FTC Disclosure: Delicious Obsessions may receive comissions from purchases made through links in this article. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.Read our full terms and conditions here.

The VH Podcast, Episode 6: Safe Summer Skin Care // deliciousobsessions.com

Welcome back to another episode of The Vibrant Health Podcast!

This week, Lydia and I talk about safe summer skin care. With the weather warming up, people will be spending more time outdoors and also reaching for common warm weather products like deodorant, sunscreen, and bug repellent.

Those items are some of the most toxic skin care products out there and we are here to offer some suggestions as to how to avoid nasty chemicals and still enjoy your time outdoors!

So, let’s not waste any time! Tune in below!

Missed previous episodes? You can find them all here.

Links From This Week’s Episode:

Listen to The Vibrant Health Podcast :: Episode 6

Read The Vibrant Health Podcast Transcript :: Episode 6

Jessica: Hi everyone and welcome to episode number six of the Vibrant Health Podcast. I am Jessica Espinoza from DeliciousObsessions.com. My co-host Lydia is here from DivineHealthfromtheInsideOut.com.

We are almost into summer season. So we wanted to do an episode today about safe summer care – sun care, skin care, sun exposure, all that kind of stuff, because people are going to be going to the pool, laying out on the beach and going camping and all that stuff.

We wanted to give you some ideas for how you can make those events a little more healthy and use less chemicals and toxic skin care stuff this summer.

So we’re going to dive right in and start talking about how you guys can have a safe summer.

Lydia: Yeah. Hey everyone, it’s Lydia. And yes, we definitely want to talk about summer skin care and just being out in the sun. And most people are looking for ways to get healthy and one of the easiest things you can do is swap out your personal care products and make healthier choices because there are a lot of toxins and a lot of chemicals and things in commercial skin care products.

Being a health practitioner, I see people’s hair analysis and a lot of people have aluminum showing up and some other things. I know for a fact that we’ve all got toxins in our bodies and we can stand to make some changes.

The question is, for many people, “How do you do that? Okay, sure, I can swap out my deodorant, but I know I’m going to stink if I don’t wear deodorant, so what can I use instead?” So, we’re here to make some suggestions and explain to you how to make this change. It’s not as hard as you think. Some people are probably going to start sweating more because it’s getting hotter, you’re going to want some good deodorant. Let’s go there.

So let’s start with deodorant. I ditched deodorant a long time ago because I’m crunchy like that. But most of the time, I don’t really need any. However, in the last few years, I’ve needed some again, so I’ve found a few options.

And the reason why getting bad deodorant out and getting something more natural is because the skin is the largest organ of your body and where you’re putting your deodorant, especially for women, it’s close to the breast tissue. So, as you all know, we have an increase in breast cancer these days.

Now, aluminum is very toxic. It actually clogs up your sweat glands and it’s in these antiperspirants. That’s just one issue.

There are also parabens. They are pretty toxic, they are preservatives. They actually can disrupt your endocrine system. I don’t know any woman who doesn’t have some type of endocrine dysfunction as it stands, right, ladies?

Jessica: Everybody.

Lydia: So just those two things alone makes it worth – just ditching the store-bought deodorants and finding a more natural alternative. Jessica has done some great research and put together her own homemade deodorant. You want to talk about that, Jessica?

Jessica: Sure, yeah. one of the very first things I did when I started realizing that I needed to focus on my health was start by cleaning up my skin care stuff. I started making my own things as much as I could. I was using a non-toxic, organic deodorant brand. So if you’re not a do-it-yourselfer, don’t worry, because there are lots of brands out there that are safe. There are just some people that like to do it themselves, but there are some people that don’t. So we want to cater to both.

One of the first things that I ever made was homemade deodorant. And actually the reason that I even made it was because the brand that I was using that I absolutely loved, they stopped making the one that I liked, which was lemongrass/rosemary, I think was the scent.

So, I set out to re-create their recipe and make my own. I have that on my site. We’ll put links. Any of the recipes that we’ve talked about in today’s episode, we’ll put links in the blog post below or if you’re listening to this on YouTube, check out the video description below so that you can see all of those links there and we’ll have links to everything.

So I started making that, just experimenting round. It uses lemongrass and rosemary essential oil in it, but you really could tailor it to use whatever essential oil you want.

Essential oils on their own are very powerful. There are a lot of essential oils. They’re going to be anti-fungal and antimicrobial and stuff like that.

