Reef Safe Sunscreens- Ulta Edition |

We all know how important it is to apply sunscreen not just to our body, but also to our face and lips to protect us from the sun’s harmful UV rays. However, it’s becoming increasingly important to use sunscreens that are free of the following ingredients:

Oxybenzone
Octinoxate
Parabens
Retinyl Palmitate
Methylisothiazolinone

Some of these ingredients have even been banned in some countries due to the negative impact they have on coral reefs and sea life. In fact, if you plan to travel to areas such as Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands, Palau, and even some Mexican vacation destinations, you’ll find that they have set bans on sunscreens specifically containing the harmful ingredients Oxybenzone and Octinoxate.

This might leave you feeling overwhelmed on choosing the right sunscreen to help not only the environment, but still get the protection you need. At a minimum, you should always choose one with at least an SPF 30. A quick guide to realizing how much protection different SPF levels provide is this:

SPF 15 blocks about 93% of UVB rays
SPF 30 blocks about 97% of UVB rays
SPF 50 blocks about 98% of UVB rays
SPF 100 blocks about 99% of UVB rays

An even simpler way to think of it would be that out of 100 photons, an SPF 30 sunscreen will block 97 of those from entering the skin and so on. So you might be wondering which sunscreens to even choose from at this point considering all the factors that go into purchasing a safe and effective one. But worry not! I’ve compiled some of my favorite Reef Safe Sunscreens in this post, all of which can be purchased at Ulta.