Rate Your Sunscreen and Stay Safe this Summer

Protecting our skin from the sun is important. But you head to the store and are overwhelmed by the sun screen aisle barraging you with SPF 15 to SPF 95.  There’s sunscreen for babies, beaches, athletes.  Spray on or lotion, take your pick.  What in the world are we supposed to do?  How do we pick a safe sunscreen?  Easy!  You can rate your sunscreen at EWG’s Skin Deep Website.  There are a few options for you including the Best Of List (Best Sunscreens), the Worst Of List (Hall of Shame), and the Enter What You Have drop down menu (EWG’s Sunscreen Guide).  It’s so easy to use this website.  Bookmark it, pin it, or memorize it!  Your skin will thank you!

The Food and Drug Admininstration was supposed to release their new regulations on sunscreen prior to the summer of 2012.  That report has been delayed until the end of 2012.  This is disappointing because I was looking forward to finding out which sunscreens are the best for us.  With the help of the  EWG’s Skin Deep website I was able to rate a few sunscreens that we have around our house.

We went shopping over the weekend and picked up the Coppertone Kids sunscreen for everyone in our family to use.  It is rated 2 out of 10.  The lower the number, the less potential harm.  I am realizing that things that are marketed safe for kids are truly family friendly and could (and should) be used by everyone in the family.

Here are a Few Tips When Selecting Sunscreen:

• Look for a sunscreen that has the fewest ingredients with toxicity concerns. You want sunscreens that do not contain the worst offenders: retinyl palmitate and oxybenzone.

• Do not use sprays or powders.

• No SPF values above 50+

• Apply sunscreen correctly.  Adults need a palmful/ounce every two hours.

• Avoid the sun between 10:00am and 2:00 pm

At the end of the day, remember, something IS better than nothing.  Have a safe sun season this year!

Disclaimer: Coupons Are Great has no affiliation with any website mentioned in this post.  We do not get any referral or affiliate credits.  We simply want to educate people on healthy skincare items.