Blast from the past: Adapting your products for summer

One of the things I think is great about making our products is the ability to modify our products not only to our personal preferences but to the weather, season, and specific climate in which we live. (I've long thought this should be a selling point for our products - specially formulated for your town or region!) I have my rainy day conditioner (fewer humectants, more silicones), which I alternate with the arid conditioner (more humectants, slightly fewer silicones). I have camping lotions (thinner and filled with humectants) and around the house in the winter lotions (much thicker and filled with everything in the workshop!) Let's take a look at how we might re-formulate a beloved product for the season! 

MODIFYING A BODY BUTTER FOR THE SUMMER (Original post found here)
Let's re-formulate our body butter to make a very moisturizing, less occlusive, more soothing moisturizer suitable for making our sun parched skin happy during the summer months! We're not changing the purpose of the body butter - to moisturize our skin and make it feel good - but we will switch out a few ingredients to maximize its benefits for this time of year.

ORIGINAL BODY BUTTER RECIPE

So what am I changing?

Water: I'm removing the water entirely and replacing all of it with half aloe vera, half lavender or rose hydrosol. Feel free to use all hydrosol or aloe vera here. Aloe vera is great for sun or wind chapped skin, and lavender or rose hydrosol will soothe inflamed skin. Feel free to use the hydrosols of your choice or just use all water. It's up to you...I'm also removing 5% of the water phase to increase my hydrolyzed proteins (2%) and humectants (3%).

Humectants: I want more of them, but I don't want to increase the sodium lactate above 2% as it can be sun sensitizing at 3%. So I'm including 3% humectant or cationic polymer.

Oils: Normally I'd use fractionated coconut oil (very light), sunflower (light), rice bran (medium), and olive oil (heavy) as my oils. I'm taking out the rice bran and sunflower oils for the summer. I like the olive oil in the summer as it's a humectant, so I'm going to with 3% olive oil, 7% fractionated coconut oil. You might prefer to go with all light oils to make it feel less heavy on your skin. If you want, try a few esters to make it even lighter!  

Butters: Aloe and shea all the way! I love aloe butter - again, for me in the summer, the more the better - and shea is a wonderful moisturizing butter. It's a little heavy, but it's so moisturizing, I don't mind. You can use any butters you like...mango is always nice.

Hydrolyzed proteins: I love oat protein, but the others will do the same job of film forming.

The rest of the ingredients are pretty much the same as I want the IPM to offer a less greasy feeling, I need the emulsifiers and thickeners to do their job, and the preservative is always essential!

SUMMER MODIFIED BODY BUTTER (the changes are listed in green)

WATER PHASE
55% aloe vera and/or hydrosols

2% sodium lactate

3% cationic polymer (condition-eze 7, honeyquat) or other humectant (glycerin, hydrovance, propylene glycol)

2% hydrolyzed protein of choice

OIL PHASE
10% oils (3% olive oil, 7% fractionated coconut oil)
15% butter of choice
6% BTMS, Polawax OR Emulsifying wax NF
3% cetyl alcohol
2% IPM

COOL DOWN PHASE
0.5 to 1% preservative
1% fragrance or essential oil blend
2% cyclomethicone
2% dimethicone

1. Weigh out your water phase in a heat proof container and put into a double boiler.

2. Weigh out your oil phase in a heat proof container and put into your double boiler.

3. When both containers have reached 70C, weigh out your water again (and add more hot water to compensate for any evaporation), then add it to your oil container.

4. Blend with a hand mixer or stick blender for at least 3 minutes. Repeat this process as often as you would like until the temperature reaches 45C.

5. Let cool to 45C, then add your cool down phase ingredients. Mix well with your hand mixer or stick blender, then let cool.

6. When the mixture has cooled to room temperature (a few hours), spoon into a jar and let set before using.

Feel free to modify your creations to fit the weather! Have a good summer...I'm going to get into my air conditioned car to drive to my poorly air conditioned office and think about vegging on the couch at home in our air conditioned room! (Yes, I'm not very environmentally friendly during the summer, but it's not very Swift friendly!)

TWEAKING LOTIONS FOR THE SUMMER (Original found here)

I think I've said it before (yep, I have!) but it bears repeating - you can use any oil and butter combination you want in a lotion as long as you check your emulsifier amount (or re-calculate the HLB value).

