Veggie Vacations

Well, it’s April, so Memorial Day is essentially just around the corner and summer will be upon us before we know it!  This year, I’m in the market for a new sunscreen – it must be vegan, not tested on animals, not contain potentially harmful ingredients, and not burn my eyes if I sweat.

In the past I’ve used Ocean Potion, which does not test on animals and smells like orange sherbet.  But the ingredient list is pretty long, and although I didn’t recognize any animal ingredients, I’m not 100% sure that it was vegan.  I’ve also used alba botanica sunscreen – definitely vegan, safe, and cruelty free, but not waterproof in the least.

So, I turned to the Environmental Working Group for some guidance on safety…turns out, I had a lot to learn about sunscreen:

‘SPF’ only refers to protection from UVB rays.  For protection from UVA rays, a mineral (usually zinc or titanium) must be one of the ingredients.  Also, zinc and titanium are not absorbed much into the skin, so they pose little risk.  However,

To find out which sunscreens were truly cruelty-free, I went to Leaping Bunny.  Have you seen the leaping bunny logo yet?  According to their website, “The Leaping Bunny Program provides the best assurance that no new animal testing is used in any phase of product development by the company, its laboratories, or suppliers.”  Sounds good to me!

So, I cross-referenced EWG’s top sunscreen list with Leaping Bunny’s list of cruelty-free companies.  And the winners are:

- Kiss My Face Paraben-free sunscreens

- Jason Sunbrellas Mineral Based Sunblock

Can’t wait to test them out for water resistance!  Just a note – keep in mind that more companies are continually being added to the Leaping Bunny list…

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