It’s been said that the most beneficial sunlight we can obtain is that from sunrise and sunset. It makes sense, as those are the times we take a minute to breathe, become present, try but fail to capture the real-time beauty on our iphones.
Though midday sun is brighter, seems hotter, and has a stigma of being dangerous, it too, has incredible benefits to our minds, bodies, and souls.
I like to think of the sun as the first thing God ever created. “Let there be light.” Because without it, none of the rest of the shit created after that could survive. There is no life on earth that could survive without the magic, warmth, light, heat, radiance, or love of the sun. You can google it if you want, but we cannot thrive and put out our heart’s best work without the assistance and support of sunlight. This is why most of us feel moody or shitty on cloudy days.
I believe that throughout the evolution of the human, we’ve become more and more resistant to the sun, just as we’ve become more and more resistant to shining light on our darkest parts. We can survive, but it’s impossible to thrive without light. The bottom line is, we as humas no longer seek out the sun as medicine. Why? I could write a whole ass book on why, but I’ll just some it up for you. Because if you were aware of the medicine the sun provides, you’d no longer run to your doctor and pay for a prescription that claims to mimic that medicine.
All of that aside, the other problem we humans face is how we protect ourselves from the “harmful” aspects of the sun. We’ve been taught to slather on chemical barriers to protect our skin, and then reapply an hour later. These conventional sun blocks and screens DO filter out harsh rays, but they block you from getting all the rays, even the healthy ones. Furthermore, it’s likely the sunscreen you are slathering on yourself and your family has way more cancer-causing ingredients that any ray you’d ever receive from the sun. If you were to bring your conventional sunscreen to Europe, you’d be smuggling illegal ingredients. The United States does NOT regulate the ingredients in their self-care and beauty products, so therefore anything you find in a bottle of standard sunscreen here in the states, you will NOT find in a bottle from Europe. That may sound crazy, but after working with and using Beautycounter products (including sunscreen) for years and receiving tons of education and awareness about how our country operates (or doesn’t) when it comes to what is going on and in our bodies, I gave up ALL health and beauty products that do not follow a certain standard, my own. And most of the time, I struggle to find that which I’m looking for in a clean version, or it just doesn’t exist.
This is why I started making my own. Not just sunscreen. Soaps, body oils, dry shampoo, tattoo balm, even beard & bush oil for the husband. At least if I make it myself, then at least I know what is in it, and that it’s not murdering my family.
For the past several years of living on the river, spring and summer time is basically time spent outside from dawn until dusk, working on this beautiful slice of Heaven that has been gifted to us. I’ve probably put conventional sunscreen on just a handful of times. And by conventional, I mean the healthiest version I could find at Walmart, usually of the mineral variety. At the end of the day, my skin feels like shit. So I quit using it. Instead, I just slather on coconut oil (which has a natural SPF of around 6-7) and it lasts throughout the day. On the hottest days where I’m spending more time, I might reapply in the afternoon and definitely wear a hat to protect my snoot, but even with my sun-sensitive skin (I burned every time I was in it as a kid) the coconut oil is enough for me as I approach my 40s. I’m not saying an SPF of 6 or 7 will be enough for you, as your skin is totally different than mine, but when I heard this, I thought that there must be other oils with natural SPF protection, and I was right.
Here’s a list of oils found in nature with their estimated SPF factors:
Coconut oil: 6-7
Cocoa seed butter: 6
Grapeseed oil: 4
Jojoba oil: 4
Shea butter: 3-6
Rosehip seed oil: 30
Avocado oil: 4-15
Almond oil: 5
Red raspberry seed oil: 28-50
Carrot seed oil: 35-40
Wheat germ oil: 20
Myrrh essential oil: 20
Peppermint: 7
Lavender: 6
Lemongrass: 6
Geranium: 6
Eucalyptus: 3
Tea tree: 2
Rose: 1
This list is not complete nor are the SPF values concrete, but it gives you a general idea of what God has already done to give us some safety and some breathing room in the sun. I have taken my favorites of these oils and blended them together to create Hart Self-Love & Healing LLC’s “Sunlight” face and body oil. It will help protect you from the sun without making you feel super greasy or clogging your pores and make you smell like sunshine.
So that I don’t get sued I have to state that first of all, this product and these statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. The United States Food & Drug Administration cannot regulate anything that God created, therefore all the companies that use God-given ingredients in their products have to slap a warning label on them stating that the regulators of poison haven’t looked into this product. I am not here to put the FDA on blast, but this is the entity that places their stamp of approval on cigarettes and Roundup.
I also have to tell you this product does not replace the poison sunscreen that the FDA does evaluate and approve of.
I digress, my new Sunshine natural SPF face & body oil is available HERE for purchase. I’ve created a 1 ounce dropper bottle contains the following ORGANIC ingredients, nothing more, nothing less: rosehip seed oil, red raspberry oil, coconut oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil and essential oils of carrot seed, geranium and lavender. I’m not a math doctor, but if I take the average of all of these oils, I get an SPF of around 18.
The scent is that of sunshine, the feeling is that of luxurious cashmere, the knowing is that of freedom and liberation from toxic, cancer-causing ingredients in conventional sunscreen.
Of course, it’s always important to use discernment when spending time in the sun and it’s likely that you know your limits. Use common sense for sun safety. Not just your time spent frolicking in it, but what you’re using to protect that precious skin suit. If it’s a cancer-causing chemical, it’s not common sense.
