Serious sunscreen season has arrived.  My fellow RealSelf bloggers have written a great primer about sunscreen active ingredients and SPF inflation (Neutrogena is now advertising SPF 85 in Google ads.)

My skin is very sensitive, and conventional sunscreens like Neutrogena include chemical ingredients and paraben preservatives.  So I wanted to see if I could find a sunscreen with concentrated zinc oxide or titanium dioxide that had natural ingredients as a base.  I found a UV Natural sunscreen at Whole Foods that is 24% zinc oxide.  And then I read the reviews of it on Skin Deep.  People complained that it was greasy (it contains the "finest natural oils" -- the primary ingredient is grapeseed oil).   When I woke up at 5 am to leave for an overnight hike in Mount Rainier national park, I was worried about leaving greasy sunscreen on overnight, so I made the mistake of switching from that sunscreen to a sensitive skin sunscreen from Neutrogenia that is only 9.5% titanium dioxide.  I did also try to apply some H/E minerials bronzer (19% titanium dioxide and 3% zinc oxide) on top of it, although I'm not sure how much of it really stuck.

I did reapply later that day with a 10% zinc oxide sunscreen, but it wasn't enough, and my fleece hat didn't cover my face.  You can tell by the photo at right that it wasn't enough - I had a nasty sunburn. 

I was in sunny LA last weekend, and the 24% zinc oxide sunscreen worked very well.  Yes, I  looked a little greasy, but it didn't cause me to break out, and it was easy to remove with salicylic acid.

So I went out an bought a UPF 30 sun hat, and a huge tube of that 24% zinc oxide.  From now on, I'll wear that hat and reapply the sunscreen every 2 hours relgiously.  I returned the glacier sunglasses, since the faux leather side flaps scraped off the sunscreen where they touched my checks, causing the worst sunburn there.  Now I have white sunglasses so all that opaque zinc oxide will blend in.

With the white hat, white glasses, and pasty white sunscreen, I'll be très sheik.

While I hate to think of the sun damage I caused, there was a silver lining.  I tried using concentrated Aloe Vera to soothe my sunburn, but it just kept evaporating (even an 100% gel version!)  So I decided to try some Spectrum organic flaxseed oil -- the ALA omega-3 fat is an anti-inflammatory, and I recall reading that Dr. Perricone offers moisturisers that include omega-3 fats.

The flaxseed oil was incredibly soothing, and I've been using it as my daily moisturizer ever sense.  It does go on a little greasy, but it looks like my skin absorbs it within an hour and the sheen is gone.  I have a family history of eczema and rosacea, and the flaxseed seems to eliminate that redness.

Did you know that the omega 3 fats in fish come from algae that they eat?  Now, companies are skipping the fish middleman and harvesting the DHA and EPA omega-3 fats directly from algae.  I bought a bottle of Spectrum organic flaxseed oil with algae-based DHA and EPA, and I'll let you know how it works compared to the 100% flaxseed oil.