Two types of sunscreen ingredients, physical and chemical, are available to prevent UV rays from attacking the viability of healthy skin cells. A physical sunscreen is not absorbed into the skin. It physically reflects the rays away from the skin by sitting on top of the skin. The type used the longest, for over 300 years, is zinc. Zinc has not been shown to have any adverse reactions, and actually has been shown to support and promote healing of the skin.
The downside to zinc-based products has been the whiteness or ashiness it produces on the skin after application. (Remember the lifeguards with white sunscreen across their noses – THAT’S how you need to use zinc sunscreens for them to work fully!) Chemical sunscreens have rapidly grown in use in the sunscreen market with the development of the revolutionary chemical avobenzone (Parsol 1789), the only FDA-approved chemical SPF ingredient for broad-spectrum protecyion against UVA and UVB. New ingredients such as octylcrylene and the benzophenones are also available to improve a sunscreen’s defenses against shorter UVA rays. Although chemical sunscreens have gotten a bad wrap for having “chemicals”, remember this, the zinc in that “natural” sunscreen you’re using was made in a lab, and is therefore, also a chemical!
