Which Eco-Friendly Sunscreen is the Best?
Happy Summer! While it’s important to protect your skin all year long, it’s even more important as the sun comes out more and is harsher in these summer months. But, protecting your skin shouldn’t come at a cost to the planet.
This is part two of reviewing low waste sunscreen options. Check out part 1 here!
While none of these brands are perfect, they are all doing good for the planet in one form or another. It’s hard to find THE perfect brand. Leave your suggestions below and let’s get into the review!
A word on Reef-safe
Reef-safe is a bit greenwashy. Yes, brands should omit chemicals that are clearly impacting our coral reefs and other water ecosystems, but just because they omit these known reef-harming chemicals doesn’t mean that their other ingredients aren’t doing harm. Yes, it’s great that brands want to omit these harmful chemicals but that doesn’t actually mean their sunscreen is safe. Always check the ingredients for what you prefer for your ethics and morals.
Here’s what coral.org has to say about ingredients to avoid and watch out for:
Ingredients to avoid
“The top two ingredients to steer clear of are…
Oxybenzone
Octinoxate
And the following ingredients can disrupt coral reproductive cycles, damage DNA, and exacerbate coral bleaching:
Benzophenone-1
Benzophenone-8
OD-PABA
4-Methylbenzylidene camphor
3-Benzylidene camphor
Octocrylene”
Krave Beauty
Krave gifted me this product over a year ago after we partnered up on some other content. While this was free to me, I would buy it over and over again. It’s light, protective, and easy to apply. It’s not greasy and does not leave a white cast. I like how this functions like a normal sunscreen.
But what makes it eco?
Well, not the packaging. It’s a plastic tube that isn’t always accepted for recycling BUT they do use 70% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic in the tube and 100% PCR in the cap. That’s a step.
Now…their ingredients are not as good as I had hoped, either. While cruelty-free, vegan, and fragrance-free, this is a chemical-based sunscreen. This isn’t inherently bad, but it’s hard to make a chemical sunscreen reef-safe. It’s usually mineral sunscreens that are reef-safe, but it appears that none of the ingredients that Krave uses are on the list from coral.org. Yay!
Krave is also phthalate-free and paraben-free which are known to not be good for us and our bodies.
Overall, it’s not the most eco thing I have seen but it is many steps ahead of what you’ll find at the supermarket. The eco-ness of Krave sunscreen plus how easy it is to use, how nicely it works, and how well it applies makes this one of my favorites even if it’s not perfect.
Babo Botanicals
Let’s first review Babo as a company since they have several sunscreens we should talk about. First, I love them as a company. They are actively engaging in anti-greenwashing. What does this mean? They used to use the greenwashy reef-safe label since all it takes to be reef-safe is that just 70% of your product must biodegrade within 30 days. There is no requirement for that other 30%. They didn’t feel comfortable with this since their sunscreen might end up being reef-UNsafe.
So, while still striving for top zero waste marks in terms of ingredients and packaging, they removed this label since they didn’t want to accidentally greenwash customers. They also have many other hair and skincare products for you to check out, but let’s review the sunscreens.
Ingredients
The ingredients are mostly the same throughout all of their types of sunscreen so let’s just review that all at once. Babo Botanicals is a mineral-based sunscreen company which is more likely to ensure reef-safety. They are also mostly plant-based and organic, too. You can check out the difference between their SPF 30 and SPF 50 here. This is also a great option for those with allergies or other sensitivities:
Chemical Filters
Silicones
Mineral Oil
Parabens & Phthalates
Fragrance
Synthetic Colorants
Soy & Dairy
High Allergy Nuts (including but not limited to: Peanuts, Almonds, and Walnuts)”
Spray
I am OBSESSED!! I have never seen an eco-friendly spray sunscreen until now. Usually they’re all creams in tins or bottles, but never a spray! Sprays are so easy to apply to large areas, like an entire body, where I think creams are better at small areas like arms, face, and neck. Since it’s so easy to apply, I find I wear sunscreen even more now!
Note: it does need to be shaken before use! Don’t make my mistake and not shake it, it will come out quite watery. Also, not all recycling areas will accept aerosol cans like this for recycling so check your local rules.
