Jul
7
Filed Under Product Safety, Skin Care
If you read other child safety or beauty blogs, you’ve probably seen that the Environmental Working Group has released its 2008 Safer Sunscreen Guide.
Let me preface this by saying that we love what EWG does and what they stand for, however, over the last few months, we’ve been telling our readers to take their cosmetic safety database with a grain of salt. We do sometimes cross reference and share those findings, but with the disclaimer stating that the database is not always accurate. Formulas change so fast that it’s nearly impossible to keep up.
In the instance of the sunscreen guide, however, I was extremely disappointed. A lot of their recommendations contain harmful ingredients, such as parabens, propylene glycol and PEG’s. These are things that I would never put on my own skin, let alone my child’s skin, and I was surprised that an organization dedicated to safer living would recommend products with these chemicals in them.
One of the top “most recommended” brands on the list, was one that we had gotten a lot of inquiries about when we released our own Safer Sunscreen Showdown. And that’s Blue Lizard. It seems that this particular brand gets recommended a lot by pediatricians, however, with all of the chemicals in it, we simply cannot recommend it to our readers.
There is some good news however, and that’s their recommendations on TruKid and California Baby. I can’t even tell you how much I LOVE TruKid’s sunscreen. It’s one of my favorite sunscreens. It goes on greasy at first, but it absorbs really well, and doesn’t leave a white film like a lot of them do. There are no icky chemicals in it, and it smells fabulous. I used it at an amusement park last week and it held up well to my excessive sweating.
We obviously can’t force you to use one of our recommended sunscreens, but we do encourage you to read the labels. Your kids are going to need sunscreen from time to time, and if it’s a situation where you’re going to be sitting on a beach reapplying it all day, wouldn’t you want it to be chemical free?
Related articles:
- SafeMama’s Safer Sunscreen Showdown!
- Review: Green Screen Organic Sunscreen
- SafeMama’s 2009 Safer Sunscreen Cheat Sheet