Here's an exercise to consider - visit a few sites or scour your files and write down your favourite lotion recipes or ones you want to try. Make up a chart with each ingredient listed - water, humectant, oils, butters, and so on - and see what the differences might be. I think you'll be surprised at how similar the recipes are: A lot of the changes are suggestions in which oils or butters to use, which additives to include, and how to mix it, for instance, making it very fluffy. (Here are a few ideas for substitutions in your lotions and creams...)

Here's an example chart with the three lotions I've made. It's easy to see where I made changes and what the differences are, especially with the oils and butters. I use charts like this to see what ingredients bring what to the party. I can see quite clearly in the non-greasy formula why it's a non-greasy formula - BTMS instead of polawax, no dimethicone, very dry butters and oils - and I can play with those ingredients if I want it a bit greasier.

Making charts can be quite useful to see what ingredients you might want to include in your workshop. If you have only one recipe calling for Hydrovance, check to see what you could substitute so you don't have to order that ingredient for one product.

Let's take a look at how I could have formulated the summer lotion differently while achieving my goals...My goals were including oils good for during and post-sun exposure, reducing ingredients that could make you sun sensitive, reducing the feeling of oiliness, and increasing barrier protection without being too heavy. I need an oil, a humectant, a greasiness reducer, and a barrier ingredient.

For the oils, sesame and wheat germ looked nice - high levels of phytosterols and Vitamin E, so let's use those at 10% each. For the humectant, I can't use sodium lactate or sodium PCA, so I think I'll use Hydrovance at 3%. For the film former, I'll try honeyquat. And for reducing greasiness, I'll try 3% Dry-flo in the water phase.

ANOTHER VERSION OF A SUMMER TIME BODY LOTION

62% water

3% Hydrovance

2% honeyquat - humectant, conditioner, and film former

20% oils - 10% sea buckthorn, 10% rice bran oil

6% emulsifier - Polawax or BTMS or other emulsifier

3% cetyl alcohol

3% Dry-flo - to reduce greasiness without using IPM

0.5% preservative

0.5% fragrance oil

Take a look at the oil phase - we only have 23.5% oils (oils, cetyl alcohol, fragrance oil), which means we need 1/4 the amount of emulsifying wax. 1/4 of 24% is 6%, so we have the right amount. But I need more water to make up 100% - I only have 94% so far - so I'll add 6% to the water phase, for a total water amount of 62%.

This lotion will feel different from the summer time lotion I posted the other day, but it achieves our goals...success!

TWEAKING LOTIONS FOR THE SUMMER CONTINUED (Original can be found here)

Let's say you're looking for an "all natural" lotion. What exactly does this mean? You cannot have a 100% natural lotion because everything we use has been processed in some way. So perhaps we can define it as a lotion created using minimally processed ingredients? I have to use preservative, emulsifier, and thickeners, so right there we have at least 10% of our recipe that is processed. But we can have some fun with the other 90%!

My goals remain the same for a summer time lotion - to include oils good for during and post-sun exposure, reducing ingredients that could make you sun sensitive, reducing the feeling of oiliness, and increasing barrier protection without being too heavy. I need an oil, a humectant, a greasiness reducer, and a barrier ingredient.

We can use honey as a humectant, include aloe and hydrosols in our water phase, and use our oils. Because I don't have silicones as a barrier ingredient and honeyquat or hydrolyzed proteins as film formers, I'm going to include cocoa butter and allantoin as barrier ingredients.

I think I'll include witch hazel in this lotion as is good for sprains and bruises and insect bites. It's astringent, so it will act as the ingredient to make the lotion less greasy, in the place of IPM or Dry-flo. I could choose drier oils or butters, but I like the ones I have so I'll reduce the greasiness elsewhere.

In the water phase, I can substitute many things for the water. I'll have 10% witch hazel to reduce the greasiness, 10% aloe vera for sun exposure, and 10% hydrosol - chamomile is nice - to help with soothing. I could use apple cider vinegar or other liquids, but I don't have any in the house and this will be a nice combination.

ANOTHER VERSION OF A SUMMER TIME BODY LOTION

WATER PHASE

42.5% water

10% aloe vera

10% witch hazel

10% chamomile hydrosol

3% honey

0.5% allantoin

OIL PHASE

15% oils - 7.5% sesame oil, 7.5% wheat germ oil

5% cocoa butter

3% cetyl alcohol

COOL DOWN PHASE

0.5% preservative

0.5% fragrance or essential oils

Let's check out our oils phase - 23%, so we need about 6% emulsifier, so no changes there. We have upped the water phase because we took out other ingredients, so we're using a total of 72.5% water in this lotion. This would have been a lighter lotion than the other versions, but we've added the butter back to the mix, so we should see some thickening there. And we've achieved our goals yet again - we have a lotion with some sun exposure ingredients (the oils, aloe, butter), a humectant (honey), and a barrier ingredient (cocoa butter, allantoin) that shouldn't be too greasy (witch hazel).

