Natural sunscreens with Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide have long been the choice of dermatologists (and environmentalists) for their immediate efficacy and safety.

Currently Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide are the only two ingredients that the FDA is considering “safe” in their proposed updates to the sunscreen regulatory standards. The FDA needs to update how they evaluate SPF ratings for the safest coverage from both UVA and UVB rays that damage the skin. For now, the testing in the U.S. is subpar compared to the EU because it only factors UVB protection.

THE NEW GUARD

Consumers have rebuked the white cast, greasy, and pore-clogging ways of old-style formulas.

Below is a round up of modern formulations, which are my favorite, natural sunscreens with Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide (safe for your face) that have a forever home in my beauty cabinet. I even threw in a tinted moisturizer recommendation!

And I turned to their creators for insight on why they chose Zinc Oxide and/or Titanium Dioxide, which turned out to be a fascinating look inside the minds of how conscious formulators are addressing the issue.

CONTROVERSY AND CONFUSION: CHEMICALS IN SUNBLOCK

When certain chemical sunscreens were banned in Hawaii (to save sea life), it caused many people to finally wonder what the health implications of these chemical sunscreens were for themselves too.

I’ve already written a lot about sun protection, sun safety, and best natural sunscreens for face and body.

One of my most popular articles, Is your Sunblock Preventing or Causing Cancer, touched on the chemicals to avoid in sunscreen and why. So I highly suggest reading that.

With all controversy comes confusion, as I saw in my Healthy Beauty Over 40 Facebook group, where face sunscreen has become a very hot topic, so let’s dive in a little further.

HYNT BEAUTY: SUN PREP BROAD SPECTRUM SPF25

I love having SUN PREP on hand because it looks and feels totally invisible on the skin. On the flip side of formulation, Hynt specifically chose to only use Titanium Dioxide as its active ingredient. A little goes a long way with this. Because it’s invisible, don’t treat this like an old-school sunblock by rubbing and working it into the skin a lot, or it will ball up.

Meryl Marshall, Co-founder of Hynt Beauty shared:

“SUN PREP is a unique 3-in-1 formula: makeup primer, moisturizer and sun protection.

The concerns with Titanium Dioxide is for loose powder inhalation, which can be an irritant to the lungs and possibly carcinogenic in large doses. Read Hynt’s article on it.

However, the micronized, rutile form of Titanium Dioxide that we use in our formula is non-nano and therefore, safe to be used in a lotion.

SUN PREP’s Titanium Dioxide gets an additional protective boost from botanical ingredients such as Sesame Seed Oil, Algae Extract and Rhatany Root Extract, that help enhance its UV absorption properties.”

Buy SUN PREP here