Blocking Out the Sun

Still straining to smells wisps of the salty ocean breeze, I sit just barely tanned from our recent beach excursion. Gone are the days of seeking long hours in the sun, barely reapplying sunblock and never thinking I had enough of a tan.

This time we were armed with sunblock (reapplied at least every two hours), a large umbrella (that we actually made a point of staying in the shade as it moved), and a large beach hat. A huge shift in behavior from my years of entrenched sunning-at-the-beach habits.

But, I failed to choose an organic or less chemically damning sunblock. As I looked at the Badger sunscreen at Whole Foods selling for $16 for 2.9 oz. I froze. The Target Up&Up sunscreen was $11 for two 6oz. containers. Yet, Badger was really the only sunscreen I was prepared to buy, but six days at the beach meant a lot of sunscreen and suddenly the math in my head was telling me we could be looking at close to $100 for a week's worth of sunscreen for two people. So I folded. I bought not just sort of toxic, but a full 7 on the Skin Deep scale spray screen of Up&Up and Coopertone.

So now I sit here, less than tan, but full in the knowledge that I failed to follow my own guideline of using my power as a consumer to drive demand for better, safer products. Sorry skin, I'll go buy you some less toxic options this weekend.