Day Twenty-One (of 30) Sunscreen

In my quest to be more conscientious about what I consume, I have tried to veer away from mass-produced chemical garbage and toward locally-manufactured, simpler goods. Yes, I am aware that "green" and "natural" are mostly marketing terms and stuff is frequently less "green" and "natural" than you'd think, despite the label.

So, how do you protect yourself? It helps to do a little research. It also helps to prepare yourself to spend more money on things you might have taken for granted in the past. One example for me has been deodorant. I have traditionally used Mitchum antiperspirant/deodorant to keep my natural odors at bay. In reading a few articles on potential effects of aluminum in deodorant, then a number of suggestions for alternatives, I ended up with an expensive stick of deodorant called Nickel.

It's $19, but it lasted me for the whole winter. Since I'm less prone to heavy sweating in the winter, this actually saved me money, and gave my pits a bit of a break. Extra bonus - I really liked the scent.

Of course, your mileage may vary, and it's a big leap of faith to spend $20 on one container of deodorant. On the other hand, Mitchum would irritate my skin on occasion, and that's ended since I started using Nickel.

Another thing I apply liberally to my skin in the summer is sun screen. I have heard about the dangers of deet in bug spray (effectively coats your skin in sticky poison), but never gave a thought to sun screen. Luckily, the folks at the Environmental Working Group (EWG) have done some research. I couldn't find any obvious links to corporate entities in a cursory search, and I'd still take these studies with a grain of salt. But, if they're legit, it's only a few more dollars to get sun screens they deem to be safer. 

One Whole Foods store in our area sold out of all of the top sun screens the day this study went out to the public. Here's the study, and I've already purchased the Badger sun screen as a result. I can say that it's a bit thick and takes some effort to apply, but once it's on, it's not really noticeable.

Bottom line: I like the information they gathered and explained in the study. I like the product they tout as "safest" and I like the fact that a smaller company who still manufactures stuff in the US ultimately gets my money.