Based on ease of use, how thinly it applies (therefore no white cast), the metal packaging, and how well it works, this might take the cake as my favorite low-waste sunscreen.
Cream
This is very much your basic sunscreen cream in a tube. It works and functions like an average sunscreen you might buy in a supermarket but with better ingredients and packaging. I for sure thought that Babo used recycled materials in their packaging, but I couldn’t find this information anywhere. While their tubes are made with plastic #2, a highly recyclable type of plastic, they also are doing anti-greenwashing here and letting people know on their package that this may or may not be accepted for recycling. They team up with How2Recycle to educate customers on how and where to recycle these tubes.
While I like how to works like “normal” sunscreen, it is quite thick. I find it hard to really work into my skin and sometimes leaves a white cast.
Face Stick
This is a perfect face stick! It’s soft, goes on easily, and doesn’t leave a white cast. I love how compact it is so that I can always keep it on me if I need to touch up my sunscreen or forget to apply it at home. The tube is also a recyclable #2 plastic and since it is not a weird tube, it should be accepted everywhere for recycling
Overall, I love Babo Botanicals. I love their stance on greenwashing and the environment. Their products work, are not greasy, and apply nicely. My only complaint is that they should use more recycled materials in their packaging.
Sun Juju
Sun Juju gifted me this sunscreen immediately after my first sunscreen review, so I’ve had this for a longggg time. I only just started using it last summer in Spokane and I LOVE IT! It’s lucious but not greasy, applies nicely with no white cast, and it works very well against the sun.
While I love tins for their ease of recyclability and reusability, I don’t like them for practicality. They swell when it’s hot and they can get quite messy. So, I just prefer to use it at home and put a different sunscreen in my hiking bag.
I think I have to give this a high ranking for eco-friendliness and effectiveness. It’s definitely the most eco-friendly option we’re discussing today!
Kinfield
Lastly for today is Kinfield. These were also gifted to me in sample sizes so I got to try out a bunch of their options. This is an outdoorsy brand that also focuses a little on sustainability. They are far from perfect but I love that this is an option geared toward outdoorswomen and I hope it gets peoples foot in the door for sustainability. They also have bug repellant (review coming later this summer), deodorant, body glide, and more!
These smell SO good! I am not a huge fan of fragrances, but I think I love this one because it’s naturally scented. I also like that they have a tinted option if you prefer that.
While not sustainability-minded first, they sure do keep it in mind. Their sunscreens are cruelty-free, vegan, phthalate-free, and more. They also use PCR in their packaging which is great and claim that their tubes are recyclable. Which we learned from Babo that that is not always the case. So, I don’t love that they just give a blanket “yes our tubes are recyclable” statement when this might not be accepted for recycling everywhere. It’s a bit greenwashy, but not too bad.
Not to mention, it applies well, functions like normal, and doesn’t leave a white cast. Overall, I love Kinfield and it’s much more eco-friendly that I had originally thought.
So, final thoughts. Let’s first compare the prices:
Kinfield Sunglow, SPF 30: $28 for 2 oz or $14 per oz
Sun Juju, SPF 50: $35 for 3.5 oz or $10 per oz
Babo Botanicals
Spray, SPF 30: $20.50 for 6 oz or $3.40 per oz
Lotion, SPF 30: $17.50 for 3 oz or $5.80 per oz
Face stick, SPF 30: $13.50 for 0.6 oz or nearly $19 per oz (wow!!)
Krave, SPF 40: $20 for 1.7 oz or $11.70 per oz
Price-wise, Babo Botanicals clearly takes the cake. I never would have guessed that Kinfield would be the most expensive! While, yes, you usually will pay more money for higher-quality items that care more about the planet and your own health without cutting corners, Babo proves that you don’t have to charge exorbitant prices for eco-friendly, quality products.
Price aside, I think Sun Juju is my favorite sunscreen cream/lotion, but overall, I have to give it to the Babo Spray. Not only is it by far the cheapest, but it’s also the easiest and most convinient to use as well as highly recyclable.
Which of these would you try and which brands should I try next summer for pt 3?
Thanks for reading along, especially if you made it all the way to the end. Like brand reviews? Check out this playlist!
As always, your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)
Emma