So I rotate through my deodorants. I have nontoxic store brands that I use. It’s actually a man’s deodorant. It’s Every Man Jack is the brand. It’s aluminum-free and they have a citrus flavored one that I really like. So I use that one on occasion.

But I also use just plain patchouli essential oil. I love patchouli. A lot of people don’t like patchouli, but if you do, you might consider using that. I just put one drop of patchouli essential oil.

And that’s one of the essential oils that you can use [inaudible 00:05:49]. It doesn’t need to be diluted unless you’ve got very, very sensitive skin, but I’ve never had any problems with it.

So I put a drop of patchouli essential oil on the tip of a cue tip and I just apply it in my underarm, and I’m good to go. That probably has been one of the best natural deodorants that I ever tried. So if you like the patchouli scent, you can do that. My husband likes to joke that I smell like a hippie, but I love the scent of it.

But you can mix it, you could even make your own little deodorant blend of essential oils if you wanted. So there are a lot of options out there that are safe and are going to help you avoid the parabens and artificial scents and preservatives and aluminum and all of that stuff. So that’s definitely one of the first things I would recommend getting rid of if you’re looking to improve your health.

Lydia: Absolutely, yeah. Actually, that’s one of the first things I ask my clients. When I see aluminum, I say, “What deodorant are you using? Are you using an antiperspirant?” And they’re like, “Oh, yeah, that’s what I’m using.” I’m like, “Okay, if you don’t mind, go throw it in the trash. Here are some options.”

I mean, I hate making people waste money, but come on, this is your health we’re talking about. It’s one way you absolutely have control over putting aluminum into your system because there are so many ways that you do not have control of toxins in the environment and in our world and deodorant is one that you do.

Jessica: Yep, absolutely. The simple things –

Lydia: It’s a simple choice, yeah. And if you don’t like patchouli and smelling like a hippie, a grapefruit essential oil is actually nice too for a deodorant. But if you don’t have essential oils and you’re not using essential oils, there are so many other options. And if you don’t want to make your own deodorant, there are plenty of people already making them. So I’ve used a number of different kinds myself and we’re going to make sure you get the links so that you have ideas.

Some people realize they don’t need it all the time and then there are times when they tend to sweat a little more. Maybe you just use it at the times where you feel like you’re going to need more.

We all are going to have a natural musky scent. If you have a really bad odor, there’s probably something off going on in your body. You maybe have a little bit too much toxins to be going on or maybe you have some imbalance in your body that are really getting rid of the deodorant is only going to help you.

So, think about it that way hopefully and ditch that toxic deodorant. It’s so easy to do and you’ll never look back.

Jessica: Yeah, and if you do – I do my insert real quick. I was going to mention the scent thing. If you do, if you’ve been using commercial deodorant, an antiperspirant for years and you decide to ditch them, your body is going to go through a detox period. So you may find that you have some pretty bad B.O. for a couple of days or maybe a week or something. As your skin is going to be forcing out a lot of the toxin, they’re going to be doing a little bit of a cleansing there.

So don’t be alarmed. I went through a detox period when I switched using – I think I was using Dove antiperspirant for years and I went through a period where I really felt like I just stunk no matter what I did. But that only lasted for about a week or so and then your body gets rid of all that junk and it gets used to not having that there.

And then also, like Lydia said, if you find that you’ve got too much B.O. or that you feel just like you’re a little extra stinky, that’s when you really have to start addressing dietary issues. There could be something else going on in the body.

A lot of people find that as they clean up their diet, their body odor diminishes. So that’s definitely something to keep in mind in mind as you make that transition. But don’t be scared about it, just understand that your body is going to go through a little bit of a detox period as it cleanses and heals itself. So, I just wanted to throw that out there.

Lydia: Yeah, that’s important. I forgot about that part because it’s been so long. So yes, it’s good stuff for sure. So yeah, great. So we’ve got deodorant.

So another thing that people are going to start using more this time of the year will be sun screen. That’s a huge one because a lot of sunscreens out there are very toxic. The question could even be, should we even wear it because we’re blocking vitamin D and all that.

That’s a big one to think about and to start switching over too. And I think it’s overwhelming because I’m a mom, I have four kids and if they’re going to summer camp or anything like that, they actually require the kids to have sunscreen and put it on and put it on all day. So my kids each have to have their own bottle of sunscreen. It’s just so easy to get sunscreen in the stores, but I refuse to use it.

