Making Wellness Mama's Homemade Sunscreen Bars

 I am a big fan of Wellness Mama's Website. She is a primal eating, natural-lifestyle living mom of four who posts wellness articles almost daily. When I saw her homemade sunscreen bar recipe, I had to give it a try.

To make the sunscreen you'll need 4 basic ingredients. The original recipe is here. Cocoa Butter, Beeswax, Zinc Oxide and Coconut Oil. Optional ingredients are Vitamin E Oil and Essential Oils.

Beeswax : Beeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. It is mainly esters of fatty acids and various long chain alcohols. From Wikipedia

Cocoa Butter: Cocoa butter, also called theobroma oil, is a pale-yellow, pure, edible vegetable fat extracted from the cocoa bean. It is used to make chocolate, biscuits, and baked goods, as well as some pharmaceuticals, ointments, and toiletries.^[1] Cocoa butter has a mild chocolate flavor and aroma. From Wikipedia.

Zinc Oxide: Zinc oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula ZnO. ZnO is a white powder that is insoluble in water.. It occurs naturally as the mineral zincite but most zinc oxide is produced synthetically.^[3]  From Wikipedia.

Zinc Oxide is found in baby butt creams, calamine lotion and many sunscreens. Sunscreens will normally have either Zinc Oxide or Titanium Dioxide and these are the compounds that actually do the UV ray blocking/reflecting. It is also the ingredient that makes sunscreens leave the white paste on skin. Recently, Zinc Oxide has been made into smaller nano-sized particles that are smaller and do not leave the white paste look. That's why some sunscreens do not leave you looking pasty. However, there has been some debate as to whether or not these smaller particles can be absorbed into the skin and enter the blood stream. Some nanized zinc oxide particles are sold coated in compounds like silica to prevent this, but their efficacy isn't 100% proven. In my opinion, there is not enough research yet, so I chose to go with a NON-nanized Zinc Oxide for my homemade sunscreen. It is a powder and care should be taken to NOT INHALE!

Coconut Oil: Coconut oil is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of matured coconuts harvested from the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera). Throughout the tropical world, it has provided the primary source of fat in the diets of millions of people for generations. It has various applications in food, medicine, and industry. Coconut oil is very heat-stable, which makes it suited to methods of cooking at high temperatures like frying. Because of its stability, it is slow to oxidize and, thus, resistant to rancidity, lasting up to two years due to high saturated fat content. From Wikipedia.

Coconut oil is an amazing superfood and if you're not eating is or putting it on your skin yet, maybe you should give it a try :) Just ask supermodel Miranda Kerr. It is also funny reading the articles when you google this about doctor's saying coconut oil will kill you. Check out The Healthy Home Economist's article if you think so, or do some research and learn just how poorly educated our doctors are. It might make you laugh.. or cry. Warning: coconut oil consumption alone won't make you skinny like a supermodel. That takes genetics and avoidance of processed foods.


I skipped the essential oils (I thought the cocoa butter scent was enough) and the Vitamin E oil (I couldn't find any at a great price and don't mind making these batch-by-batch so preservation wasn't a big concern).

Besides coconut oil, I had none of these ingredients in my house. And could find none of them at Walmart or Target. I did some sleuthing on the internet and decided to order from Mountain Rose Herb company. The Vitamin E oil was too expensive for me at this point and I found no versions at any store that weren't diluted with other oils like wheat germ oil or what not. Finding pure cocoa butter was also a problem for me. I ended up spending $68.27, but that was because I added two large bags of tea and arrowroot powder to my order. I was very pleasantly surprised with the tea - it will last me 3-4 months is great quality. Also, this was the most economical way for me to find arrowroot powder as well. A small jar at Whole Foods last Thanksgiving cost me around $5.00 and this huge bag was around that same price. Plus, when I opened the box, it smelled like herb heaven :) The package arrived in about a week.

My order from Mountain Rose Herb company, minus some of the bar of beeswax:

Invoices:

Cost Breakdown:


Cocoa Butter: Found here. Ordered the 1lb jar.
You can make about 2.5 batches of the sunscreen bars from this jar of cocoa butter. $13.75/2.5 = $5.50 per batch.












Beeswax: Found here. Ordered the 1lb bar.. this was a pain in the bum. I tried to grate it into flakes and ended up just sawing a little bit, then poking holes and wiggling a knife around until I'd made enough to break it. I will order the pastilles next time.

The 1lb bar was $13.00 and I estimate you can make 2.5 batches from this. So $13.00/2.5 = $5.20 per batch












Coconut Oil. I get mine via here subscribe and save at Amazon.com. I receive a shipment once every three month and that makes each jar about $7.65. I use it for everything from cooking to rubbing into my skin as a lotion that smells nice and isn't oily. It is soft and liquidy in my warm kitchen or solid at slightly cooler temps.You can find organic expeller pressed coconut oil pretty easily at chain grocery stores and places like Walmart. It will be in the cooking oil section. I estimate you can make 2 batches from the 15oz tubs. So, $7.65/2 = $3.83 per batch


 Zinc Oxide found here. Again, I avoided "micronized" and "nanized" zinc oxide. This was about $4.80/bag, but around $10.00 with shipping and I estimate you could make six batches or more with this amount of zinc oxide. So, $10.00/6 = $1.67 per batch













Total Cost per Batch: $16.20

I am satisfied with this price, as I think these sunscreen bars will last the summer with some smart midday sun avoidance and use of UV protective clothing. This is an acceptable price to me especially considering the only sunscreen I found that I really liked was Badger Balm. And that was pricey. If I were in a pinch or strapped for cash, I would buy one of the sunscreens off of Environmental Working Group's Best Sunscreens list.

All the ingredients together

Batch of Sunscreen!

Final Thoughts:

*If I were to make these as gifts, I would use the Vitamin E oil as a preservative. You never know how long they'll be sitting in a fridge waiting to get used!
* These are slightly less melty than butter, so please keep in the refrigerator.
* Wellness Mama also has a sunscreen lotion that I will try to make sometime.
* The great thing about these ingredients (minus the zinc oxide) is that they can be used in cooking or other homemade health and beauty products. I will be buying these in large bulk to save money and making homemade lotion bars and things of that nature.
* It is a pain in the bum to clean up the pans after this, so rinse right away with hot water and keep it running for a bit. I will probably try to use parchment paper as a liner next time.
* No need to grease the silicon molds or even regular dark metal molds. These popped right out when cooled and left no residue.

Extra Sun Protection on the Cheap:

I purchased for each of my boys UV treated clothing from Children's Place that has a UV protection factor of 50. I used a coupon at the Children's Place Outlet and here's the cost breakdown:

Sun shirts tend to run small, so I ordered size 7/8 for my almost 4 year old. For my small 2 year old I ordered a size 3T. Big kids sun wear here. Little kids here. There is way more availability in store than online if you can find a Children's Place near you. There is also UV clothing available at Gymboree and Carter's.

Shark Bay Rashguard $9.99 - $2.50 (coupon) = $7.49
Shark Swim Trunks $7.99 - $2.00 (coupon) = $5.99
Blue Bay Rash Guard $7.99 - $2.00 (coupon) = $5.99
2 year old's swim trunks found at a garage sale last year!