Home made Sunscreen recipes unscientific and unsafe, feel experts

Experts have raised concerns about chemicals has used for sunscreens made at home using natural ingredients.

Most home sunscreen recipes use essential oils and zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. While essential oils are untested, zinc and titanium are legitimate sun blockers, although different from sunscreens.

In order to be effective, the active ingredients in sunscreen must be properly dispersed and stabilized throughout the mixture, and that's hard to achieve without professional laboratory equipment. The formulation must then be tested for effectiveness and SPF value.

Dr. Colette Pameijer, a surgical oncologist and skin cancer specialist at Penn State Health, said a survey of the often-used recipes, coupled with scientific information about the trend, tells her that making your own sunscreen is an incredibly bad idea.

"I am a vegetarian and health nut, so I totally get it that people want to limit the chemicals in their life," she said. "But the chemicals in sunscreen are good chemicals and they serve a very important purpose."

Zinc and titanium are mechanical blocking agents, which means they work as long as they are on the skin and physically blocking the rays," Pameijer said. "As soon as they are washed off or sweated off, you are left unprotected from the sun."

Pameijer said the dangers of ultraviolet rays are "so much more obvious and immediate" than any potential risks from the ingredients in sunscreen.

Sunblock functions through a chemical reaction on the skin that creates a mechanical barrier. While some of those chemicals are absorbed by the skin, she is not aware of any data to support long-term damage.

"Just because a substance is absorbed doesn't necessarily mean it's bad," she said. "I think the benefit of sunscreen is proven and the risks are speculative."

"Unless you are testing it yourself and letting yourself burn each time you make a new batch, you really can't determine the SPF," she said. "It doesn't make any sense to do that."

Pameijer recognizes that many people have sensitive skin and react to some brands of sunblock on the market because of the chemicals they contain.

"I am one of those people," she said. "But there are a ton of different products available. You may have to shop around a bit before you find something you like."

Some people react adversely to oxybenzone, a chemical in some newer formulations of sunblock that also protect against deeper-penetrating UVA rays that cause skin damage, wrinkling and cancer. UVB rays are the ones responsible for producing sunburn and are what most sunscreens protect against.

Another common sunscreen additive that can cause allergic reactions is para-aminobenzoic acid, or PABA.

Another option is to use sunscreen only on your face and hands and wear clothing that protects against ultraviolet rays.

"I think they work better than any sunblock on the market," she said. They drastically reduce your amount of exposure."

Pameijer said it's especially important to protect children because heavy sun exposure early in life is a risk factor for skin cancer.