Join me tomorrow for fun more fun from the past! 

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What's your favourite summer fragrance?

It's just about summer time (well, in the Northern Hemisphere anyway) and a young woman's thoughts turn to what fragrances she should choose for her seasonal products!

I'm a foodie, and I generally use things like Cream Cheese Frosting and Oatmeal, Milk & Honey (reminds me of marzipan), but in the summer months I switch to more fruity fragrances like Hello Sweet Thang, Lemon Curd, and Jewelled Citrus. But lately, I've been enjoying Yuzu, Wasabi, and White Tea & Ginger as they're fruity with real high notes. I'm also finding the Clementine Cupcake is a good, year 'round fragrance that always reminds me of cupcakes!

Do you switch your fragrances with the seasons? Which ones just scream "It's summer!" to you?

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Blast from the past: Summer product ideas

We had our first taste of summer 'round these parts this week, so I thought I'd resurrect a few posts dealing with product creation for the warmer months!

A FEW THOUGHTS ON SUMMER MUST-HAVE PRODUCTS! (Originally from this post!)
If you're travelling, you'll want to make a few bars for easier packing! I never leave the house without a shampoo, conditioner, body scrub, or foot scrub bar. I don't have to shave my legs (I know, envy me) but I like to bring along a shaving bar if I'm doing a lot of swimming! (If the idea of a shaving bar is weird to you, then try a shaving lotion!)

There are many ways you can adapt your products for summer fun. You can add more aloe for apres sun soothing, you can increase the humectants to draw more moisture to your skin, and you can change your oils to increase the linoleic acid oils to help with any barrier damage you might incur! I know I always need products for my feet - a foot lotion, a more intense foot cream, and modified body butter that becomes a foot cream - thanks to my habit of never wearing socks in the summer! And I know I need some serious exfoliation this time of year, and nothing works better for me than an emulsified sugar scrub in a zingy summer scent (Jewelled Citrus and Hello Sweet Thang are always favourites, although I'm really enjoying Melissa's Froot Loops blend - 1 part lemon curd, 1 part cream cheese frosting!)

I love my summer lotions to be light, although sometimes I need something a little more intense, like a body butter, for after swimming and camping fun!

• Adapting a lotion for summer - including more hydrosols and lighter oils. 
• Adapting a body butter for the summer. 
• My summer time camping fun lotion! 
• And another light lotion idea. 

I need my summer time fun aloe cooling spray to keep me cool, and I need an apres sun exposure aloe spray for my friends who don't seem to realize sunscreen is essential (or you can turn this into a gel)! (The summer time fun aloe cooling spray also works to take smells out of shoes - or at least make them smell minty - and it's great for spraying on really warm feet!)

If you're a sewer,  you could make a few cool ties, a sunglass or dual layer sunglass case, and a headband to keep your hair out of your eyes! And if you like food and eating it outside with friends, try making a shrimp boil! These are a summer staple around our house once corn season starts!

IDEAS FOR HOW TO ADAPT YOUR CURRENT PRODUCTS FOR THE SUMMER! (Original post found here.)

You probably change your fragrances for the summer months, so why not tweak your ingredients to suit the climate? (In fact, you probably already do this in adding humectants and the like, so think of it as a possible selling feature if you're in business!) I'm not a fan of hot weather, humid or not, so I like to re-formulate my products to maximize my cooling and moisturizing.

What are my summer needs? I don't really get out into the sun that much as Raymond has vitiligo and we have to be very careful with his sun exposure (although we do use more than our fair share of sun screen!) I don't tan - I go straight to burn, so I want something to soothe my skin when I have been silly enough to spend time outside without sun screen. (In my defence, I am an outreach family counsellor, so I go to people's homes and other places all day long. I might end up going for a long walk and my sun screen might not be effective a few hours after application. I do need to be more vigilant, but I never know what's going to happen!) I get warm very quickly, so I want to feel as cool as possible. And my hair gets very oily very quickly, so I want maximum degreasing power in my shampoo! Keeping these needs in mind, how can I modify my products for maximum summer awesomeness?

