Natural Sunscreen

by Rebecca
(New Mexico, USA)

First of all - your site is wonderful! I am new to the soap making world and am trying to start a small business. I have gotten such great advice from your site. - Thank you very much for sharing.

This might be a strange question for a soap site - but here goes. Do you know of a natural sunscreen that can be used in homemade lip balms?

Answer:

Hi Rebecca,

Yes, there are natural sunscreen ingredients that you can add to lip balms. Keep in mind that this isn't my specialty but here's what I do know....

Rice bran oil, hazelnut oil and camellia oil all have some sunscreening properties.

Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide will also work well to block the suns harmful rays.

I'm not sure how much protection any of these ingredients provide but any is better than none.

Unfortunately you need to be aware that you will not be able to advertise any products you make as having any sunscreen protection. Such a claim would take your product out of the cosmetic catagory and into the drug catagory which would need FDA approval. Definately not a headache any small business needs!

Have fun and good luck,
Cathy