This Is Why You Definitely Shouldn’t Use DIY Sunscreen
This is a serious warning.
DIY-ing can be so much fun, whether it’s getting crafty to make your own wedding decorations, or whipping up your own teeth whitening paste – making stuff yourself can be really satisfying, as well as saving you loads of cash.
However, there are certain things we should leave to the pros, and according to a new video by beauty and science guru Michelle from the blog Lab Muffin, sunscreen is one of them.
A recent study talking about the harm store-bought sunscreen can cause to the environment, especially coral reefs, prompted many people to avoid buying SPF products, which has led to a plethora of DIY sunscreen tutorials online.
The recipes usually involve some kind of oil and the main ingredient to block UV rays, zinc oxide. But mixing zinc with a base does not result in an effective sunscreen, as Michelle explains in her video.
There are many other factors that play an important role, such as the distribution, the pH of the sunscreen, the interaction of the different ingredients, and how it settles in the bottle.
So while the percentage of zinc in your homemade sunscreen may be the same as in the store-bought one, chances are the SPF is completely different, and there is no way for you to determine the actual SPF of your DIY concoction.
Legally, sunscreen is treated as a medicine, as it protects us from developing skin cancer. This alone should be reason enough not to attempt to make it yourself, as the consequences from DIY sunscreen can be much more severe than from non-medicinal products you might be tempted to DIY.
As Michelle so poignantly says in her video, you wouldn’t “put on a radiation suit you found on Pinterest before going into a nuclear zone.”
While this may sound exaggerated and like an unfair comparison, just remembering that one person in the US dies of melanoma every hour, and racking up as little as five sunburns can double your risk of getting skin cancer, should be enough to make you slap on a high-quality sunscreen every day.
If you’re still not convinced, watch Michelle’s eye-opening video…
Media via youtube.com.
Comment: Do you always use sunscreen?
