Factcheck: Low-Tox Sunscreen Swaps?

sunscreen swaps factcheck

There’s been a few viral posts about how harmful chemical sunscreens are. The latest one is a post about “Sunscreen Swaps” from @a.glimpse.of.amelia (an Australian “low-tox” consultant) and @jordiepieface (a nutritionist from New Zealand), claiming that “some conventional sunscreens can do more harm than good”. Unfortunately, most of the post is inaccurate, and it’s likely scaring people away from using …

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Is benzene in benzoyl peroxide a cancer risk?

fingertips benzoyl peroxide

There’s been a lot of stories about benzene contamination in personal care products over the last 4 years. This year, benzene was discovered in benzoyl peroxide, a staple acne treatment. How concerned should we be?  Petition and original paper I’ve written about the background behind Valisure’s benzene analyses before, as well as questions about the accuracy of their data and …

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Parabens, Fragrance, Colorants, Talc: Debunking Bobby Parrish’s TikTok misinformation

tiktok misinformation flavcity

Bobby Parrish, a home cook and food influencer who goes by the name FlavCity, has made a number of viral TikTok videos recently about dangerous personal care ingredients. As you might expect, there’s quite a lot of misinformation in them.  I debunked a couple of them in a recent YouTube video, along with some other TikTok videos – you can …

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US Sunscreens Aren’t Safe in the EU? The Science

US Sunscreens Aren’t Safe in the EU?

There’s been a lot of fearmongering about chemical sunscreens. There were scary-sounding new stories – sunscreen absorbing into blood, killing coral reefs, zinc oxide being toxic, benzene in sunscreens… Related Post: Top 7 Sunscreen and SPF Myths I’ve covered most of these before, and they’re largely just the media taking things out of context and sensationalising them, partly for views, …

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Food, Diet and Acne: The Science

diet acne infographics

You’ve probably seen hundreds of these sorts of videos and infographics giving you lists of foods to stop eating to cure your acne. Is there any truth to this? Are all these foods actually giving us acne? Here’s a deep dive into the science behind food and acne. A quick warning: I’ve had a lot of requests for this topic, …

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Do zinc sunscreens stop working and go toxic after 2 hours?

Chemical vs Physical Sunscreens: The Science (with video)

There’s a new paper on zinc oxide sunscreens not working and becoming toxic after 2 hours of UV exposure. A lot of people have sent me this paper, so here’s my analysis of it. In short, the researchers found that sunscreen ingredients broke down when mixed with zinc oxide and exposed to UV light, and the degraded mixtures had lower …

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Do Hats and Umbrellas Protect Well From the Sun?

sun-protection-swiss-cheese

Instead of talking about sunscreen like I usually do, we’re going to dive into some of the things you can use to protect your skin apart from sunscreen (I can feel my sunscreen propaganda shillbucks slipping away right now). As much as we all love sunscreens, they are a bit of a pain in the butt. You have to apply them right, …

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