Be yourself. Love yourself. Take care of each other.

Hello, world! Shelly here! Time for another edition of Take Care, a weekly-ish bit of tips and updates to help you be yourself, love yourself, and take care of each other (and yourself!) I’m Shelly of Geek Out of Water.

This is a bit of a long one, but I feel compelled to respond to all of the sunscreen fear-mongering I'm seeing on social media right now.

TLDR: US chemical sunscreens suck. Opt for Korean or European (or Australian or basically non-US) formulas. If that's all you remember, you'll avoid the fear-mongering altogether. But if you'd rather purchase US products, or don't have the means to get Korean or European or other formulas, read on.

There's an alarming trend going around on social media right now: sunscreen fear-mongering. Now, this has been a low-level trend for some time thanks to organizations like EWG, but when you add it to the fact that the US is abysmally far behind in development and approval of modern sunscreen actives, it's literally a dangerous trend.

There are 3 common US chemical sunscreen actives that concern me: oxybenzone, homosalate, and octocrylene. I will not wear products containing oxybenzone, as it has shown to be a hormone disruptor and is banned in the EU (more on the EU in a minute). Homosalate is typically used as a solvent for other sunscreen actives because it on its own isn't very strong. Lab studies have shown possible estrogenic effects from homosalate (endocrine disruption). Octocrylene can break down to contain trace amounts of a known carcinogen.

Those things sound very alarming. I typically start with looking at how the EU treats any ingredient I'm questioning, as they are more strict in their regulations than the US. The EU allows both homosalate and octocrylene as safe; the key difference is that the EU has a much lower percentage allowed than the US FDA allows, and the US's allowance is about quadruple what the EU has deemed safe.

Knowing that, are they ingredients you would want to avoid? If you'd rather buy US-made sunscreens, those ingredients can be hard to avoid as they're very common here. Your best bet would be to stick with mineral sunscreens with actives such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide instead of chemical sunscreens. However, I personally prefer chemical sunscreens under makeup. So what's a makeup-wearing human that wants to protect their skin to do?

My preferred chemical sunscreen active is Bemotrizinol - commonly marketed as Tinosorb S and Escalol S - or you may see its full chemical name in ingredient lists: bis-ethylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazine. It's one of the most highly vetted and safest sunscreen actives in the world, and its results in safety testing have even outperformed the safest US mineral sunscreen options in some cases (zinc oxide and titanium dioxide).

The US FDA is rumored to be considering its approval here in 2024/2025 (various companies have been trying since at least 2015 to get it approved by the FDA, and as far as I know only one company - DSM-Firmenich - is still trying; it has been approved in other parts of the world for almost 25 years. For a fun little rabbit hole, check out this article on the quest to get bemotrizinol approved). It is photostable and shows no estrogenic effects in in-vitro testing. Here's some info on the ingredient. It's common in Korean and European sunscreens.

Which brings me to the next option: look at sunscreens made in Korea. They're the easiest to get in the US that don't have the 3 ingredients of concern.

Personally, I completely avoid oxybenzone, and I do choose to avoid homosalate and octocrylene in my primary sunscreens, but if it's in a makeup product that I don't wear often, such as testing a foundation, I will wear it (as the FDA does deem them safe, which isn't something I disregard, even though the EU is more strict).

I highly recommend checking out this video by Lab Muffin Beauty Science breaking down the research behind why the EU lowered the allowed safe amounts of homosalate and octocrylene and what "safe" actually means in a research context: https://youtu.be/h5Ta6T2DmRQ?si=sHKzdOBj60EkZCHl 

It'll definitely help on your quest to find a sunscreen you're comfortable with!

Here are a couple of my favorites that use bemotrizinol (affiliate links that get you a small discount and get me a small commission!)

SKIN 1004 Madagascar Centella Hyalu-Cica Water-Fit Sun Serum SPF50 PA++++ $14 - https://ystyle.co/d9iH

Purito Wonder Releaf Daily Sun Lotion SPF50 PA++++ $20 - https://ystyle.co/qJVM 

But please... don't let fear-mongering turn you away from wearing sunscreen. Find one that you are comfortable with and wear that. Everything we do in life comes with tradeoffs in risk versus reward, and literally everything we put in or on our bodies comes with those tradeoffs. Determine where your own levels of acceptability lie and make decisions accordingly.

That's all for now! I had to get that off my chest! I'll have another email with this week's updates in the GOOW World soon!

Thanks and remember: be yourself. Love yourself. Take care of each other,

💜 Shelly

Find me on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goow

Shop my designs & handmade skin care: https://shopgoow.com

Who's Shelly?

I’m a beauty enthusiast, entrepreneur, and professor of media arts and design. I send out emails about once a week on beauty, self-care, and lifestyle with a geeky twist - plus, of course, updates on any tools I’m building for the love of beauty (like my Roll-A-Look eyeshadow color generator and upcoming foundation tools). 

What's this email about?

If you love makeup and skin care and self-care too, this newsletter is made for you! Besides life and work updates, I’ll share science-based tips and easy techniques to help you look and feel your best. Stick around for the fun. 

Let's keep in touch!

This is a collaborative space, too. Feel free to hit reply if: 

- You care about a topic you’d like to see covered here. 

- You found a useful resource or a must-have product that would help others and want to share it.

- You just want to say hi!