How to Make Sunscreen

Most body care products can be easily made at home with the most basic ingredients, a clean working surface and a stove top! These home-made products are just as effective and much less toxic than most commercial brands--they are preservative and fragrance free and aren't made in China!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• 6 oz liquid oil (such as olive oil or almond oil)
• 3 oz solid oil (such as shea butter or coconut oil)
• 1 oz beeswax
• 1 tsp titanium dioxide (active ingredient)
• 10 oz distilled water
• 2 qt saucepan
• 2 cp glass measuring cup
• Stove top
• Grater
• Jars to hold 20 oz of product
• Chopstick to stir
• Blender
• Rubber spatula

1. Set up the double boiler. Half-fill your saucepan with water. Set it to boil. When your ingredients are all together in the glass measuring cup, you will simply set the cup inside the pan--that way you can see what is going on inside and you have one less thing to clean in the end.
2. Clean your utensils and surfaces. You don't want any food particles in your sunscreen! I always run my fingertips over the countertop when I think I have done cleaning--my fingers always feel little pieces that my sponge has missed.
3. Grate your beeswax. I recommend picking up a new grater for this one as it will be impossible to clean afterward. You can simply store it with your beeswax for next time. Grating the beeswax is the hardest part. Be patient. Don't scrape your knuckles!
4. Measure your ingredients. You liquid carrier oils go first, then you can watch the level rise as you add the solid oils and beeswax. That is how you will know exactly how much you have added.
5. Melt your ingredients. Place the entire glass measuring cup and contents in the hot water bath. Turn the heat down to medium high. If the cup is floating or water is getting inside, pour off some of the hot water. The level of water should be about even with the level of ingredients.
6. Stir with a chopstick or the clean handle of a wooden spoon. Don't use a metal spoon as the titanium dioxide may decide to interact with it chemically. The titanium dioxide will tend to settle on the bottom, so you will want to keep this suspended as much as possible, especially at the end.
7. Pour 10 oz of distilled water into your waiting clean blender. If you have a lid with one of those removal plastic pieces in the middle, remove that piece. If not, then you will need to cover the top with a towel or a mit during the next step.
8. Remove the melted oils from the heat. You will need to use your hot pad. Turn on the blender--the water will whirl around. Pour the melted oils into the middle of the swirling water. Tadum! You have a sunscreen! An emulsion of water and oil with beeswax as your binder or emulsifier and titanium dioxide as your active ingredient!
9. You might want to turn off the blender to scrape the sides before turning it back on again. That way you can get a smooth consistency, without any beeswax-y or shea butter-y lumps on the sides.
10. Pour your product into the waiting jars, scraping with your rubber spatula. Do this while the product is still warm and relatively pourable. Wait until your product has cooled before you put the lids on, or you will have condensation on the inside of the jar. If you have cats or kids around, that might not be possible, but that's okay too.
11. Label your jars. FDA requires that you list all ingredients in descending order, from most to least, that you have the city, state and zip of origin and the contact info for maker (that's you!). You don't need to do a label if you're not selling the product, but you might want to do it anyway: it looks good, and tells anyone who uses it what's inside. Not a bad idea.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to add your solid ingredients one at a time, so you know exactly how much you have added of each.
• I get my titanium dioxide at www.mountainroseherbs.com, a supplier in northern CA--they're fabulous! Link is below...
• I get my beeswax by the pound at the local farmers' market.
• You can add food coloring if you want to know when your sunscreen has washed off your kids at the beach.
• This is really a sunblock, and it will be white-ish on your skin, just like the stuff that skiiers and sailors use on their nose.
• SPF ratings are given by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). You can have your product tested for about $2000. My estimate is that this product has an SPF of 20+. The more titanium dioxide you use, the higher the SPF.
• Other active sunscreen ingredients are available: I only recommend titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. They have been on the market a long time, have no history of problems, and are basically inert chemicals, so they won't react with the sun or with your skin or with your other lotions.
• Be sure to test for allergic reaction to all body care products before you slather. I have included a link to allergy testing below.