You see that your kids are having a great time at the beach under the bright blazing sun, you know it’s time for them to cover up or get out of the sun or else that awful shade of pink will start to appear on their skin. You politely ask them to come over and under the umbrella out of the sun for a bit and you are met with the ultimate resistance! “No mom!! We want to stay in the water!!”
Recently you have started to read about the chemicals and toxins that our commercial sunscreens are laden with and now your confused as to what to do in this situation. You don’t want to put those nasty chemicals on your children’s skin, you don’t want them to burn, and you don’t want to ruin their fun out in the sun.
I can totally understand your confusion as I had the exact same situation and the exact same thoughts as you!
For those times when getting your children out of the sun is just not going to happen and you have to pull out the big guns and use some sunscreen, I have the BEST homemade natural sunscreen recipe for you.
The benefits of making your own:
- Less expensive than store bought brands.
- Chemical free so you can feel great about putting it on your children’s skin AND it works!
- Super easy to make with just 3 ingredients.
- Fun project to do with your kids to get them involved.
Sunscreen Recipe:
Ingredients
- ½ cup Virgin Coconut Oil
- 2 Tablespoons Non Nana Zinc Oxide
- 1 Tablespoon Red Raspberry Seed Oil
(*I found these ingredients on amazon but your local health food store is a great place too)
Directions
- Place coconut oil in food processor.
- Pulse the coconut oil in food processor for approximately 1 minute until it becomes “whipped”.
- Slowly add Zinc Oxide and Red Raspberry Seed Oil to food processor and blend together with the whipped coconut oil.
- Add mixture to small container. I prefer a small glass mason jar.
To know specifically how much SPF is contained in the lotion is somewhat of a challenge as there are varying amounts of research done on the different carrier oils (coconut oil, raspberry seed oil). If you or your children have fair skin and burn easily I would recommend you add more zinc oxide to your mixture. As a general rule…
- SPF 2-5: Use 5% zinc oxide
- SPF 6-11: Use 10% zinc oxide
- SPF 12-19: use 15% zinc oxide
- SPF 20+: use 20% zinc oxide
Please test out the recipe on your skin and change up the recipe to suit the needs of your skin. The sunscreen is also not waterproof so applying it after swimming is recommended.
Now get outside and enjoy some sunshine, hurry act quick! Where we are from in Canada it doesn’t last long so enjoy every moment of it.