Natural Sunscreen: Elemental Herbs Sunscreen

Reader Contribution by Susan Melgren and Web Editor
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Elemental Herbs sunscreen combines the power of natural and herbal ingredients to give you a product that both protects and rejuvenates your skin. Zinc oxide, the active ingredient in this natural sunscreen, blocks UVA and UVB rays while extra virgin olive oil, jojoba oil and shea butter moisturize.

Elemental Herbs sunscreen also contains rose hips and green tea leaves to give your skin a little extra protection. Rose hips provide numerous benefits for the skin. They can soothe sunburns, hydrate skin and repair damaged skin cells, all important for people who have spent time in the sun. Green tea may guard against sunburn and has been shown to help reduce the risk of skin cancer. The antioxidants in green tea are also helpful for repairing and preventing skin damage.

Elemental Herbs sunscreen contains zinc oxide, rose hips and green tea leaves to protect your skin from sun damage. Photo Courtesy Elemental Herbs.

Zinc oxide typically leaves behind a white residue on the skin when applied. Some companies have gotten around this issue by using zinc oxide nanoparticles, but nanoparticles can be potentially harmful to our bodies and the environment. Elemental Herbs sunscreen doesn’t contain zinc oxide nanoparticles, meaning it will leave behind a white residue but won’t harm your body.

I was impressed with how easily Elemental Herbs sunscreen applied. Some of the other natural sunscreens I’ve tried were difficult to spread, but Elemental Herbs sunscreen went on as easy as a normal lotion. This product does leave behind a very noticeable white residue. While this was a turn-off at first, after a few sessions I became used to the shimmering film and even found some benefits to it. The residue is coverage you can see, so it’s easy to tell if you’ve missed a spot–and therefore easy to get full coverage.

Elemental Herbs sunscreen comes in several varieties: Sport, Sport Tinted and Kids, all of which offer an SPF of around 20. While I wish the SPF was higher on this product, it did provide adequate protection for my skin for the time I spent in the sun, which was about an hour and a half to two hours each time. No sunburns here!

  • Published on Jun 8, 2010
Tagged with: Reader Contributions
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