The Juicy Beauty Word

It's the unofficial start of summer and it's going to be a gorgeous Memorial Day Weekend! That means it's time for your reminder about taking care of your skin in the sun. I call sunscreen a magic cream. It's amazing really. All you have to do is apply the cream and it keeps your skin from burning. It's also the most effective anti aging skin product available! Watch my sun and skin care video There is a vast array of physical sunscreens (aka mineral sunscreens) and chemical sunscreens to choose from.  Read about chemical vs mineral sunscreens Plus, a wide variety of SPFs from 15 to 100!  If you are someone who is concerned about the chemicals you apply to your kid's skin  and your own skin as well, go to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) for answers on product safety. They have a super list of sunscreens they have rated and have great articles on sun safety. They even list each ingredient in a product, rate the ingredient and tell you concerns ab...

Ready for the chill on the beach on your vacation? The last thing you want to do is realize you forgot something important while you are on the relaxing on the beach.  Some items are obvious like sunscreen, but I have a few unexpected essential items that you may not have thought to put in your beach bag.  Beach Bag Essentials   Sunscreen SPF 30 to 50   Never forget your sunscreen! Some are better for you than others according to The  Environmental Working Group.  Some brands that scored well are Bull Frog, Alba Botanica and Juice Beauty. Here is a link to the Environmental Working Group's  Guide to Sunscreens  to help you choose the safest sunscreen for you and your family. Read about Sunburn Remedies Lip Protection Don't forget to protect your lips! Use a tinted lip balm to protect your lips with pretty sheer color. Try Babo Botanical SPF Lip Tint Conditioner or Sky Organics Organic Tinted Lip Balm. Baby Powder  Ba...

The weather is warming up. It's time to take good care of your skin while you're outside in the sun so you don't get a nasty sunburn that ends up peeling.  The sun's rays are strong and it's easy to get burnt quickly when you are outside enjoying the weather. There are certain times of day when you need to be extra careful. Hours to Avoid the Strongest Sun The sun's rays are strongest from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daylight savings time. I know, it's they're the best hours to be out doing summer thing like going to the beach! You can still do fun things in the sun. You just have to be careful and wear the magic cream. The best way to prevent a sunburn is to apply a good full spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher. I call it the magic cream!  Apply sunscreen 30 minutes before you go out in the sun to allow the sunscreen to bind with the proteins in your skin.  For more sunburn protection at the beach, look at the shadows.  Go to the be...

I was excited to try Goddess Garden Natural Sunscreen. It's an organic sunscreen that gets high ratings from the Environmental Working Group and I love the name! I like to avoid chemicals on my skin and my daughter's skin (especially chemicals that penetrate through the skin into the blood stream) whenever possible so this organic sunscreen is right up my alley. Plus, my daughter's skin is very sensitive. She has gotten hives and rashes from many sunscreens.  Goddess Garden uses non nano titanium dioxide and zinc oxide which means the particles of t itanium dioxide and zinc oxide  in the product are big and don't penetrate through the skin into the body. That's a good thing because small nanoparticles can penetrate the skin and cause damage to the cells in our bodies. Many sunscreens contain nanoparticles of  titanium dioxide and zinc oxide to prevent the white film that  titanium dioxide and zinc oxide  leave on the skin. I purchased the 6 oz. Everyday SPF...

The Summer Solstice. It's the day with the longest amount of sunlight. It has to be one of my favorite days of the year! We will need to apply a lot of sunscreen with all those hours of sunlight. We know too much sun exposure is not safe, but is sunscreen actually safe? Summertime is when we really need to step up on our sunscreen usage to protect our skin from skin cancer and premature aging. I have heard and am hearing again that chemicals in your sunscreen undergo changes when they are exposed to UV rays. You may have seen an article about it recently, too.  Some ingredients oxidize and release damaging free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules with unpaired electrons that attack normal molecules to steal electrons they need. They turn a healthy molecule into an unstable free radical starting a chain reaction damaging cells increasing the risk of cancer. The link below is an article about research done on zinc oxide and how it changes when exposed to sunl...

There are so many brands of sunscreen how do you know if the brand you are buying is safe and effective? The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has released it's 10th Annual Sunscreen Guide to help you out with your sunscreen choice. This is a guide to help us find effective safe sunscreens. There is a lot of great sunscreen and sun safety information in their guide. It's worth a look. Click here for The EWG 2016 Guide to Sunscreens . The EWG is very picky about sunscreen, which is good for all of us. The EWG really doesn't like spray sunscreens because they are not as effective as creamy formulas, high SPF sunscreens because they are misleading plus they can cause skin irritation and sunscreens containing oxybenzone (a hormone disrupting chemical) and retinyl palmitate (a chemical that may damage sun exposed skin). Products are rated from 1 to 10. 1 being the best score and 10 being the worst. My past favorites have not scored that great with them....