Hair products: I notice my hair gets oilier faster in the summer months so I modify my shampoo bars for maximum degreasing. I switch to all DLS mild and Bioterge 804 and leave out the Amphosol CG, and switch from cocoa butter to orange butter for its wonderful degreasing properties. For the conditioner, I skip the intense conditioning - only on the ends - and go for more detangling properties. (I usually have to keep my hair up in the summer, and it gets really really tangled!)

If you're the swimming type, you might find your hair is drier than normal. Tweak your favourite conditioner by adding more BTMS and cetyl alcohol or add more oils.

Body products...

Oil choices: I switch out to lighter oils that are very moisturizing or good for post-sun exposure. I also use a lot more olive oil in the summer - I like the resemblance to human sebum, but the humectant-y qualities are a big bonus! For my summer sugar scrub, I like to go from about half sunflower, half olive oil to about 90% olive oil, again for the moisture retention.

Butter choices: I like to use a lot of aloe butter in my summer body butter. And I generally use fewer butters in my day time moisturizing lotions so they're less occlusive.

Hydrosols (scroll down a bit if you click the link): I like to switch a lot of my water portion to aloe or lavender for anti-inflammation, cell regeneration, and soothing. Oh, and Voyageur just came out with a few more hydrosols - peppermint, chamomile, and rosemary - so you know I'm going to use the peppermint in my new summer cooling spray! The chamomile will be great combined with the lavender in a toner, and the rosemary will offer extra goodness to a liquid shampoo or conditioner!

Humectants (here and here): I live in a humid area, so the more humectants, the better. For moisturizing lotions or sprays, I go for maximum humectancy! I go nuts combining various humectants - hydrovance, honeyquat, glycerin, and sodium lactate in this spray, condition-eze 7, cromoist, and propylene glycol in another. Go wild with humectants! (But remember that over 3% sodium lactate can make you sun sensitive, so it's always a good idea to stay at 2% or lower!)

Hydrolyzed proteins: I like my hydrolyzed proteins, and I include them in everything to begin with, but in the summer I use them as film formers and moisturizers in place of heavier, more occlusive oils or butters. My summer spray uses the proteins in place of oils and I find it very moisturizing.

Body wash: I like to increase the conditioning agents in my body wash to act as a moisturizer throughout the day. So I'll include up to 5% condition-eze 7 or honeyquat, and I increase the proteins in it to about 4%.

For a light lotion suitable for summer, please check this post from April 6: Make a light lotion.

Join me tomorrow for another blast from the past! 

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Blast from the past: Photoaging

PHOTOAGED SKIN (original post found here!)

How do we define aging skin? It is skin that has...

• dermal and epidermal atrophy (sagging, wrinkling, coarseness)
• reduction in amount of collagen
• hyperkeratosis (thickening of the stratum corneum)
• reduced number of melanocytes, Langerhans cells, and fibroblasts
• shortening of the telomeres on our chromosomes
• reduction in sebum production

What causes aging? There's the natural deterioration of our bodies as we age - it's theorized this has to do with the shortening of the telomeres on our chromosomes (the specialized structures that shield the end of our chromosomes), but there's nothing we can do about that! It's a genetic thing, and it's the stuff of science fiction that we can play with those telomeres to extend our lives or our appearance. We can control the effects of the external world on the aging process, so let's take a look at our exposure to various chemicals and the sun and how it affects our skin.

Photo-aging is defined as aging due to exposure to the sun. UVA light (longer wavelength, 320 to 340 nm) penetrates deeper into our skin to mess with the keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts (these are cells that give skin its strength and resilience). It also acts to generate reactive oxygen species in our skin (like the superoxide anion, hydroxyl radicals, and peroxides), which can provoke DNA damage. UVA produces long term actinic damage (the photo-chemical effects of exposure to the sun) and melanin formation or tanning.

UVB light (a shorter wavelength, 280 to 320 nm) can also generate reactive oxygen species, and can damage DNA directly. It contributes to immunosuppressive, mutagenic, and carcinogenic effects of sunlight. UVB light is the main cause of acute sun burn and sun tanning effects - UVA light makes up about 15% to 24% of these effects.

Reactive oxygen species lead to the depletion of skin's natural anti-oxidant system, which causes oxidative stress, which can lead to tissue damage.

Too much sunlight can also result in an inflammatory response, either by sunburn or through overexposure. Inflammation can result in a sunburn - redness, swelling, and pain - or in the break down of collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid. Once these are broken down through inflammation, it's really hard to build them back up.

