Body & Personal Care
Sunscreen, deodorant, bug spray and kids' skincare — the categories where the safest answer is usually the one that actually gets used.
What makes this department different
In this department more than any other, a product nobody wants to wear is not the safer choice. Sunscreen that stays in the bag and repellent that gets skipped both fail at the thing they were bought for.
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Why this department exists
Numbers worth knowing
no oil of lemon eucalyptus or PMD, says CDC - covering clothing and stroller netting do the work instead
Repellents, by ageis all the law requires for a fragrance - a whole mixture may be listed simply as "Fragrance"
Why fragrance-free comes firstsunscreen actives FDA has *proposed* as safe and effective on current data - zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. The proposal is not yet in effect
FDA Q&A: Deemed Final Order and Proposed Order for Over-the-Counter Sunscreen, 2021
Mineral vs chemicalEvery figure here links its source. We don't cite a statistic we haven't read in the original.
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What's in Body & Personal
Sunscreen & Sun Safety
Mineral vs chemical filters, what to avoid in sunscreen for children, and safer picks by age.
7 guides · 15 products
Free change first: Shade and clothing do more work than any bottle.
- ShoppingThe non-toxic sunscreen cheat sheet
- ShoppingThe summer safety checklist
- ExplainerNatural mineral sunscreen, explained
- ExplainerMineral vs chemical sunscreen for kids: lotion, stick and spray compared
Deodorant
Aluminum-free and lower-tox deodorant for teens and adults, and what the tradeoffs actually are.
2 guides · 8 products
Free change first: Give the switch two to four weeks — most people quit inside that window.
- ShoppingSafer deodorant cheat sheet
- ShoppingAluminum-Free Deodorant: What's on the Label of Dove, Secret, Degree, Old Spice and Native, and What We'd Buy
Bug Spray & Repellents
DEET, picaridin and plant-based repellents — what works, what is age-appropriate, what to skip.
2 guides · 11 products
Free change first: Under three, physical protection does the work — cover up before you spray.
- ShoppingSafer bug repellent cheat sheet
- ShoppingDEET-Free Bug Spray, Sorted by Active Ingredient, and What Each Label Says
Kids Skincare
Lotions, washes and eczema care without fragrance and common irritants.
9 guides · 34 products
Free change first: Filter for fragrance-free first. It costs nothing and removes most reactions.
- ShoppingCheat Sheet: Calendula cream for dry, irritated skin
- ReviewMambino Organics review: Oh Baby! Belly Butter
- ShoppingHead lice: what "naturally" can and cannot do
- ShoppingCheat sheet: safer hair detanglers
Know the risks
Room by room
The same products, sorted by where they actually sit in your home — what tends to be a problem in each room, and the swap worth making first.
Print and go
Cheat sheets for this department
Worth reading
Related
Use beats theory here
Sun protection and insect repellent both have a well-established job, and a product that gets avoided does not do it. That shapes our recommendations more than it does in other departments: texture, smell and how it feels on skin are treated as real criteria, not soft ones.
Where a trade-off exists between an ingredient someone would rather avoid and a product they will reliably use, the guides lay the trade-off out instead of pretending there is a free answer.
"Natural" is not a standard
Nothing on a personal-care label has to mean what a shopper assumes it means, and several of the most reassuring words are not defined by anyone. Each guide below says which claims map to a real standard and which are simply the brand's own phrasing.
Kids' skin is a different question
Children's skin is not adult skin scaled down, and the products marketed for it vary widely in how much that is reflected in the formulation rather than the packaging. Where a guide's answer changes for children, it says so directly.
Every source we cite is checked against our criteria first — see how we check our sources.