Thursday, August 10, 2017

Be Water Wise & Skin Smart with Ocean Safe Screen

                                                          
Wants in your beach bag?
Toss in a few organic products from Mermaid Minerals
and you will be having fun in sun while protecting
the ocean and yourself!
We all love going to the beach, relaxing in the warm sand, flipping our fins in the water and watching the suffers go by! 

The sun blazing overhead, giving everyone that sun kissed glow but what if that sun kissed glow turns into a sun burn. We all know how bad that is for our skin and not everyone is lucky enough to be gifted with the melanin that has projected me from the sun my whole life. (in truth I have had one sun burn my whole life and that was from a tanning bed) I use sun block on the rare occasion that I am too tan and anymore expose to the sun could be bad for my skin at this point. My husband, on the other hand, NEEDS sun block, he doesn't have the melanin and he burns easily. He likes the spray on kind but it's so sticky and the lotion kind is just a mess but those aren't the only drawbacks to using sunscreen. Did you know that by projecting your skin you may be contributing to the rapid rate at which the coral reefs are dying?!

In 2015 Time Magazine published an article about this very problem. A group of researchers published their findings in the journal, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, stating that they found the chemical called, OXYBENZONE to have toxic effects on young coral! Therefore the sunscreen you are using to protect you and your family is the leading cause of * endocrine disruption, DNA damage and death of coral! Ever hear of coral bleaching? This is when the coral rejects symbiotic organisms and loses it's color. Bleaching has been particularly prevalent in recent years due to rising sea temperatures AND Oxybenzone. According to the U.S. National Park Service approximately 4,000 to 6,000 tons of sunscreen is introduced to the coral reefs around the world, making Oxybenzone one of the leading deadly chemicals unknowingly polluting our waters every day! 
Why Coppertone??

After learning about this I checked the labels on the three bottle of sunblock we had and use regularly. The first bottle was from a gift bag and Oxybenzone was third on the list of ingredients but I do not know the manufacturer. The second bottle I checked came from Coppertone....surely they won't let me down!? Coppertone has been around for a long time it's a trusted company known for its sun protection products, but sadly my chosen sunblock has 6% Oxybenzone.

Good choice, but it could be better...
Fortunately for my little fishy heart our bottle of Banana Boat Sport does NOT have oxybenzone but it is full of other unpronounceable chemicals, which kinda makes me cringe.  

So what is a mermaid to do? Well, Mermaid Minerals came up with the perfect answer, Ocean Safe Sunscreen with SPF 30! Using things like coconut oil, Vitamin E and Zinc oxide for sun protection this sunblock is better for you and the environment! Ocean Safe sunscreen goes on like a thin lotion working easily and quickly into the skin without leaving a sticky feeling. And sand wont to stick to your skin because it dries quickly with no greasy residue. 
The BEST sunscreen for you and the Coral!

And can we talk about the scent?! Forget about the nose clogging smell of most drugstore sunscreens Mermaid Minerals sunscreen is lightly scented from the Green Tea Tree oils, Safflower and other natural oils. like with all sunscreens it is recommended to reapply after several hours of swimming or sweating to make sure you are protecting your skin. In short, you can't just take away sunblock but you can be smart about the sunscreen you use! Especially, divers, snorkelers or anyone else swimming near coral reefs, be sunscreen smart and check the label! If Oxybenzone is on the list, leave it on the shelf!

Find all this and more at Mermaidminerals.com! 









Check out MermaidMinerals.com for their complete line of organic beauty products for Women and Men.

*Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine (or hormone) systems at certain doses. These disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders. Any system in the body controlled by hormones can be derailed by hormone disruptor's.