So I had to do some serious research on this one and figure out how I wanted to handle it and find options for the kids that they’ll actually use that are actually effective and that they won’t mind using. That’s another topic there, the whole peer pressure thing and, “Oh, your sunscreen is weird.

Anyway, we want to talk about number one, can you make your own sunscreen and make it healthier. And that’s where Jessica is going to come in because she’s done a lot of research on this and created her own recipe. So if you want to make your own, Jessica can tell you how.

Jessica: Yes, I have to say, your sunscreen is one of those things where I agree with you. I don’t really think that it’s completely necessary in the way that we’ve been told that it is. I don’t know, I guess there’s a lot of information about it.

So we do need sun exposure. There are UVA and UVB rays. The UVB rays are the good guys. Those are the ones that stimulate the vitamin D production in our skin. The UVA rays are the ones that are the primary refractor for cancer.

So personally, I don’t really ever wear sunscreen because I really try to practice just safe sun exposure. I try to be cautious with when I’m out in the sun and how long I’m out there.

And if I’m going to be out there for a long time, I try to either stay in the shade if I’m out in an event or something or wear some long sleeves and I never shorts or anything. So I don’t have to worry about that, the long sleeves if I can. I know during the summer, it’s really hard to feel like you need wear long sleeves.

So I am in the camp of just safe, cautious sun exposure, but when you do need sunscreen, you’ve got to have something.

So I have a recipe on my site. I’ll make sure I leave the links down below in the blog post or on the video description on YouTube. I did a lot of research. A lot of natural oils like coconut oil, raspberry feed oil, carrot feed oil, all have natural SPF. And so you can make your own, but you have to get into having to understand the difference between then UVA and UVB rays.

So most of the natural SPF protection of natural oils are going to be blocking, so you have to refresh this in my brain. It’s been so long since I’ve gone over this.

The oils are not going to give you a hundred percent protection from UV rays. They’re mostly going to block the UVB rays which are the good ones that we actually need. And so, if you want to get more of a UVA protection which is blocking the skin cancer-causing rays, that’s where you need to add in some zinc oxide.

Now, you have to look for really high quality zinc oxide that’s specifically for cosmetic purposes.

I have all of these like outlined in my article and recipe on there about how to choose the safe one. The thing that you run into with that is that it’s going to leave kind of a whitish residue on your skin. So that’s where it’s hard with the natural one because you’re not using the chemicals to help lock. You’re using natural ingredients and everything. That’s where you run into. I can see like maybe sometimes the kid may not like using it because they don’t their friends to see their skin having a little whitish residue.

You have to weigh whether or not you want to make your own. There are some good ones on the market. Dr. Mercola has a good one that I have tried personally and I really liked it. I haven’t used a whole lot of the organic sunscreen just because I don’t ever need it. So hopefully, Lydia’s got some brands that maybe she can recommend or link to down below as well. But you can check out my post and read all of the information that I compiled. I did a lot of research on it when I was developing the recipe. It works really well. But you just have to still be cautious with the natural ones.

You don’t want to put this on just once in the morning and then go out and stay in the sun all day, never re-apply it and be in the sun all day long because that’s just not going to be safe. You are going to burn. You have to use common sense when it comes to sun exposure.

Lydia: Exactly, and I think that’s probably the most important thing, knowing how to be in the sun. If you’re going to be gardening in the bright sun, you need protection other than sunscreen. You need a big hat, you need to cover yourself and just be smart about it.

If you have kids, that’s tougher because they’re not going to think about this stuff especially if they’re not with you in their camp. In that case, you really have to have something for them.

But when my kids are with me in the summer, if we go to a pool or we go somewhere, I keep them in the shade as much as I can. There are certain parts of the pool or wherever we are where I’ll encourage them to play. And if I know they’re going to be in the sun for any length of time, I will put sunscreen on them.

After three and four p.m., I don’t worry so much. It’s really those earlier hours between maybe 11 and 2 that you want to be probably the most cautious. And if you’re going to be in the sun during those hours for any length of time, you just want to have some protection and use it.

You may want to start to think of strategies for being in the sun. I just don’t think our culture thinks like that, we just do whatever and we just go wherever, but we don’t think about things like this.

So maybe start thinking about how to plan your day when you’re in the sun. A lot of people will go to the beach and they’ll just literally lay out exposed to the bright sun for a long time. And that’s just necessarily a good idea.

