Sunscreens and free radical damage
At this point, you probably already know the problem with chemical sunscreens. Just as a refresher, here's how the two categories of sunscreen ingredients shake out:
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Chemical sunscreens: These are sunscreen ingredients that react with UV rays forming free radicals. The reason they're called chemical sunscreens is because they react with the UV ray. Chemical sunscreen ingredients purportedly work to protect skin cells from UV damage by reacting with the UV ray.
This is all fine and dandy as long as that ingredient sits on top of your skin, but when chemical sunscreens get absorbed into living cell layers, generating free radicals is something you don't want.
Additionally, there's substantial evidence at this point that all 14 of the chemical sunscreen ingredients approved for use here in the US are both endocrine disrupting and get absorbed into the body and bloodstream at unsafe levels.
The evidence is so compelling, FDA even passed new regulations some time ago (circa 2021) requiring companies to demonstrate that these ingredients don't get absorbed at unsafe levels before releasing to market.
Problem is, the sunscreen lobby's strong so this legislation isn't enforced yet.
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Physical sunscreens: These are sunscreen ingredients that reflect UV light off your skin like a mirror. The physical sunscreens are zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.
Little known fact... just like chemical sunscreens, the two physical sunscreens also react with UV rays and form free radicals. They do this so well that titanium dioxide's actually used in manufacturing processes to decolorize solutions.
I've seen this in action before. A solution goes from the color of coke/pepsi to colorless when a bag of titanium dioxide is dumped into it and a UV light's shined on it for about a week. Why'd it change color?
Because of the sheer number of free radicals formed from the reaction between titanium dioxide and UV light. Have I voluntarily put that on my skin as sunblock since? Nope!
Sunscreen and make-up
My break-up with sunscreen was pretty much instantaneous. It took longer to break up with make-up. When you see the words "may contain iron oxide, zinc oxide, or titanium dioxide" on any make-up bottle (whether that's foundation, blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, lipstick), it does contain those ingredients.
Iron oxides are the things that impart pigment to the make-up. Iron oxides come in a whole bunch of different colors. Typically, titanium dioxide is added to either alter the color some (like using the same color iron oxides to make many different shades simply by adding different amounts of titanium dioxide to lighten it) or to make the product more opaque (needing less number of layers to achieve the same level of coverage).
And, for make-ups that include an SPF factor, titanium dioxide or zinc oxide's an easy way to get that SPF number up without adding as much of the other sunscreen ingredients.
Breaking up with make-up took longer. Even though I knew I was damaging my skin every time I put on make-up, I didn't feel comfortable walking around with bare skin.
Ultimately, my uncomfortableness with the thought that I was damaging my skin each time I applied foundation became stronger than my uncomfortableness with what I considered red and uneven skin tone.
When I finally stopped wearing foundation once and for all, something pretty incredible happened. Over time, that redness went away. Over time, the dark circles under my eyes disappeared. To this day, I'm still not sure whether it's all real or whether I simply stopped seeing some of it when I looked in the mirror. One thing I know for sure is this...
I'm happier with my appearance now without make-up than I've been at any time in my life. And, that's no small feat.
Healing your skin
Here's where I could circle back around to sunscreen again, but I've written and talked about sunscreen a lot (there's links to those posts/podcast episodes at the bottom of this article). The message that's most important is this...
Wherever you are in your own relationship with your skin, you are able to improve that relationship
and you're able to improve it faster when you recognize that your skin is a reflection of your overall health (physical, mental, and emotional).
It wasn't an overnight change for me, it took a few years, and part of that is because I didn't recognize the message my skin was sending... at the time, I was in a super stressful job. I was overworking, undereating, overexercising, and pushing myself to meet unrealistic demands at work.
My skin reflected that. So did my hair and eyebrows. Ultimately, so did my gallbladder and thyroid.
It took leaving that job before I became happy with what I saw in the mirror. It took leaving that job before my eyebrows grew back. It took leaving that job before the redness in my face disappeared. It took less stress. It took repair. It took healing. And, all of that was internal.
Is my skin perfect today? There are freckles, there are lines, there are visible pores, and still the occasional blemish. There is also radiance. There is also me still on occasion thinking "WOW! My skin looks so healthy!"
As you've arrived at this point in this post, what are you thinking? Has this inspired you to try a make-up free lifestyle? Let me know what tips and tricks would support you most in your own relationship with your skin.
In case you were here for the sunscreen info all along, here's a few more resources for you:
About the Author
Brandy's a formulation scientist and self-proclaimed health geek who loves hiking, gardening, bird-watching, and body boarding.
Her struggle with acne during her teens and 20s led to a holistic and healthy approach to skincare, embracing skin as an organ to be loved and cared for rather than a canvas to wage war on.
Since 2008, she's been developing all-in-one products for a simple routine at home, & Rain Organica started when her backpacking friends asked for a portable skincare routine to keep their skin healthy & happy on and off the trails.
You can try Rain Organica for yourself with The Essentials Kit, a complete skincare routine in just 3 steps.
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