I have been working on natural sunblock and natural sunscreen alternatives over the previous 4 years because even ones touted as natural are not good for the skin. Whaaaaaaat?? My chemistry geologist mentor told me how things interact in sunlight on the skin, micas, Titanium dioxide.

Recently my chemist friend told me that Titanium Dioxide does not have great effects on the skin. Oh nooooo. I have added it to a face cream in the past before a trip to the crazy sunlight of Morocco or South Africa.

So the small amount of Titanium Dioxide I have left in my studio I’ll save for using in soapmaking. After all soap is a wash off product.

Now I don’t usually wear sunscreen. I hate HATE the tacky feel the clogging, even of natural stuff. Let alone the nasty chemical stuff that causes hormonal disruptions and cancer. I don’t wear it usually but if needs must on a sunny holiday (which was hmm 8 years ago??) I will put something on my nose and shoulders as a minimum as those catch the light and I have burnt them both so often. I also am an advocate of wearing longer sleeves, that cover the shoulders, big wide floppy hats and staying in the shade. But it is still vital to get sunlight onto bare skin. For vitamin D for mood, strong bones and immunity. Because depression runs in my family, sunlight is essential to staying well. I also find that sunlight makes my joints feel less clickey from the damp winters in the UK.

non nano zinc oxide

Anyway as an alternative to Titanium Dioxide I have been using non Nano Zinc Oxide which is safe on the skin. Yay!! Thumbs up! It’s a white powder so needed careful experimen-tationing (new word) to get it to be nice to use on skin. I have made a balm and also a day cream. For years I was making face creams sans any sun protection , because all of the EU red tape blah de blah but I have clients begging me to add some sun protection to a lovely moistening foundation/base etc. so here we go. I don’t make any claims myself just quote what others have paid hefty scientist fees to discover – so.

So in this moisturizing nourishing day cream is 25 Zinc oxide non Nano which gives a SPF of 50 according to the scientific research out there. Do you own research. It is designed for the sporty outdoors types in blazing sun. SPF 50 sounds very high for your ordinary British housewife in Winter?? But for those on a surfboard, essential. So for the rest of us I used a dose of ____% which scientific papers say has a SPF of —.

mineral sunscreen uk