Chemical Sunscreen vs Barrier Sunscreen

Summer’s hitting us HARD and FAST and you just might be applying the wrong type of sunscreen to protect your skin this summer. Uh-uh! 😱

Let’s talk about sunscreen.

Sunscreen protects our skin by blocking UV rays.

A lot of controversy and questions has been circulating this word.

Is it really good or bad for you?

Do we really need to apply sunscreen when we technically need the sun?

Here’s the real question: Are you talking about the chemical sunscreen or barrier sunscreen?

First of all, there are two types of sunscreen that you can find out there in the market.

It is the chemical sunscreen and the barrier sunscreen.

Their most important difference is that the chemical sunscreen absorbs UV light while the barrier sunscreen, as the name suggests, sits on the surface of the skin and physically blocks UV rays rather than absorbing them.

Their second important difference is their ingredients. Chemical sunscreen contains hard to pronounce names (don’t want to copy and paste those nasty ingredients. Google it and you’ll find it) that may present potential system toxicity.

Barrier sunscreens use ingredients such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide.

Young Living’s Mineral sunscreen is a barrier sunscreen.

Now here comes the reason that sets apart Young Living’s sunscreen from other barrier sunscreen.

A lot of “natural sunscreen”, though a barrier sunscreen, uses nanoparticle-sized zinc oxide in their sunscreen formula, which means they contain particles so small that they can enter your bloodstream. Once it enters your bloodstream, we don’t know what will be its effect because few studies have only been done on nanoparticle interactions within cells.

Young Living’s sunscreen uses zinc oxide, which makes it a barrier sunscreen. And the best thing about it is that the scientists who formulated this sunscreen —bound by the Seed to Seal® commitment— uses NON-NANO zinc oxide, which means when you wear this sunscreen, you won’t absorb the chemicals into your bloodstream! Now you have a sunscreen that is safe for the whole family!!

If you’re a visual person, go check out this video explaining the differences of chemical sunscreen and barrier sunscreen:

Now let’s dive a little deeper.

Now that you know what kind of sunscreen and ingredients you are looking for, you will run to your supermarket and looked for a barrier sunscreen using a non-nano zinc oxide as an ingredient with an SPF of the highest in the market thinking that a higher SPF will protect you more from sunburn than with a lower SPF.

Nope. You’re wrong. Kind of.

First, do you even know the meaning of SPF? It is Sun Protection Factor.

SPF is a measure of protection from UVB rays, which can cause cancer. If your skin would burn after being in the sun for 10 minutes, an SPF 15 sunscreen would allow you to stay in the sun for approximately 150 minutes—a factor of 15 times longer—without burning. SPF is not meant to help you determine duration of wear.

The SPF scale isn’t linear. For example, SPF 10 blocks 90 percent of UVB rays, SPF 30 blocks 97 percent of UVB rays, and SPF 50 blocks 98 percent of UVB rays. Super-high SPF such as 75 or 100 do not offer significantly greater protection.

Right now, I’m entrusting my skin to Young Living’s Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50

Not only does it contains non-nano zinc oxide but it also includes 100 percent pure Helichrysum, Lavender, Myrrh, Carrot Seed, and Frankincense essential oils.

It is a little bit thick which requires a little working in but it is developed to provide a non-greasy and matte finish which means it is perfect to wear under your make-up. It has no white residue that we all hate in most sunscreen.🥴

It is dermatologist-tested, mind you. 😊

I mentioned that it is perfect for the whole family, but for the environmental person out there, especially those beach lovers in Hawaii, Young Living’s Mineral Sunscreen is reef safe. That means the formulation doesn’t contain chemicals such as oxybenzone and octinoxate, which cause coral bleaching. Similarly, our non-nano formula means that coral cannot ingest the zinc oxide particles in our sunscreen! So, say yes to that surfers!

As a Young Living distributor, I am compliantly saying that this sunscreen has the Skin Cancer Foundation’s seal of approval for daily use which means this product may help prevent skin cancer. Yey!

When you need lighter coverage, perhaps under your makeup every day for work or during fall and spring, Young Living’s Mineral Sunscreen with an SPF of 10 provides more than adequate coverage for running the kids around or getting errands done.

Now that you know all about sunscreen, there’s nothing more important in summer, besides having fun, than staying safe under the sun. ☀️