15/04/2022
Yea ..the sun has got his hat on! Have you? At least make sure you’re stocked up with a good sunscreen. I have some in stock ..and it’s the good stuff!
☀️ THE BENEFITS OF MINERAL BASED SUNSCREENS ☀️
The following is an unbiased article about mineral sunscreens. It’s not written by Forever or any other manufacturer.
What is a Mineral Sun Screen?
When we talk about mineral sunscreen, we mean one that uses zinc oxide to protect you from the sun. Mineral sunscreen is also known as physical sunscreen. These minerals form an incredibly thin, physical shield on your skin, that deflects the sun’s rays.
So, What Are The Benefits Of Mineral / Physical Sun Screen?
1. No Need To Wait..
Because mineral sun screen acts as a reflective barrier, protection is immediate, and there is no need to wait for it to protect you. Synthetic sunscreens can take up to 30 minutes to work properly as they first have to absorb into the skin.
2. Some Minerals Can Actively Benefit The Skin
Zinc oxide is good for the skin. It is a key active ingredient in many skin care formulations such as nappy rash creams and acne treatments, as well as being helpful for burns and wounds.
It has both an antibacterial action and is used as a building block for skin repair.
So, a zinc oxide sun cream can be a kind of 2-in-1 – both a sunscreen and active skin care repair cream. Synthetic sunscreens on the other hand, offer no additional skin benefits.
3. Zinc Oxide is Efficient, Providing Broad Spectrum Sun Screen
With zinc oxide sunscreen you get an additional – and crucial – 2 for the price of 1 – both UVA and UVB protection. UVB rays are the ones that damage the upper layers of the skin and give you sunburn. UVA rays are those that cause premature ageing, such as wrinkles and sun spots, and skin cancer.
Chemical sunscreen filters mostly protect against UVB radiation and often need more than one type of synthetic sun filter (or zinc oxide as well) to achieve the full range of protection.
Mineral sunscreens with zinc oxide are thus super-efficient. When choosing any sunscreen, look for the words “full spectrum” or “broad spectrum” and or “UVA in a circle”. This means that the product protects from both UVB and UVA radiation.
4. Fewer Health Risks
Like much of what you put on the skin, chemical sun screens are absorbed into the body and have been found in blood, urine and breast milk samples. This wouldn’t be an issue in itself, but the same synthetic chemical sun screen ingredients are linked to health concerns.
More research is needed to fully understand the harmful effects of chemical sunscreens and in particular, the ‘cocktail effect’ of combining them with other sunscreen filters and other skincare additives.
Until then regulatory bodies across the world like the EU Council or the FDA won’t take any steps to ban these chemicals.
Organic certification bodies take the opposite approach and use the precautionary principle of ‘in in doubt, leave it out’. So, all the artificial sunscreen filters are banned under organic health and beauty standards. Only the mineral sunscreen filters are allowed as they are not associated with any health risks.
5. Natural Sun screens Are More Likely To Contain Beneficial Antioxidants
Physical sunscreen that use minerals are generally likely to contain botanical ingredients, potentially even from organic agriculture. These natural and certainly organic plant extracts are rich in antioxidant vitamins which are equally important in protecting the skin from sun-induced premature ageing as the UVA and UVB inhibitors. Plant oils and butters like shea, olive oil and cocoa butter are rich in vitamins that will help scavenge free radicals.
6. Mineral Sun Screen Is Less Environmentally Damaging
Ingredients like oxybenzone are also linked to negative environmental impacts including pollution, where evidence has revealed damage to coral reefs when this chemical is washed off of swimmers (NOAA 2015).
7. Mineral Sun Screens Don’t Irritate Or Clog Your Skin
Many dermatologists believe that mineral sunscreens are less irritating for sensitive or problem skin, are more suitable for babies, and are less likely to lead to contact dermatitis or aggravate acne. Not only are the minerals themselves non-irritant, but because they sit on the skin, rather than being absorbed, they are less likely to provoke a reaction.
8. Sun Screen Minerals are Photostable
Some chemical sunscreens, such as avobenzone, are very unstable and break down in sunlight, so have to be combined with other ingredients. That doesn’t mean all chemical ones break down, but the increased risk, means that you are reliant on the formulator and safety assessor doing a good job.
Forever’s Aloe Sunscreen contains the benefits of aloe and zinc oxide so it’s doubly beneficial for the skin!
£19.12 for 118ml
*Remember to discard any opened sunscreen from last year and check use by dates on any unopened tubes. The active ingredients deteriorate over time.
