Okay, so the other day I was going down a rabbit hole on TikTok about natural sunscreens. I’m trying to be more conscious about what I put on my skin, you know? And I kept seeing people talk about using different oils as sun protection. I got curious, so I decided to do my own little experiment.
My DIY Sunscreen Oil Test
First, I gathered a bunch of oils that I saw mentioned online. Here’s what I grabbed:
- Coconut oil
- Red raspberry seed oil
- Carrot seed oil
- Shea butter(Okay, not the oil)
I wanted to see if these things actually worked. I’m no scientist, but I figured a simple test would be to put some on my arm and sit in the sun, just for testing, with a control zone that didn’t apply anything.
So, that’s what I did. I applied a little bit of each oil to different sections of my inner arm. I also left one section totally bare, as my “control.” Very scientific, I know.
Then, I sat outside in my backyard for about 30 minutes, just chilling and reading a book. I figured this wouldn’t be too long to cause any serious damage. I didn’t want to fry myself for the sake of science!
After 30 minutes, I came back inside and checked my arm. Honestly, I was kind of surprised. The bare skin was definitely a little pink. The areas with coconut oil and shea butter, also looked a bit red, not much better than the bare skin, to be honest.
But, and this is a big BUT, the spots where I put the red raspberry seed oil and the carrot seed oil? They looked…pretty normal! Like, barely any redness at all. I was genuinely shocked. It seemed like they actually did something!
Now, I’m not saying you should ditch your regular sunscreen and slather yourself in carrot seed oil. I’m definitely not a doctor or a dermatologist. This was just a quick, at-home test. For longer sun time and better effect, I still use sunscreen.
It was a fun experiment, though! It definitely made me think more about natural alternatives and how they could maybe play a role in sun protection. I’m probably going to keep looking into this and see what else I can find out. Maybe I’ll even try making my own sunscreen blend sometime!
