Sunscreens: Are you attracted to the label?

I am attracted to product labels.  I admit it.  Marketers are brilliant – they know how to lure us in with catchy colors and keywords like “natural” and “healthy”.  They know that most people only look at the front of a bottle and never bother with the ingredients listed on the back.

I recently came across a great article on ingredients to avoid in sunscreens.  That made me go check my products at home.  Sure enough, my daily moisturizer with sunscreen had some not-friendly ingredients.

What really struck me was the front of the bottle.  “No harsh chemicals*, artificial perfumes or dyes”.  Sounds great, right?  Then I noticed the asterisk for the first time ever – “no harsh chemicals that can upset your skin.”  Still sounds good, right?  Until you read the ingredients and learn that several are considered endocrine disruptors (which means that they mess with your hormones) and another preservative ingredient that is not supposed to be used in leave-on products.

Yikes.  That may be okay for the skin like they said, but NOT okay for the rest of your body.

Moral of the story:  read the back of the label.  Ingredients matter.  If you don’t have time for research, check out Environmental Working Group – they’ve done a lot of the work for you.

And here’s the original post source:  What’s in Your Sunscreen?