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Essential Oils For Sun Protection
This article is a companion piece to Carrier Oils For Sun Protection.
With increasing concerns around the carcinogenic nature of conventional sun creams, even including the ‘green’ and ‘natural’ alternatives, it is important to know what our safe options for UV protection are.
Carrier Oils For Sun Protection and Essential Oils For Sun Protection hopes to provide safer alternatives for those seeking beneficial exposure to the sun’s rays.
We all need sufficient sun exposure to be well and to maintain a proper functioning immune system. The sun is the precursor to vitamin absorption, as well as hormonal and neurotransmitter production. To find out more, please consult Why Do We Need The Sun?
To discover the sun protective carrier oils needed for the dilution of the essential oils listed in this article, please visit: Carrier Oils For Sun Protection
Essential Oils For UV Protection
According to the National Library of Medicine, there are several essential oils which possess an SPF value. So, including some of these oils in your sun protection oil, will not just be for aromatic purposes.
Peppermint Essential Oil has an SPF of 7
Lavender Essential Oil has an SPF of 6
Sweet Orange Essential Oil has an SPF of 4
Peppermint Essential Oil also has a cooling effect on the skin, which maybe desirable, especially for those who work outside in the summer months.
Ylang Ylang Essential Oil may also help protect skin from the harmful effects of the sun. According to a comprehensive analysis of the traditional health benefits of Ylang Ylang Essential Oil, published on the NCBI health portal, a US government website, Organic Ylang Ylang Essential Oil promotes antimelanogenesis.
This effectively means that Ylang Ylang Essential Oil reduces the pigmentation of the skin through the production of melanin. Whilst desirable to many, the browning of our skin is indicative of a losing battle against the harmful effects of sun exposure.
Antioxidant Essential Oils For Sun Protection
There is little motivation to conduct independent clinical testing on substances like essential oils. This is because a naturally occurring substance cannot be patented, and exclusive rights cannot be obtained.
Scientific exploration is expensive, so unless exclusivity can be established, it rarely ever takes place.
Nevertheless, we already know that it has been scientifically proven that sun damage is caused via an oxidative process. And, we also know that the few antioxidant essential oils that have been clinically tested, have been shown to possess an SPF.
It is, therefore, possible to extrapolate these clinical insights, and determine that other antioxidant essential oils may also be beneficial for sun protection.
Many essential oils possess antioxidant benefits, so hopefully you are encouraged to explore these for yourself. However, please read the section on Phototoxic Essential Oils, below. Some antioxidant essential oils are also phototoxic, which means that they cannot be safely used in the sun.
For those who don’t yet feel confident enough to do their own research, there’s a pre-blended antioxidant essential oil blend that is ready-made for use with UV protective carrier oils. It’s called Sun Tanning Essential Oil Blend. Please see below.
Sun Tanning Essential Oil Blend
Wild As The Wind offer a pre-blended Sun Tanning Essential Oil Blend to add to your sun protection carrier oils of choice. The essential oils in this blend provide supplemental sun protection to the UV protective carrier oils, alongside a slew of other dermal benefits. In addition, they smell amazing!
The Sun Tanning Essential Oil Blend is a combination of four aromatherapy oils:
Organic Lavender Essential Oil: SPF value of 6, and excellent for burns.
Organic Sweet Orange Essential Oil: SPF value of 4, and profoundly antioxidant. (Organic Sweet Orange Essential Oil is NOT phototoxic like Lemon and Lime Oils etc.)
Organic Geranium Rose Essential Oil: excellent wound healing aromatherapy oil.
Organic Palmarosa Essential Oil: has skin cell regenerative properties, and smells amazing.
Wild As The Wind provide this pre-blended Sun Tanning Essential Oil Blend to reduce the cost of making your sun protection oil, and to make the process easier for you.
Phototoxicity & Essential Oils
A substance that is phototoxic cannot be safely applied to the body during, or soon after, exposure to the sun. This is because phototoxic substances can lead to photosensitivity, and the burning of our skin.
Photo essentially means ‘light’ and is derived from the Greek word ‘photos’. The use of the prefix ‘photo’ in the words phototoxicity and photosensitivity, in this instance, specifically relate to the light emitted by the sun.
Photosensitivity can occur due to the topical application of phototoxic substances, during, or just before sun exposure, and can also be caused by consuming phototoxic agents. Ingesting certain pharmaceutical drugs can, for example, cause photosensitivity if taken during periods of sun exposure.
The National Cancer Institute, in the US, defines phototoxicity, thus:
A condition in which the skin or eyes become very sensitive to sunlight or other forms of light. It can be caused by taking certain drugs, or rubbing certain essential oils or other topical agents into the skin. Phototoxicity causes sunburn, blisters, and other skin problems.
Phototoxic Essential Oils
There are several phototoxic essential oils, most of which are also antioxidant.
Most of the citrus essential oils are phototoxic, with the exception of Organic Sweet Orange Essential Oil, which is naturally safe for use in the sun. This is also true of Mandarin Essential Oil, according to Robert Tisserand and Rodney Young.
Bergamot FCF Essential Oil, is an aromatherapy oil which has been modified to make it safe for use in the sun. This simply means that the phototoxic element, that naturally occurs in this aromatherapy oil, is removed, rendering it safe.
Phototoxic Citrus Essential Oils
Citrus oils that cannot safely be used in the sun include:
- Lemon Essential Oil
- Lime Essential Oil
- Grapefruit Essential Oil
- Bitter Orange Essential Oil
- Cedrat Essential Oil
Please note that citrus essential oils that are steam distilled, rather than cold pressed from the skins of the fruit, are not phototoxic.
Other Phototoxic Essential Oils
- Angelica Root Essential Oil
- Cumin Essential Oil
- Fig Leaf Essential Oil
- Lemon Verbena Essential Oil
- Opopanax Essential Oil
- Petitgrain Essential Oil
- Rue Essential Oil
- Tagetes Essential Oil
*Khella Essential Oil may be somewhat phototoxic, according to some sources. However, there is a lot of conflicting information available on the internet.
One of the best ways to spot badly researched information around the subject of phototoxicity of essential oils is to see where Mandarin Essential Oil figures within the text. The ill-informed articles usually place Mandarin Essential Oil in the phototoxic category, when according to essential oil chemistry experts, it is safe for use in the sun.
There is some suggestion that Gingergrass Essential Oil may also be mildly phototoxic.
Some sources state that Organic Carrot Seed Essential Oil may be slightly phototoxic when distilled from wild carrots. However, this is refuted in other well respected texts. And, commercially available Organic Carrot Seed Essential Oil is very unlikely to be made from wild carrots.
Sources:
Antioxidant Activity of Essential Oils: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9952212/
Antioxidant Activities of Essential Oils and Their Major Components in Scavenging Free Radicals, Inhibiting Lipid Oxidation and Reducing Cellular Oxidative Stress: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10254587/
Antioxidant Activity of Essential Oils: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/antioxidants/special_issues/antioxidant_essential_oil