Today we returned from our annual weekend at the beach. My parents, my sister's family, and my family all go to Cayucos, California on the Central Coast. It's a great time together. And believe it or not, my 79 year old mom and 80 year old dad get in their wetsuits to boogie board with the rest of us!
In the past 10 years, I always got very inflamed cheeks. The skin on my cheeks would get hot and puffy. In the early years, I thought it was a sunburn. But I eventually figured out I was having an allergic reaction.
So I started using zinc oxide as my waterproof sunscreen. It was a fun purple colored sunblock. But I STILL had a bad reaction. Now that I KNOW I have an allergy to Iron Oxide, I realize the ingredients that created the purple color was the irritant. There are lotions that are pure zinc oxide that would work great for me. I also believe there is some Iron Oxide in the sea water that is an irritant to my face.
For the past 2 years, I decided to limit myself to just one day of boogie boarding, compared to 2 days in the past. That helped quite a bit. In addition to that, I bought swimming goggles to provide further protection for my eyes. This year I completely skipped sunblock. And after 2 hours in the water, I had a great time with no allergic reaction! Wahooo!!!
Here is a photo we took at the end of the day, look at my happy eyes & cheeks! Believe it or not, this is a big improvement over the past years.
In the past, I have used sunless tanners and tinted sunless tanners on my legs. Now I'm realizing that Iron Oxide is the key ingredient that provides the color in the tinted sunless tanners! Bad news for me!
Having an Iron Oxide Allergy means re-thinking the way you get your Summer tan! Just think of it this way...if it deposits cover on your skin, it will have Iron Oxide.
In an earlier post, I wrote about how nickel and iron oxide are basically the same thing. So IF you have a nickel allergy, consider whether Iron Oxide will also be an irritant to your skin.
Sunless tanning products also contain bronzers that come in all different forms and colors. They may be blends of F, D, &C, (food, drug and cosmetic) water soluble dyes, iron oxides, (the different colors of rust formed by the oxidation of ferrous metals), or natural sources such as carmine, a pigment made from carminic acid, found in cochineal insects such as beetles. http://www.airbrush-tanning.us/faq1.htm
Dr. Mercola talks about Why Sunless Tanning Can Be Dangerous:
Sunless tanners contain a lengthy list of chemical agents — up to 45 in the case of spray tanners. Many of these agents have never been studied for their long-term effects on human health, because the FDA does not systematically review the safety of personal care products. Since testing is voluntary and controlled by the manufacturers, many ingredients in cosmetic products are not safety tested at all.
One of the main ingredients in spray tanning solutions is dihydroxyacetone, a color additive that darkens your skin by reacting with amino acids in your skin's surface layer. Dihydroxyacetone is often abbreviated DHA (which should not be confused with docosahexaenoic acid, the healthy omega-3 fat often given the same abbreviation). Sunless tanning products often contain between 1 and 15 percent DHA; the higher the DHA level, the darker the tan produced.
Manufacturers of sunless tanning products claim DHA is a simple carbohydrate sugar solution, but some toxicologists disagree. Part of the problem is that the U.S. government's regulations for DHA allow contaminants such as lead, arsenic and mercury.
A report by the National Toxicology Program1 suggests the risks of DHA remain unclear, pointing to some evidence that DHA may be a mutagen that could induce breaks in DNA strands, which could contribute to accelerated aging and even skin cancer. Another issue is absorption through your skin. You shouldn't put anything on your skin you wouldn't feel safe eating.
In fact, earlier this year a panel of medical experts reviewed 10 scientific studies on DHA and concluded the use of DHA-containing spray tans may cause genetic alterations and DNA damage that could lead to cancer and chronic lung diseases when inhaled.2 Sunless tanning sprays have even been found to inhibit your skin's ability to produce vitamin D, as the dark layer on your skin produced by the DHA results in the prevention of UVB absorption, thereby inhibiting vitamin D production.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/02/09/sunless-tanning-lotion.aspx
So I guess I will be sporting pale skin this summer. Good thing I have an olive tint to my color naturally!
My favorite skin treatment for summer is coconut oil. It seems to make my skin look a bit more tan. Enjoy these summer days!
