If you are a follower of DIY natural skincare blogs or Pinterest, you may have tried making your own coconut oil sunscreen. Or you may have seen recommendations and pictures telling you that you can substitute your sunscreen by raspberry seed oil, carrot seed oil, coconut oil, shea butter and many other common and exotic plant oils and extracts. With the huge surge we see in people making their own natural skincare products all around the world, it’s not surprising that the idea of being able to make your own sunscreen products is very tempting. Unfortunately you can’t provide a good evenly distributed verifiable Sun Protection Factor (SPF) with a DIY recipe. In fact, making your own sunscreen is complicated, challenging and expensive. In some parts of the world, products which contain a SPF are viewed as pharmaceuticals (which is why we don’t teach our students how to make sunscreen at Formula Botanica). And even in those parts of the world where they are viewed as cosmetics, they still require rigorous and expensive testing. Read the blog post here: https://formulabotanica.com/not-use-coconut-oil-sunscreen/

1. JUNE 2016 ACCREDITED ORGANIC COSMETIC SCIENCE SCHOOL

2. Sun Protection Factor (SPF)
What is SPF?
• The SPF scale is measured by a sunscreen’s
ability to prevent UVB from damaging the skin.
• If it takes 20 minutes for your unprotected
skin to start turning red, then using a SPF 15
sunscreen theoretically prevents reddening
15x longer – about 5 hours.
• SPF 15 filters out approximately 93% of all
incoming UVB rays. SPF 30 keeps out 97%.
SPF 50 keeps out 98%.

3. Reason 1: Why you should not use
natural oils as stand-alone sunscreen
Natural oils do not absorb UV sufficiently
• Recent study in the International Journal of
Cosmetic Science (2016) found that natural
oils are not suitable UV-blocking ingredients.
• Researchers found UV absorptivity of aloe
vera, canola oil, citronella oil, coconut oil, olive
oil and soybean oil was close to 1.

4. Reason 2: Why you should not use
natural oils as stand-alone sunscreen
Natural oils do not absorb UV at the right
wavelengths
• Recent study (2016) in the International
Journal of Cosmetic Science found that
Vitamin E was the only substance which
showed appreciable UV absorbance.
• However, this only occurred below a
wavelength of 310nm which still allowed most
of the UV spectrum to pass through
unblocked.

5. Reason 3: Why you should not use
natural oils as stand-alone sunscreen
Natural oils have not had their SPF tested and
verified for sunscreen use
• Natural oils have not gone through the lab and
human testing required to establish their SPF.
• Sunscreens have to have their SPF tested in
the lab and on human volunteers. The lab then
compares human results with their test
results to ensure the SPF matches.

6. The Myth of Raspberry Seed Oil SPF
• One study in the Journal of Food Chemistry in
2000 (Oomah et al) references an ingredients
supplier who claims that raspberry seed oil
has a SPF value of 28-50 and PFA value of
6.75-7.5.
• This reference does not appear to be
underpinned by verifiable data.
• This single reference has been used as
justification to use raspberry seed oil as a
stand-alone sunscreen all over the world.

7. The Myth of Carrot Seed Oil SPF
• A 2009 study in India (Kapoor & Saraf) tested
the photostability of sunscreen products.
• They tested a product which contained carrot,
as well as zinc oxide and other ingredients.
• This product had a measured SPF of 38-40.
• There is no verifiable evidence to suggest that
carrot oil (in any form) has a SPF.

8. The Myth of Coconut Oil SPF
• Recent study in the International Journal of
Cosmetic Science (2016) shows that coconut
oil has a SPF of 1.
• Other studies have shown slightly higher
results (up to 7).
• You should not use coconut oil as a stand-
alone sunscreen ingredient to prevent any
risks to your skin.

9. Read more?
Visit the Formula Botanica blog at:
http://www.formulabotanica.com/blog

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