Clear zinc oxide Sunscreen

You may have seen sunscreens on store shelves touting that they are made with ‘non-nano clear zinc oxide’, promising not to leave behind that white sheen for which mineral sunscreens are famous. Sound too good to be true? It might be. The truth is that you just can’t get a clear zinc oxide without using nanoparticles. That being said, not all nanoparticles are created equal, and the ‘non-nano clear zinc oxide’ does present a unique story.

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from you that Badger sunscreens can be whitening, so naturally we investigated this new substance to determine if we should use it. Ultimately our decision to not use clear zinc oxide, at this time, is a philosophical one. Read on to find out why.

Why do companies use nano zinc oxide?
Zinc oxide particle size affects how whitening it is on your skin. Smaller particles (nanoparticles) reflect less visible light, so they appear less white. Larger particle zinc oxide, like the kind Badger uses, reflects more light which is why it leaves a white cast on the skin.

To give you a quick overview, nanoparticles are any particles that are smaller than 100 nanometers (billionths of a meter). When companies started using nanoparticles of zinc oxide in their sunscreens people became concerned that there could be some health risks, particularly if these tiny particles could penetrate the skin to enter living tissue. Now, over a decade later, the dust has settled and there are no real health concerns over the use of nanoparticles of zinc oxide in sunscreen creams and lotions.

No nano for Badger.
Several years ago we made a decision at Badger to use only larger particle, non-nano zinc oxide in our sunscreens. This was not because we believed there was any inherent danger with nano zinc oxide, but because our customers were, and are still, skeptical of nanoparticles and insisted that we make sunscreens without them. Click here to read much more about our zinc oxide research and the nanoparticle issue.