Did You Search For Your Sunscreen Yet?

In the midst of this sizzlin' summer, I cannot stress enough to check out your sunscreen at the Environmental Working Group's site.  It's a non-biased group that checks out ingredients for hazards.  They are NOT associated with the FDA and will test products and post results.  That simple.

Products with low scores are GOOD, and the score is in a GREEN color for GO.
Products or ingredients that can cause cancer or allergies or what have you get HIGH scores and they show up in RED for STOP.  Couldn't be simpler.

http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/search.php?

In fact, you can search by product, ingredient or company - makeup, skincare, hair, nails, you name it.

What ISN'T simple is the sheer fact that you can start typing in your everyday products and realize that all of them are eventually going to kill you.

Is ANYTHING 100% SAFE these days?

I started using and LOVING Jason C Effects Pure Natural Anti-Wrinkle Day Lotion SPF 30 Sunscreen.

For me, its lightweight, fresh citrus scent transported me to a warm, sunny summer day.  Not so much a SPECIFIC day like June 21, 1971, but rather an overall feeling of youth and summer when responsibilities were non-existent and your head was just floating in the breeze.

It's so refreshing, I looked forward to putting it on in the A.M. and if I didn't, something in that day was amiss.  As far as it helping with wrinkles, it's a big YES - face felt moisturized, spots cleared up. 

I thought it was a HOME RUN.....until I looked up the product on the Environmental Working Group's website.

The FRAGRANCE I love so much?  That ingredient scores a high hazard for Ecotoxicology, Allergies/immunotoxicity, Irritation (skin, eyes, or lungs), Miscellaneous, Organ system toxicity (non-reproductive).  

BUMMER!  And the overall product score is 6, or "moderate hazard."  So, it's color is not red, or green - but it's YELLOW...for Caution.

 Here are safety scores for Jason C Effects Pure Natural Anti-Wrinkle Day Lotion SPF 30 Sunscreen.

What really chapps my hide about this is that it's always something.  A company says they use "no harmful chemicals" so you think the product is good for you. Well, I guess not just chemicals are harmful - natural ingredients can be too?  Take Coumarin for example.  The EGW says it's a naturally occurring and synthetically produced scent chemical associated with allergies and contact dermatitis.  It also says it's a known human immune system toxicant or allergen.

Surely it's in this all "natural" Jason product in it's naturally occurring form, right?  Here are the questionable ingredients below highlighted in green, which contributed to this natural product's score of 6, or moderate hazard.

Active Ingredients: Homosalate 7.5 %, Ethylhexyl Salicylate 5.0%, Titanium Dioxide 2.0%, Inactive Ingredients: Aqua (Water), Glycerin, Hydrogenated Palm Kernel Oil, Cetearyl Alcohol , VP/Hexadecene Copolymer, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil (1), Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice (1), Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract (1), Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Oleosomes, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract (1), Calcium Ascorbate, Cetearyl Olivate, Cetyl Alcohol, Dimethicone, Polysorbate 60, Silica , Sodium Stearoyl Glutamate, Sorbitan Olivate, Sorbitol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Xanthan Gum, Alcohol (1), Benzyl Alcohol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Gluconolactone, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone , Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Cinnamyl Alcohol, Citral, Coumarin, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Linalool, Fragrance (Parfum)

It just goes to show you - PLEASE use this search site and INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE, INVESTIGATE on your own.  There are over 66,000 products listed and alternatives you can pick that are LOW hazard.

I'm not saying Jason products is TRICKING anyone in any way.  Overall, their line is free of parabens, no oxybenzone which is great and a boatload of flower extracts all occurring at the front of the ingredient list, which is good, because ingredients must be listed with highest ingredients first.  Most of their high hazard ingredients came with a notice that the EWG had "Limited" information, meaning research could still be going on about that ingredient.

I'm just saying even if a product says it's pure, or natural, still look them up on the EGW site and know what's going onto your skin - because it's going directly into your bloodstream.

Jason, we had a good thing going.  I enjoyed you every day for months.  But I don't want even a MODERATE or LOW hazard in my day to day routine - how bout NO HAZARD?

Here's to a Hazard Free Everything and Especially Summer,

~The Anti-Aging Analyst