Instant Natural Bronzer Hack and Best Sun Safety Tips you HAVE to try!

Now, you may be asking, what is bronzer? Well, bronzer is usually a lotion you can apply on your face or body that makes you look tanned!  In Canada, this is a big thing because our winters are so long.  Today I want to share with you how to use bronzer and where to apply bronzer for the best tanned effect.  As you know, all of our minerals are super versatile and can be used in a number of ways.  This week, I had the chance to partner with Sylvan from The Potionmasters to find a fun and natural way to get a gorgeous summer glow. Sylvan is a master potion maker who handcrafts all natural potions using only the best essential oils and raw ingredients to make hydrophilic oil based lotion.  Her star ingredient being Cera Bellina, from beeswax!

For your summer glow, Bronze Sparkle will give you an amazing bronzed hue and sparkle in the sun.  Deceitful Copper can act as a highlighter to layer over your bronze base.  All you need to do is take a drop of potion, and a touch of pigment.  Spread over desired areas and bam! You have a spectacular natural tan.  Let me tell you, this is the best bronzer for fair or dark skin.  Due to the sheer quality of our minerals, the pigment spreads out and is able to compliment a variety of skin tones.  As you can see in the picture, Sylvan is fairer, and I am somewhat darker, and this looked great on both of us.  You have to try this as a solution to all natural bronzers as it is so gorgeous and works as a full body bronzer and face bronzer as well depending on the type or potion you choose to use.

Say goodbye to expensive bronzer palettes, a potion and a pigment can come together in seconds to make the most gorgeous liquid bronzer.  This mixture is best applied in areas you would want to highlight.  Blend the liquid bronzer down the bridge of your nose, the apples of your cheeks and along collarbones.  Rub in your bronzer makeup lightly down your arms and your legs to create definition and a tanned look.  The darker you want your look to be, the more pigment you add.  So easy and economical!  

I know I’ve spoken about sun safety before, but when it comes to summer, we cannot take the safety of our skin lightly.  We want to look tanned, but lying out in the sun’s harmful rays is not the best solution!  I used to do this in my twenties, and I wish I took better care of my skin then to prevent aging now.  

Using an all-natural sunscreen is the first step because there are so many harmful chemicals that affect your health and create hormone disruption in your commercial drug-store brand sunscreens.  

Sunscreen Ingredients to watch out for are:

• Oxybenzone
• Octinoxate
• Homosalate
• Octisalate
• Octocrylene

Why are these ingredients bad?

1. Oxybenzone- has high rates of skin allergy and has even been found detected in mother’s milk which means it penetrates the skin and enters our body! This absorption of oxybenzone means there is also concern for hormone disruption… yikes.
2. Octinoxate- along with moderate skin allergy, also has skin penetration and shows hormone-like activity which can affect the reproductive system, affect your thyroid and also shows behavioral alternations based on animal studies. (no thank you to behavior alteration and animal testing).
3. Homosalate- actually disrupts your hormones: estrogen, androgen and progesterone.
4. Octisalate- penetrates skin.
5. Octocrylene- shows high rates of skin allergy.

The natural alternatives are mineral based:

• Titanium Dioxide
• Zinc Oxide

Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide both have low or no skin penetration, and sit on top of the skin to protect from the sun’s rays.  According to EWG research and feedback, these two ingredients main area of concern is inhalation only.  This would be when these minerals are in a dry powder format. As long as you’re not sniffing your makeup as you toss it up in the air, I think we’ll be fine here.  When using mineral based sunscreen check the non-active ingredients as well to make sure they are clean too. 

So apart from wearing sunscreen, the six best sun safety tips I can offer are:

• Wear a hat: Wide brimmed so it actually covers your face!
• Stick to the shade by choosing to sit under a tree or pack a pop-up tent (I have one I drag out to pool days and the lake)
• Bring an umbrella (this is the half Asian in me- umbrellas are good for rain AND sun)!
• Wear sunglasses to protect your eyes and prevent crows feet wrinkles
• Wear long sleeve shirts or long dresses, a light cotton is nice and breezy!
• Reduce your time outside at peak UV index times when the sun’s rays are strongest- between 11 am and 3 pm.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these fun summer tips, and have learned how to use bronzer naturally!  Sylvan and I enjoyed our summer morning and now we both will leave with the essential tools to a summer glow.  I have my Youth Potion, and Sylvan has her Bronze Sparkle!  I’ll definitely be layering this on over my all-natural sunscreen for a summer goddess glow that lasts all day without any damage to my skin from harmful UV rays.  After all, I may as well try to stay as youthful as possible!