Fantastic for homemade sunblock!
As a mother of a 4-month-old, I am naturally super-duper-careful of everything that comes in contact with my baby boy. I have always been a label-reader... and now I do it even more. Well... I had been struggling with all the choices of lotions and potions to put on his delicate skin. Diaper rash one day, out in the hot California sun the next day. And when you start reading labels, you start to realize that all the "natural" products out there aren't really that. Call me neurotic, but when I saw all that un-pronounceable junk they put in "baby" sunscreen, diaper rash cream, and even "baby" lotion, I decided to make my own concoctions. Soooooooo.... here we go! I started my experiment with sunblock and got a bunch of very effective and natural recipes on the internet. Since zinc oxide is the core ingredient of any good sunblock, I wanted the good stuff. So I started researching that, too. I had no idea that there were different qualities! From my research I learned, you want to stay away from the "nanonized" stuff because it is absorbed by the body and could potentially cause cancer. The jury may still be out on this, but I don't like to take chances when it comes to my little one. So I got this stuff. But does it work? I made my sunblock at what I estimated to be about 30SPF and I tried it on myself first. My Irish skin is prone to eczema breakouts and cooks to a bright red hue in about 2 minutes flat in the California sun (especially June). I put on a thin layer but due to the nature of zinc oxide, couldn't get my skin to absorb the stuff completely. So I took my clown-face outside... and 1 hour later I'm still a pale-faced Irish girl :) I have worn many sunscreens, and even Neutrogena's SPF 100 doesn't protect me this well. So yes, I would definitely recommend this product... it works almost even too well
Read More...