Should you Use Homemade Sunscreen?

Natural, homemade items seem to be everywhere all of a sudden. It seems every Pinterest board is filled with recipes for homemade cleaning products, baby food, baby wipes, makeup remover and even sunscreen. Cleaning products seem simple enough; you just mix other cleaning products together by following safe recipes. However, making your own soap or sunscreen does seem a bit over-the-top. It makes you wonder, how safe is homemade sunscreen and should you really use it?

Homemade Sunscreen

The truth behind homemade sunscreen is that it’s actually more harmful than it is helpful. Why? Because chemists that make sunscreen have to use specialized machines to break down the ingredients in the sunscreen, such as zinc and titanium dioxide particles so that they’re distributed evenly throughout the concoction. Additionally, the other ingredients found in many of the homemade sunscreen recipes commonly found on blogs and Pinterest boards are actually harmful and not at all recommended for use.

For example, if you see a recipe that calls for any type of oil, whether it’s coconut oil or rosehip, you’re going to burn. Oil attracts the sun, allowing the harmful UV rays to seep into your body and cause damage to your skin. You will burn faster wear this “sunscreen” than you will not wearing any sunscreen at all. Doesn’t really sound safe, does it?

Store Bought Sunscreen

There are plenty of things you can make at home that will make you feel like a greener, more eco-friendly super-person than you already are. Sunscreen simply isn’t one of them. The process of creating SPF is long, complicated and should only be done using proper equipment – and only by a professional. There is nothing wrong with wearing sunscreen you buy at the supermarket; it’s got one job and it does it just fine provided you use it correctly.

Take your homemade-happy self elsewhere online and find something less dangerous to your health to try making on your own.

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)