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Filed Under FAQ, Skin Care

We get this question often. I think mainly due to the fact that the EWG has it rated in their Top 10 recommended brands. It’s true, Blue Lizard doesn’t use oxybenzone like many other brands but the sunscreen ingredient isn’t what has kept it off our Safer Sunscreen Cheat Sheet the last 2 years. Below is the list of ingredients from the Blue Lizard “Chemical Free” Baby Sunscreen*:

Active ingredients: zinc oxide (10.0%), titanium dioxide (5.0%)

Inactive ingredients: purified water, ethylhexyl palmitate, C12-15 alkyl benzoate, ethylhexyl stearate, polyglyceryl-4 isostearate, cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 dimethicone, hexyl laurate, propylene glycol, cetyl dimethicone, trimethylated silica/dimethicone, octododecyl neopentanoate, VP/hexadecene copolymer, methyl glucose dioleate, PEG-7 hydrogenated castor oil, sorbitol oleate, hydrogenated castor oil, beeswax, stearic acid, cetyl dimethicone, methylparaben, propylparaben, ethylparaben, disodium EDTA, diazolidinyl urea, tocopheryl acetate

What baffles me is that on this particular bottle of sunscreen it says “chemical free” right on the label. Now, it’s true I am no scientist but just looking at that list of ingredients, I can pretty much guess that’s not really the case. Unless in a parallel universe propylene glycol, PEG/PPG-10, methylparaben, propylparaben, ethylparaben’s are natural. So for those of you who are looking for a chemical free option there are sunscreens worth checking out that offer the same SPF protection.

This is a perfect example for those of you out there emailing us confused about all the crazy ingredients we worry about now. This sunscreen is rated a 2 in the Skin Deep Database despite its chemical formula packed with parabens. So while yes, Skin Deep is a great resource / starting point, it just validates that doing a little homework and getting yourself more familiar with label reading can go a long way.

*This is the ingredients formulation I could find. The Blue Lizards website conveniently has broken links where they disclose their ingredients. If someone has a bottle or knows where a more recent formulation list can be found let me know and I’ll edit this post to reflect the changes.

Posted by: SafeMama Kathy on May 13, 2009