Vitamin A. Tumors and lesions occurred on animals when they had sunscreen with this additive applied to their skin. This ingredient is in over 500 products out their on our store shelves. This vitamin is supposedly broken down with sun exposure so it brings up concern that it can cause harmful side effects like cancer. It is not surprising that skin cancer is on the rise, even though more people are consciously applying sunscreen!
When people hear “Vitamin A” they typically think of the naturally occurring vitamin you would find in carrots. However, this recent news proves that not all vitamins are the same, something we have “preached” for years. The reason this “Vitamin A” is harmful is because it is synthetically created as a mirror image of the real thing. However, nothing fake is ever as good as the real thing, and often, it is actually quite harmful!
There are 39 sunscreens that do not contain this synthetic derivative of vitamin A. But I’m not just concerned with this Vitamin in my sunscreen. I want the products I put on my skin, as well as my children’s, to not only protect us and be free of toxins, but promote wrinkle-free skin as I continue to age!
We use a sunscreen called Enfuselle® with an SPF of 30. It is actually formulated with triple-patented Vital Repair+® complex that feeds the cells vitamin C and E. It doesn’t clog the pores either! We love it because it works but doesn’t have harmful ingredients! It’s safe for my kids and for my skin. I want to keep looking young as long as I can!