Some people are going to be more sensitive to the sun than others. So there’s the gamut of that. We don’t even want to go into how much this could be a really big can of worms.

Jessica: With all things, natural living and food, we just have to be smart about it and really develop strategies that are going to work for the activities that we need to participate in, but are also going to keep us safe.

And one thing I want to interject is that the UVB rays, which are the good ones, those usually peak around noon during the day. But they are a lot more easily filtered out by clouds and overcast weather. The UVA rays however are not filtered out as well. So even if it’s cloudy and overcast outside, you could still burn.

So still keep that in minds when you’re planning your outdoor activities that even if it’s cloudy, that doesn’t mean that you can just stay outside all day without running the risk of burning.

But then, like Lydia said, everybody’s got different skin types and you know your own exposure ability better than anybody else does. So you really have to just tailor your plans for summer around what you know you can tolerate in the activities that you’ve got planned. So this could be a huge can of worms. This could be a whole podcast on its own probably.

Lydia: Sure, we’re hopefully just trying to make awareness. And I will post a link to Katie of Kitchen Stewardship. She did some pretty great research on different brands and she keeps reporting her findings and she has a bunch of kids. That’s really good information.

One of the lotions I do like (and I tried a whole bunch, let me tell you). The one I did like was called Tropical Sands. And the reason I liked it was because it came in a bottle, a squeeze bottle that was very user-friendly, easier for kids. It’s water-resistant for 80 minutes. So if you’re swimming for a long time, the kids will have to come and reapply. It’s non-allergenic, it’s gluten-free, which I felt was very important.

It was just probably one of the better ones that I’ve tried. So Tropical Sands, I’ll make sure I’ll link that in the post. Just for my own personal use, I’ve tried a lot of stuff.

Sometimes, the zinc oxide is good to have if you’re going to be in major sun. Let’s say you’re going out on a boat or something, you really want to protect yourself in a situation like that. So you’re going to have to get over having these weird markings on your face, but it will be very protective.

So that’s just one thought there, but there are definitely options out there. I do really like the Tropical Sands. It’s probably more expensive than the typical sunscreen you’ll find in the stores, but it’s lasted me quite a while partly because I practice safe use, safe sun activity and don’t always spend a lot of time in the sun. But when we do, we have this and that’s when we use it.

Jessica: Mm-hmm, yup, that’s a big one. Okay, so we’re done with deodorant and sunscreen. So what else should we tackle for summer?

Lydia: Definitely bug spray because that is probably some of the most toxic stuff. Nobody wants to get bit. You’re sitting around with your friends at a BBQ and you’re getting bit up. Some people get bit more than other people do so, that’s a factor.

But when I’m in a BBQ, the last thing I want to do is get bit a lot and be annoyed. But then I also do not want to be around someone else spraying toxic bug spray all over themselves and I’m choking on it. So I would love for people to learn better options for that.

And there are definitely a lot of D.I.Y. options that are effective for sure at least in the general use of the bug spray. I’m not talking about going into the woods and going camping kind of thing, just your average backyard party or even evening with the family, evening at the picnic table or something.

Jessica: Yeah, there are a lot of essential oils. I have a bug repellant balm, it’s a bug balm recipe on my site that I’ll link to below. And one of my contributors who’s actually developing a bug spray recipe for June, so that will be going up in June as well.

So there are a lot of special oils that can naturally be used as bug repellants. Catnip, seeder wood, citronella, eucalyptus, lemon grass, patchouli, rosemary, tea tree, those are some. I think I have a pretty full list in my blog post that you can check out.

So a lot of the do-it-yourself sprays and bug balms are going to use the power of essential oils for the repellants. So those work great. It depends on the person. Some people, Lydia, like what you’re saying, are prone to being bitten more than other people are. So, these work great for going out in the evening, mosquitoes and keeping those pesky bugs away.

Now when you’re talking about you’re going camping and really going deep woods if you live in a tick-infested area, essential oils can still be really powerful, but you just have to use a little bit more caution with that. So there are definitely some options out there.

And as far as natural, I’m sure that there are some natural and organic bug spray, bug repellant on the market. I’ve never used any of that. Actually, I’m going to have to do some research on that.

Lydia: I have one from Mountain Rose Herbs and I forget what it’s called, but I really liked it. It’s a little spray bottle. That one is really nice. In fact, I think they might even have more than one. The kids loved it and it smells good. I think the stuff from the store is horrible. I gag when I smell other people spraying it. So it’s almost like if someone lit up a cigarette right next to me.

