Okay, I know I’ve practically discussed sunscreen to death over the last couple of weeks here at Growing a Green Family, but I do have some big and useful news from EWG.
First a quick recap of my mindset this year…
- I’ve been complaining about how “safe” sunscreen is too expensive.
- By “too expensive” I mean $4,000-$18,000 a year – seriously, for sunscreen?
- So, I posted my own “safe list” PLUS my picks for best safe sunscreens of the year.
What happened then:
I’ve gotten some emails, along with comments on Facebook from folks who feel I shouldn’t encourage people to use less expensive sunscreen because it’s not safe. Which I totally get and will comment more on later. However, for now, what I will continue to say is that I cannot in good conscious, tell families to use $6 per oz sunscreen. That’s nuts.
Anyhow, today I saw that EWG released their brand new 2012 safe sunscreen guide. It came out earlier this year than I expected (I swear I thought it usually came out in June or July). I went to take a look and again, many of the sunscreens on the 2012 list are costly.
The AWESOME news!
This is the cool part – after visiting EWG, I hit Google and saw that Yahoo! Shine released a list with some affordable sunscreen suggestions from EWG for 2012. I popped back over to the EWG to confirm, but couldn’t find the affordable list posted at their site. I emailed EWG to double check about the safe affordable list and they confirmed that they did indeed release that list to Shine.
I think the affordable list should be on the main safe sunscreen site, but having a list of affordable sunscreens at all is better than nothing. The list that EWG provided Yahoo! Shine contains 15 affordable but still safe and recommended sunscreens.
At the top of their affordable list is the same sunscreen I recommend as my own number one pick of the year, which was Coppertone Kids Pure & Simple Lotion SPF 50
EWG and I also agreed on a couple of others, including Purple Prairie SunStuff SPF 30
I must be physic this year – or just super cool 
As for EWG’s other top safe and still affordable picks this year, choices include…
- Babyganics Cover Up Baby Sunscreen For Face and Body 50 SPF
– $1.79 per oz.
- Sunbow Dora the Explorer Sunscreen, Pink, SPF 30 – $2.59 per oz.
- Solbar Shield SPF 40 - $2.85 per oz.
- Caribbean Solutions SPF 25 Sol Kid Kare Biodegradable Sunscreen - $2.51 per oz
- Tropical Sands SPF 30 All Natural Water Resistant Sunscreen - $2.33 per oz.
- Baby UV/Kids UV Color Me Blue Natural Sunscreen, SPF 30
– $2.74 per oz.
- Baby UV/Kids UV Color Me Pink Natural Sunscreen, SPF 30
– $2.74 per oz.
- Alba Botanica SunBlock, Mineral protection, Kids SPF 30
– $3.01 per oz.
- Blue Lizard SPF#30+ Face Australian Sunscreen
– $3.66 per oz.
- Healing-Scents Live Long Mineral-Based Sunscreen, SPF 25 – $2.56 per oz.
- Hara Sport SPF 30
– $1.74 per oz.
- Vanicream Sunscreen Sport, Spf 35
– $3.51 per oz.
According to EWG all of these affordable sunscreens have the following features:
- Good, stable sun protection
- Fewest ingredients with toxicity concerns. Do not contain the worst offenders: retinyl palmitate and oxybenzone.
- No sprays or powders
- No SPF values above 50+
As you can see some of the EWG safe affordable sunscreens still cost a bit more than some families can afford, but the list is extensive enough that you should be able to find a good sunscreen you CAN afford with this list. I think it’s great that EWG has released an affordable list this year!
+ See the entire 2012 EWG safe sunscreen list.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Yay! Next year you and EWG could get together and do an e-book/app with all your great research plus their tips.
Great job, Jennifer!
I was VERY excited to see the EWG list this year. They’ve never, that I’ve known of, released a “less expensive list” and bonus, they even added little price points for 2012 to their entire list. Can I prove all my complaining over the last few weeks about expensive sunscreen has resulted in some lower-priced lists? I guess not. Still, as of a couple of weeks ago all I could find on safer, less costly sunscreen was written by me and this one other blogger I found. So, am I going to pretend all my complaining has paid off – yup, I think I will