Reef friendly sunscreen and hair products

[Wookie]

PS. I haven't figured out how to toggle between the business and personal profile. @Wookie I need lessons... preferably on a boat.

We have decided on the boat, after letting another one go at auction this week. Patience, Autumn. Remember how long it took to get Stream2Sea to market after you conceptualized it.

 

[kimbalabala]

Autumn, thank you so much for the information! I have had 5 Mohs surgeries to remove skin cancer (only basal and squamous, thank goodness) and I cover up with clothing from neck to toe and use the sunscreen on all other unprotected areas. I look like Casper the Friendly ghost in spandex wearing a floppy hat!! (And yes, I try to invest in SPF clothing as well - Coolibar and bamboo cloth). I'm that geek on the boat!! Whatever! I'm really happy to use your product, knowing it's good for me AND good for the ocean. Thanks again!

 

[NYCNaiad]

Autumn, thank you so much for the information! I have had 5 Mohs surgeries to remove skin cancer (only basal and squamous, thank goodness) and I cover up with clothing from neck to toe and use the sunscreen on all other unprotected areas. I look like Casper the Friendly ghost in spandex wearing a floppy hat!! (And yes, I try to invest in SPF clothing as well - Coolibar and bamboo cloth). I'm that geek on the boat!! Whatever! I'm really happy to use your product, knowing it's good for me AND good for the ocean. Thanks again!

I'm that geek on the boat as well. But not only will you benefit in terms of helping to prevent more skin cancer, but both of us will look gorgeous in old age & can then make fun of our sun-worshipping wrinkled old dive buddies. (Repeating this to myself really helped on a dive in the Solomons when one chick was tan & bikini-clad while I was in my one-piece, covered by a dive skin, slathered in sunscreen, wearing a hat & glasses underneath the awning. lol)

 

[kimbalabala]

I'm that geek on the boat as well. But not only will you benefit in terms of helping to prevent more skin cancer, but both of us will look gorgeous in old age & can then make fun of our sun-worshipping wrinkled old dive buddies. (Repeating this to myself really helped on a dive in the Solomons when one chick was tan & bikini-clad while I was in my one-piece, covered by a dive skin, slathered in sunscreen, wearing a hat & glasses underneath the awning. lol)

LOL! I'll be watching for you on every dive boat!

 

[kimbalabala]

UPDATE: The Stream2Sea worked great! Of course it was super easy to tell if I missed a spot because if anyplace wasn't white it meant I'd missed a spot! I wish there was a true invisible zinc oxide but hey, it protects me while protecting the ocean life so I can do this.

I want to bi*&% and moan about something though. We went on one of those "swim with the whaleshark" excursions and they had a rule against wearing ANY sunblock!!! I told them about my skin cancer and my Stream2Sea and they gave me the green light to use it. But it was a long day and I didn't re-apply (my own fault) and ended up burned on my face/neck and hands. (My dermatologist was not happy with the ban on sunblock when I told her about it the following week).

Autumn, if you're still haunting the thread, you might want to reach out to these operators and suggest them charging a surcharge and then keeping a few tubes on the boats for their customers. It would be a good way to protect the ocean AND get your product name out there. They could include a note on their website saying "DO NOT APPLY SUNSCREEN PRIOR TO EXCURSION. WE WILL PROVIDE STREAM2SEA, WHICH IS SAFE FOR OUR OCEANS!".

 

[Patoux01]

Any info on what to use for those of us in Europe? I don't have much hair and dive in lakes so it's not "directly impacting" the seas (it gets diluted a fair bit), but it gets in the ocean eventually, and I suspect it affects our freshwater wildlife as well.

 

[Patoux01]

So after reading quite a bit with it, I couldn't find anything that was guaranteed reef friendly... So I went with DERMATHERM HIGH SUN PROTECTION SPF30 150ML DERMATHERM - Easyparapharmacie
The ingredients are:
Citrus aurantium dulcis fruit axtract, zinc oxide, caprylic/capric triglyceride, olive glycerides, heptyl undecylenate, isocetyl stearate, titanium dioxide, dicaprylyl carbonate, silica, thermal aqua, polyglyceryl-3 diisostearate, sucrose tristearate, pongamol, glyceryl isostearate, polyglyceryl-2 dipolyhydroxystearate, stearic acid, magnesium sulfate, cera alba, polyhydroxystearic acid, xanthan gum, alumina, aluminium hydroxide, tocopherol, bixa orellana seed extract, helianthus annuus seed oil, karanjin, aqua, sodium hydroxide.

I have no idea if this does the job, I hope it does, because it sure was expensive . Can anyone help?

 

[kimbalabala]

You might find a list of 'bad' ingredients and 'good' ingredients if you go to the Stream2Sea website. It sure seems that if we pay a lot of money it SHOULD be ok!!!!

 

[Patoux01]

Well, I just re-read the email I've had from Stream2Sea again, and I missed a step . At least I tried, I guess it's still "not the worst"...

may be better to know which ingredients to look for on the label on the active ingredients:

Non-nano titanium dioxide
Non-nano raw zinc oxide

We recommend avoiding products containing any chemical UV inhibitors or parabens.

We also recommend avoiding products which only state "zinc oxide," "clear zinc," "ZinClear," or "nano-zinc." Quite often zinc oxide is ground fine or coated and both of these formulations are harmful to aquatic life. It the label just states, "Zinc oxide," there is no way to know if it's nano or clear.

I missed the "coated" part...


I'm probably overthinking this though. With the amounts I (and my family) use, and the time I spend in the water wearing sunscreen, It's probably not that big of a deal...

 

[Octopusprime]

The brand Stream2sea has safe leave in conditioner! I haven't tried it though so not sure if it works, but I've been meaning to

I have tried re sun screen and shower soap and they are great.

There is another brand reef safe but after a little reading they are saying it is safe because it biodegrades however the article I read says it takes a long time and will kill reef until it breaks down. Not sure but stuck to stream2sea.