But you can make them very simply if you have some essential oils. Literally, all you have to do is combine a bunch with some distilled water or in a spray bottle and boom! You’ve got an instant bug spray. You really can play around with different oils that you even prefer and kind of concoct something to your liking.

If you don’t have essential oils yet, definitely check out Mountain Rose Herbs. I really like their bug spray a lot. It comes in a cute little bottle. You can get one for each of your kids, stick them in their backpack.

But another thing too is also what to do when you get bug bites and that’s another thing that you can use essential oils for as well to take away the itch and even the sting. So things like peppermint, tea tree oil, lavender, rosemary, frankincense are just a few are probably the more common ones. And for adults, you can just put one drop neat on a bug bite. And for kids you would want to dilute it. There are different ratios and stuff.

If you want to know more about that, you can join our essential oils newsletters because we do have information on how to dilute for kids and for safety.

You don’t have to get some type of pharmaceutical product or go to the drugstore and get something to deal with your bug bites. You can simply use something more natural and actually very healing to the skin as well.

Something that I learned (and I wish I had an actual link for more information on this) is people who tend to get bug bites could be low in B vitamins or maybe it is related to their health for some reason.

I noticed for myself I used to get bug bites like crazy. It really drove me nuts because somebody sitting next to me would be like, “Oh, I didn’t get a bite. Nothing biting me.” I’m like, “Why not?” And you know, you hear the jokes flying like, “Oh, you just must be sweeter.” You know what people say, right? It always drove me crazy because I’m like, “Why am I getting bit more than other people?

Well, I notice that last year, I hardly got a single bug bite. I barely remember dealing with that at all. I noticed it halfway through the season like, “Wow, there must not be that many bugs this year.” And then someone near me is like, “Oh, no! I’m getting bitten like crazy!” I’m like, “Finally, the tables have turned.” I really think it had to do with my health improving.

So keep that in mind because, again, we don’t have to always be susceptible to everything out there. The healthier we get and the more we keep cleaning up our diet, we really can minimize some of these things.

But that said, I’m going to link my favorite whole food B complex in case anyone wants to give that a try.

Jessica: Yeah, that’s interesting.

Lydia: It could be one thing that could just support your body in general and see if it helps you out there. But I definitely think the bug spray is probably one of the worst culprits as far as toxicity goes. And we’re putting this stuff on little kids. So if you have really little kids or kids in general, it would really behoove you to try something different and really benefit them and keep those toxins away from them from the bug spray for sure.

So we’ve just covered three of probably the most common summer skin care items I think. But if you want to know an alternative or something else that we didn’t cover, you’re welcome to leave us a comment and we’ll try to give you some ideas there. I’m also always talking about this kind of stuff in my newsletter, my essential oils newsletter. I’m sure Jessica, you probably do too. So we’d love to have you join that and we share lots of information there and you can learn along the way.

Jessica: Yeah, absolutely. We’ll leave links to pretty much everything we talked about today. I even have a post on my site with the top 10 natural home remedies for sunburn, itch and pains. So if you do get sunburn (we all get sunburn from time to time, it just happens), so there are some ideas for what to do if you do get sunburn. Make sure you check it out.

If you’re on our blog listening to this, the links should be right down below this. If you’re listening to this on YouTube or somewhere else, there should be links down in the description so you can check out everything that we’ve talked about.

But yeah, those are definitely the top three things that we felt were most important to get people thinking about this time of the year and maybe moving towards just making some healthier choices.

So, we could talk all day about healthy skin care, but let’s focus on sunscreen, bug spray and deodorant for the summer and really make some changes there.

Well that’s just about it for today’s episode. We’re going to keep it short and sweet. We know that you guys are busy and have a lot on your plate, so we just wanted to get this information for you as quickly as we could. And then, we will be back next week with more information.

I think next week, we are actually going to be talking about creating a daily routine for health, how you can just implement little changes into your everyday routine that are going to drastically improve your health and your wellness long-term. So definitely come back next week and check that out. I guess we will just wrap things up now. I hope you guys have a great day and we will talk to you again soon.

Lydia: Yup, thanks for listening. And here’s to healthy, safe summer skin care.

Jessica: Bye.

Delicious Obsessions is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.Read our full terms and conditions here.