Homemade Sunscreen with Essential Oils

Being a fair-skinned (natural) redhead, I know firsthand the awful, miserable feeling of getting a sunburn. And even worse, as a mom and having a daughter with even fairer skin than mine, I know that terrible guilty feeling of letting my child get a sunburn. That’s why I’m so happy to have this all-natural, homemade essential oil sunscreen!

It’s water resistant
Helps protects against UVA and UVB
SPF 30+
Rubs in completely
Not sticky or overly greasy
Easy to make
You get to control what goes in it
Made with pure, all-natural ingredients
With the goodness of essential oils and it smells great!
But even with all that, with such fair skin we still have to be careful. We try to find shade when we can, we cover up, we reapply sunscreen every hour or so, and reapply sunscreen after being in the water (or sweating a lot). And when we get a little too much sun, we use this fantastic after-sun spray with essential oils.

What’s in this DIY sunscreen?
mango butter or shea butter – SPF 3-6
coconut oil – SPF 6-8
beeswax – thickens sunscreen and makes it water resistant
apricot kernel oil– lightens sunscreen and helps it absorb into skin
non-nano zinc oxide– UVA and UVB protection with SPF 20+
cacao powder (optional)– Zinc oxide sunscreen is famous for being stark white. Adding a little cacao powder softens that and helps sunscreen blend into your natural skin tone.
essential oil–  I use lavender essential oil.  I love the scent, it’s very relaxing, and it even has a little sun protection (about SPF 5).

How to make homemade sunscreen with essential oils:

Step 1:  add ¼ cup beeswax to heat-safe glass measuring cup or bowl

Step 2:  add ½ cup mango butter, or substitute with ½ cup shea butter

Step 3:  add ½ cup coconut oil

Step 4:  use double boiler method to melt butter, oil, and beeswax

• fill pot with 1-2 inches of water
• heat pot over medium high heat so that the water gently simmers
• place heat-safe glass measuring cup in the pot of simmering water
• stir occasionally
• be sure to melt the butters and beeswax completely.  If the beeswax doesn’t completely melt, it can reform and become grainy.

Step 5:  remove mixture from heat and let it cool for a couple of minutes

Step 6:  after mixture has cooled for a couple minutes, add ¼ cup apricot kernel oil

Step 7:  add 60 drops essential oil (1% dilution) and stir well

I use lavender essential oil.  I love the scent, it’s very relaxing, and it even has a little sun protection (about 5 SPF).

Step 8:  add 1/2 cup non-nano zinc oxide

Step 9:  (optional) add a little cacao powder to make your sunscreen to a softer color that’s closer to your skin tone

Zinc oxide sunscreen is famous for being stark white.  Adding a little cacao powder softens that. I add 2-3 tablespoons to a batch for my family’s fair skin.  If you have a darker skin tone, you may want to experiment with adding more.

Step 10:  let the mixture cool completely.  If you’re patient (I’m not) you can let it sit at room temperature for a couple hours.  Or you can speed up the process by putting it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Step 12:  The zinc oxide and cocoa might have settled to the bottom when it cooled.  To make sure everything is mixed well, give the sunscreen a quick stir with your mixer.

Step 13:  transfer sunscreen to beach-and-pool-safe containers

To make filling the silicone squeeze bottles quick, easy, and no mess, here’s what I do:

• I put the whole batch of sunscreen into a Ziploc
• cut off the corner tip of the Ziploc bag
• squeeze into silicone squeeze bottles
• this recipe is enough to fill 3-4 of these 3 ounce squeeze bottles

Here’s the essential oil sunscreen recipe one more time:

1. use double-boiler method to melt the following:

¼ cup beeswax

½ cup mango butter OR ½ shea butter

½ cup coconut oil

2. remove from heat, let cool a couple minutes, and then add the following:

¼ cup apricot kernel oil

60 drops essential oil (1% dilution)  – stir well after adding

1/2 cup non-nano zinc oxide

(optional) 2-3 Tbsp cacao powder

3. refrigerate for 30 minutes

4. zinc oxide and cacao powder may have settled to the bottom of bowl during cooling process.  Use hand mixer for 1-2 minutes to blend everything together really well.

5. transfer sunscreen to silicone squeeze bottles (1 batch fills 3-4 of 3 ounce bottles)

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