Saturday, May 31, 2008

Natural sunscreens?

As summer approaches, the need for some sort of natural sunscreen becomes more and more urgent. Unless a product has undergone long and costly tests, it may not legally be marketed as a sunscreen. One can not state that a product has an SPF (Sun protection factor) of 5, 15, 30 etc. without the specific product having undergone the tests.

Consequently, we make no claims about any of the oils in the following list. However, if you are tempted to try your own sunscreens, these are the oils that you might want to include:

Red Raspberry Seed Oil - tested to have an SPF of between 28 and 50. (Oomah et al, 2000.) Our shipment won't be in for another week or so...sigh.

Cranberry Seed Oil - sited in various patent applications, further research ongoing.

Seabuckthorn berry co2 - Absorbs UVB rays, may act as a powerful sun screen. (Beveridge, T., Li, T. S. C., Oomah, B. O. and Smith, A., J. Agric. Food Chem., 1999,)

Helichyrsum essential oil/hydrosol - (Shaath, et al)

Hazelnut Oil - strong sun filtering action (Price, ITR Chile)

Further research shows that any oil high in tocopherols may add at least some protection. This would, of course, include my beloved Argan oil, Pomegranate CO2, Seabuckthorn Berry CO2, and the Cranberry Seed Oil mentioned above.

Blends of any and all of the above ingredients might help to protect your skin from the burning rays of the sun.

On another day we'll discuss options for when you forgot the sunscreen and need to treat a sunburn.

1 comment:

Marge said...

Post script... Christi reminded me of another oil that I forgot..

She found research indicating that Meadowfoam Seed Oil, our newest, and one of our longest lasting oils also has a level of sunprotection.