How to Make Your Own Homemade Sunscreen

Homemade Sunscreen

Three reasons you should make your own:

1. Control your ingredients: zinc oxide offers the best sun protection with a low hazard rating (per EWG). You can create a high or low SPF when you make it yourself.
2. Four ingredients and 30 minutes is all you need.
3. No need to worry about expired sunscreen in the cupboard. Make fresh sunscreen that lasts all summer long (plan for a year shelf life).

Instructions: Melt ½ oz beeswax, 2 oz shea butter, and 2 oz coconut oil using the double boiler method (Pyrex or glass container with ingredients, sitting in a pot of boiling water until mixture is melted).

Remove from heat. Add 1 oz (2 TBS) zinc oxide to melted mixture and using a stick blender, blend until all zinc oxide is well-blended. Pour into a glass or plastic container. Sunscreen is ready when solidified.

Important: clean your equipment while it’s still hot. Immediately wipe everything with paper towels to get rid of the residue as much as possible. Then wash in hot, soapy water with a scrub brush.

This is approximately 30 spf – I wouldn’t add more zinc oxide than the recipe calls for unless you can handle the extra “whiteness” which might be difficult to rub into the skin. Use less zinc oxide for a lower spf.

For a video and more summer skin care recipes, see the My Buttered Life ebook.