Why Natural Sunscreens are Important

This post is sponsored by Goddess Garden Organics Sunscreen.

As a Florida family, sunscreen plays an important role in our lives.  We spend so much time outdoors (year-round) and if we leave the house without sunscreen, the entire family will end up with rosy cheeks, burnt noses, and a farmers tan.  As a child, I was blessed with the golden “Coppertone” style tan lines which were popular in my youth.  Since then, both of my parents have had sun spots and cancerous spots removed from their face, back, and shoulders.  I realized at that time that I should embrace my “peaches and cream” complexion and not worry about my tan.  I made it a priority in our lives to protect my children from future skin damage and slather them with sunscreen when we’re outside.

Unfortunately, we go through a LOT of sunscreen and there aren’t many safe, natural options available at big box stores.  We’ve ended up relying on the cheap green “No-Ad” bottle of sunscreen that’s available at WalMart.  Active ingredients: Avobenzone, Homosalate, Octicalate, and Oxybenzone.  Inactive ingredients: I can’t even pronounce most of the words; Acrylates Copolymer, Acrylates, Fragrance, Ethylparaben…I’ll stop now before I get too depressed!  The primary ingredients that you want to stay away from in your sunscreen are oxybenzone, octinoxate, isobutane, phthalates, and parabens.  These ingredients are absorbed into your skin and bloodstream.

Mineral sunscreens have a much different ingredient list.  The common active ingredients in any mineral sunscreen are zinc and titanium dioxide.  Minerals sit on the surface of your skin and reflect the sun away from your body.  They do not absorb into your body and are much better at protecting your skin from sun damage.  As an ambassador for Goddess Garden, I’ve had a chance to sample their natural sunscreen line and have been very happy with the products so far.  They are a little more pricy than the No-Ad brand that we’re accustomed to using, but they are SO much safer for our family.  Goddess Garden is available in lotion, spray, and trigger spray formulas.  They are all SPF30 (protects against 97% of the suns damaging rays), have natural plant-based ingredients, contains organic ingredients, non-nano, biodegradeable, non-GMO, vegan, gluten-free, and reef safe.  The only active ingredients are zinc and titanium dioxide.  They are lightly scented with lavender essential oils (the sport and baby formulas are un-scented) and don’t use any artificial fragrances.

I’ve been sampling the Goddess Garden products for a little over a week and I’m impressed with the quality and how easy they are to apply.  In the past I’ve tried several different brands (Honest, Block Island, Babyganics, Balm Baby, and many more) of safer sunscreens.  While some have worked well for us, most of them leave a thick, white, pasty coating on our skin and are very difficult to apply.  Goddess Garden does not leave that white pasty coating and it applies beautifully.  The kids are loving the spray because I never let them use the conventional spray sunscreens because of the horrible ingredients.  Their friends are always using them and I just cannot handle the smells.  I’ve been applying the facial sunscreen every morning before I leave the house.  It works well underneath my makeup, isn’t sticky, and has a nice lavender scent.

I’m working on a series of posts featuring Goddess Garden and some practical sun safety tips for the entire family.  Submit a question in the comments section of this post and I’ll answer them in an upcoming post.  What would you like to know about sunscreens? Sun safety? Kids and sun? or specific questions about the Goddess Garden products?   

This post was created as part of the Goddess Garden Organics Ambassador Campaign in which I am a financially compensated blogger. The opinions are my own based on my own experiences.

Want to try Goddess Garden sunscreens?  The links below are affiliate links to Amazon and I will earn a small commission if you purchase using these links.  Thanks in advance!!