All three can be maintained by use of topical retinoids. Collagen can be maintained by Vitamin C (oral or topical), or copper peptide. Oral glucosamine may help maintain our levels of hyaluronic acid. But nothing can rebuild lost elastin, oral or topical.

Sunburns are particularly awful for our skin. Sunburn is defined as chronic inflammation with the release of proteolytic enzymes of the inflammatory system that disrupts the dermal matrix (collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid). The redness, or erythema, is produced by the inflammation.

How do you know if Mr. Sun is the culprit in your skin concerns? Here are a few symptoms (other than a deep sunburn)...

• actinic keratosis - thick or scaly patches on your skin
• solar elastosis - vertical creases, deep wrinkles, or loose and sagging skin (thanks to the breakdown of collagen and elastin)
• yellowing of your skin
• senile purpura (age spots)
• solar comedones - small cysts on our skin (treat with acne related products)
• broken blood vessels - like those found in rosacea type skin
• extreme dryness, roughness, or laxity of the skin
• fine or coarse wrinkles (not really all that helpful 'cause we all get these!)

How can we treat aging or wrinkled skin?

Moisturize! Use those oils, butters, humectants, and cationic ingredients to make your skin feel well hydrated and smooth. Our sebum production drops after about age 50, and is almost down to nothing by age 70. Moisturize often and well!

Use surface smoothing agents like quaternary compounds, hydrolyzed proteins, and silicones to treat skin roughness.

Retinoids, topical and oral, can help reverse fine wrinkles, skin pigmentation issues, and rough skin surfaces. But there are lots of lovely side effects to topical retinoids that almost everyone will see such as inflammation, scaling, and redness. (I used prescription Retin-A for quite a few years to help with acne, and it ruined my skin permanently! Not that this will happen to you!)

Alpha-hydroxy acids and beta-hydroxy acids (also known as salicylic acid), which will remove superficial layers of skin to exfoliate. You can also use light exfoliation to accomplish this goal.

Although some studies show that topical anti-oxidants aren't as effective as taking oral anti-oxidants (specifically Vitamin C), we can use Vitamin C, Vitamin E, CoQ10, and the plant anti-oxidants, specifically green tea polyphenols, soy isoflavones like genistein and daidzein, pomegranate oil or extract tannins, and resveratrol in grape seeds. (Click here - emollients - to see more about polyphenols and phytosterols!) 

UV protection is essential! Use at least 15 to 20 SPF every single day! (Read yesterday's post - click older post at the bottom of this one - to learn more!)

Want to know more about the chemistry of our skin and the various skin types, then click here! This is a permanent link at the right hand side of the page under "links to lists". 

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Blast from the past: Sunscreens

Since my week isn't getting any less busy and I won't have time to write any really original posts, do any experimenting in the workshop, or enjoy some research, I thought I'd do a week of blast from the past posts, those posts that you might not have seen because they're so far back on the blog! Today's selection? Sunscreens! What they are, why we use them, and why we shouldn't make our own! 

WHAT DOES SPF MEAN? (Originally found here...)

What is sun protection factor or SPF? How is it defined? SPF is defined as...

the dose of UV radiation required to produce 1 minimal erythema dose (MED) on protected skin after the application of 2 mg/cm2 of produce divided by the UV radiation to produce 1 MED on unprotected skin.

In other words, it's how much of this stuff you need to use to protect your skin from a dose of radiation that would affect unprotected skin. The higher the number, the more protection you should get. (Sort of...see the post below on sunscreens!) 

"Water resistant" sun screen must maintain its SPF after immersion in water for 40 minutes. "Very water resistant" sunscreen must maintain its SPF after immersion in water for 80 minutes.

Broad spectrum or full coverage sunscreen will protect against both UVB and UVA rays.

So why do we care about sunscreen? Because it is one of the key things you can do every single day to slow down the photo-aging process (join me tomorrow for that topic...)

And please don't make your own. There are so many factors that go into making sunscreen and we can't test it to make sure it is effective! (If you are interested in learning more, this is a great PDF on the topic. So much to think about!)

WHAT EXACTLY IS SUNSCREEN? (Original found here)

Yep, it's that time of year again (at least in the Northern Hemisphere)! It's time to buy buckets of sunscreen and make sure Mr. Sun doesn't make us all red and unhappy! We definitely need to be wearing sunscreen!


