Jody Johnson: Natural sunscreen – the why’s and how’s

Finally, perhaps my time has arrived and much of what I’ve held near and dear to my heart (aka “common sense”) has become “cool” to the trendy and fickle masses. Getting back to basics and saving money wherever and however we can is always a step forward.

Making our own sunscreen will save money, but it will, as well, enable us to be assured that we are putting the best ingredients on and, yes, “in” us as all ingredients applied topically passes into us via “transdermal travel.”

Sunscreens have become important and very necessary what with the disappearance of the ozone layer; whereas we used to mainly connect sunscreen with the summer months, it would totally be a responsible habit to begin applying it year around. For us females, this chore is a little more natural, as we are used to applying moisturizers mornings and evenings; most guys don’t give a thought to protecting their skin. Remember, “old new tricks, guys.”

Another good reason to make our own sunscreen is to be able to avoid extra and unneeded/harmful chemicals coming into our bodies. “Shelf life” of commercially prepared health and beauty products will most generally be a bad thing if it is “long” and much better if it is “short.” Preservatives are only healthy for shelves, not humans.

Formulations

For those of us not comfortable in the “science lab” and who don’t like to experiment and play around with perfecting formulations and such, here is your best bet. Select your favorite cost-effective body lotion or cream, and for every 1 ounce of product, add 250 mgs of crushed vitamin C (if you can purchase the “C with rosehips” added, this is even better). I use the old-fashioned apothecary pill smasher, but if you don’t have one, you can put several tables of C in a blender and pulverize them into a fine powder. If you use 1,000 mg tablets and throw in, say, 30 pills, then in order to get an accurate facsimile of one 1,000 mg pill, you’d have to divide the powder into 30 equal portions and then add one of those “equal portions” to 4 ounces of your favorite lotion. Mix it well to ascertain that the vitamin C gets evenly dispersed into the emollient. When you apply this, make sure you don’t get it into sensitive or naturally dry areas as the vitamin C can have an exfoliating effect.

Now, for those of us a little more adventurous, here are some additional ideas. If you tend to have chronically dry skin or eczema, use coconut oil as your basic lotion or cream and add the vitamin C as explained earlier and vitamin E oil (the d-alpha tocopherol).

If you tend to be oily skinned, you may want to suspend (mix) your vitamin C powder in aloe vera gel and add it to some witch hazel (two parts aloe gel to one part of witch hazel).

You can put this healthy, homemade preparation in a wide-mouth jar or in a plastic flit-top container for an easier dispense.

And, if you happen to be a fragrance freak as I am, you can get very crazy and carried away and “soup up your sunscreen” via essential oils, designer scents in oil form, etc. If you don’t want to go to all that trouble, just make sure when you select your lotion or cream that it has a pleasant scene already built in. This type of product is very cost effective and can be found at most of our “discount” type retailers with a huge selection of fragrances.

The vitamin C content in the cream or lotion is supposed to protect from sunburn and ALSO save the skin from cellular damage. This was a conclusive result from a study done by Sheldon Pinnell, M.D., Chief of Dermatology, Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

Optional added ingredients are zinc oxide, almond oil flaxseed oil and green tea extract (powder or liquid)

Happy sunning!

Jody Johnson is a self-taught salutogenesist and an investigative health reporter. She is a columnist for The Carthage Press.