As summer is finally here, most people’s first thoughts are to go outside and hit the beach to achieve the perfect golden tan. While it is the best feeling to finally go out and relax in the warm sun, protecting your skin with SPF is an absolute must in order to prevent skin cancer, discoloration, and rapid aging. Even though must of us are taught from a young age to put on sunscreen, not all brands are created equally and some actually contain harmful substances that can cause just as many health detriments as not wearing any at all!

Recently on one of my favorite instagram accounts that I have been following for years, @abiteoflife (Danielle Lewis), posted about a website called EWG, which stands for Environmental Working Group, and their mission is to create awareness about the industry standards that are dangerous to the health of public, while also giving helpful brand/product alternatives. One feature on their website is a section where you can specifically look up certain sunscreen brands and see if they contain toxic ingredients, which they rate on a scale from 1-10 (1 being least harmful, 10 being most harmful). After trying it out for myself, I was shocked to see that many of the products I had been using were rated extremely poorly, despite coming from many large companies that are viewed as reputable to the public (side note: these were products that were not cheap either, which shows that price is not a direct correlation of clean ingredients). Because there are clearly not secure enough safety standards for the products we have been sold & using for LITERAL YEARS, I urge you to all check the products that you are using to ensure you are making the best choices to maintain your health and have the highest quality of life possible!

Link: https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/

While there is an extremely long list of different products that they recommend on their site for using clean ingredients, I decided to make it easier for you all & make a short list! Taking care of your body is so important and we shouldn't support brands that are not making their customers’ healthy their #1 priority.