There are two types of sunscreen ingredients - physical blockers and chemical blockers. The physical blockers are titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, both of which work by preventing the sun's rays from reaching our skin by reflecting and dispersing them. The chemical sunscreens work by absorbing ultra-violet rays and keep them from penetrating the skin. They are great at blocking about 95% of the UVB rays, but very little UVA. The degree of absorption depends on the type and concentration of chemical sunscreen. Ideally, you'd have a combination of the two in your sunscreen.

To get maximum sunscreen-age, apply it about 15 to 30 minutes before going into the sun so it can penetrate the keratinous layer of your skin. Re-apply it regularly every 2 to 4 hours, and especially if you've been swimming or sweating a lot.

The physical sunscreens are unlikely to cause a reaction on our skin - any reaction you might have is thanks to the other ingredients in the sunscreen - so if you have sensitive skin, stick with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide and be okay with looking a little ghostly (I like this on my face, not so much on my legs!) These sunscreens might feel a little draggy, but it's a small price to pay to avoid sunburns!

If you're out in the sun - meaning, if you ever go outside - don't forget to protect your nose and lips. Your nose gets the most sun exposure, so sunscreen it well. And our lips can be protected with as little as your lipstick on a cloudy day, or with a water resistant sunscreen or lip balm during a sunny day.

Don't forget to get a good pair of UV blocking sunglasses. They'll protect your retinas and they'll make you squint less - and less squinting means fewer wrinkles, so you're looking good as well as feeling good!

How does SPF work? It's all about you! Let's say you burn after 10 minutes in the sun. SPF 15 will get you 150 minutes in the sun. SPF 30 will get you 300 minutes in the sun. But you have to re-apply after about 2 hours with a non-water resistant sunscreen anyway, so what's the point if you take 20 minutes to burn and you have to re-apply it after about 120 minutes? Because SPF 15 will block out about 93% of the UV rays, and SPF 30 will block out about 97%. For very fair skinned people, going from SPF 30 to 50 might get them another 1% coverage. Might not be a big deal for someone who has dark skin, but if you're like my husband (more below), that 1% could mean the difference between a slight reddening of his skin and a burn.

So how do we make our own? We don't.

As you may or may not know, my husband has vitiligo, a condition that leaves him without melanin in big patches in his skin and hair. (This is what they say Michael Jackson had, the condition that was making him white. As Raymond is already quite fair skinned, you don't notice it much.) So we buy sunscreen by the bucketload in the summer to ensure he isn't at risk for burning, which can happen in a few minutes for him. If I could make sunscreen that I could guarantee would work for him, I'd make it. But there are so many factors that go into ensuring a sunscreen works, I don't feel confident that it will prevent him from agonizing pain.

If you're considering making your own sunscreen, there is a lot of chemistry to know. You have to worry not only about the pH of a sunscreen but the emulsification of our lotion when making a sunscreen. As well, how do you know how effective your chosen sunscreen might be? Only by going into the sun and seeing if it works, and anecdotal evidence is not data - it might have been a cloudier than normal day, you might have been under a tree, you might have really sun resistant skin that doesn't burn for 30 minutes or more! If you have a fair skinned friend, she might burn in 10 minutes, and the product that works well for you might mean sunburn for her! 


There are so many scary things out there on the 'net about sunscreen, and I won't give them any validity by putting them into this post. The way I see it? Sunscreens block out the sun's rays. Sun makes me burn. Anything that prevents unnecessary pain today and wrinkling tomorrow works for me. (Click here for a post on pigmented skin through sun exposure and here for a post on photo-aging.)

Yes, I know anecdotes aren't data and this last paragraph is my opinion, but I really haven't found any valid studies showing that sunscreen causes more harm than good. 

If you're worried about sunscreens, then don't use them. Or choose sunscreens containing only certain ingredients, but not others. I hope I've shown you why we shouldn't make our own...

If you want to try a zinc oxide cream - very nice if you've had a little too much fun in the sun - may I suggest this recipe from Voyageur? I've used it for soothing various problems and I like it! I did tweak mine to include 10% aloe vera - good for post sun exposure - and added 2% hydrolyzed protein to the heated water phase and 2% panthenol to the cool down phase. Feel free to switch the stearic acid for cetyl alcohol for a slightly less thick but more glide-y product. And switch the oils if you wish! 

Want to know more about the ingredients in sunscreen? Then click here for zinc oxide and click here for titanium dioxide. And click here for a post on micronized ingredients (it's kinda long with lots of studies and links, so I thought it wiser to link to it than copy it here!). 

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