Don't forget the sunscreen.

Back in the day, the highest SPF I owned was 4 and, yes, I even tried baby oil.  For all of my imagined flaws, one of my favorite things about myself is the color of my skin when I have a tan.  Truly they have taken the fun out of everything.

I married a fair, freckle-faced, blue-eyed blond and my children share his coloring.  We've been slathering sunscreen, and shading them with hats, sunglasses and rash guards since day one.  Then one day I was out with my friend who was smearing opaque, white, foul smelling sunscreen on her toddler.  What gives?  Apparently sunscreen is filled with all kinds of toxins.  So now the sun will kill you and so will your sunscreen.


Feeling guilty for rubbing my kids with cancer, I used the Sunscreen Guide on Environmental Working Group and started with Loving Naturals.  The kids smelled like we had soaked them in Patchouli and rolled them in hemp before smoking them on the way to a Dead show.  They were also pasty white and so greasy I wondered if they could actually slip out of our arms. 

Then I tried Coppertone Water Babies Pure & Simple Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 50 (EWG rating=2).  The upside is that it is easily found in most grocery stores and pharmacies, and that it is reasonably priced.  The downside is that it is white and thick and pretty tough to rub in.  Which meant it became a battle to try to convince my husband to apply it on the boys.  Also, he and I were still using pretty poorly rated sunscreens since there was no way in hell we were going to rub this on ourselves.

Finally, I've landed on Beyond Coastal Daily Active Sunscreen, SPF 30 (EWG rating=2).  It rubs in easily which is half the battle - it does not matter how "safe" your sunscreen is if you don't apply or reapply it.  This is a non-mineral sunscreen however so it "blocks" the sun chemically rather than physically.  There are two Beyond Coastal mineral sunscreens if you prefer.  Caveat - you will get a little sun with this as the summer progresses.  Not a burn, mind you, but if you are hoping to keep your Goth complexion through August, this is not the sunscreen for you.  I buy it on Amazon but it's currently overstocked on Luckvitamin.com for $8 / 4 oz.

This is an example of "better not best".  There are safer products than what I have chosen.  However, this is what works for our family and it is much better than our previous sunscreens which were rated 7, 8 and 9.

Don't take my word for it - for more options and detailed reviews, check out SafeMama's Safer Sunscreen Cheat Sheet.