Your "all mineral" sunscreen might be lying to you, and the loophole manufacturers are using is completely legal.

In this short but crucial episode, I'm exposing a sneaky sunscreen ingredient called butyloctyl salicylate that's being slipped into mineral sunscreens. Still, these products are still allowed to market themselves as "all mineral!" This chemical UV filter doesn't have to be listed in the active ingredients section, so it's hiding in plain sight in the inactive ingredients list, and most people have no idea it's there.

The truth is, if you've been diligently checking only the active ingredients section like I've taught you before, you're missing this toxic ingredient that's basically the same as octisalate, which is already on my avoid list for being an endocrine disruptor. Now you need to check both the active AND inactive ingredients sections to make sure you're getting truly clean sun protection.

In today's episode, we're chatting about:

• Why butyloctyl salicylate is just octisalate in disguise

• How manufacturers are convincing brands to use this sneaky ingredient

• Why checking only active ingredients isn't enough anymore

• My updated 2025 sunscreen guide with truly clean options

EPISODE RESOURCES

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Read The Shownotes Here

 Well, welcome back to another episode of Toxin Free, each podcast. As always, I'm your host, Wendy and Environmental Toxins attorney during Clean The We Coach, and today is going to be a very short but very important episode. I'm gonna be talking about a sneaky sunscreen ingredient that is a chemical uv.

Really good updates to help you in your toxin, freeish journey. And one of them is this ingredient has been added to the ingredients to avoid Liz. So if you haven't listened to the last week's episode, go check it out. Download your free top 25 toxins to avoid freebie download so you can follow along with what I'm talking about.

But this is gonna be important and you don't wanna miss it. 📍 📍 📍 Let's 📍 dive 📍 in.

 Hey, friend. Real quick before we dive into this episode, there's something you need to know. This entire podcast is funded by you. You will never hear paid ads or sponsorships on this podcast, like not ever. Why? Because I believe in full transparency, and that means only sharing the things that I.

Actually love myself when you do hear me talking about something that I love and you use my affiliate links, you get a small discount and I earn a small commission that helps keep all of my content completely ad free, and that means that anything I talk about or share is aligned with you and me and not sponsors.

So to be clear. No weird promos, no brand deals, no paid ads, just the real stuff that I use, brands I love, and literally what I probably used this morning. So if something that I mentioned feels like a fit for you, click the links in the show notes. It's a win-win and it helps keep this space truly 📍 ours.

 Ladies, we need to talk about clean perfume. And I don't mean the fake clean perfume. I mean like the real clean 100% botanical, no toxins, nothing messing with your hormones, and no migraines happening. I know you know how hard that is to find, and when you do find it, you feel like you're just wearing a bunch of essential oils and they don't even last very long.

Anyway, so when I had the opportunity to work on a 100% botanical perfume line, that actually smelled like perfume. Oh my gosh. Literal dream come true. And it's officially here. Wild Notes Discovery sets are available right now. Head on over to link in the show notes and get your discovery set today. Use code Wendy 10.

You're gonna get 10% off. And here's the best part, when you get a discovery set, you're also gonna get a $20 coupon. So when you wear all of those sets and you find the one that's your favorite, you can use that $20 coupon code towards your first purchase. And in case you're curious, my two favorites, I'm currently wearing sweet decadence, layered with fireside citrus.

It's like sweet and smoky and sexy, and sophisticated, and completely clean. I cannot wait for you to get your hands on these, and when you get them, hop on over to my dms 📍 📍 and tell me which one is your favorite.

 So if you're an avid listener and you're somebody who is already living more of a toxin-free life, one of the things you've probably already switched out in your life is you're not using chemical UV sunscreens. You've probably heard that these are endocrine disruptors.

They get absorbed into your bloodstream really quickly, and they're also really bad for the aquatic environment. They're bad for our oceans, they're bad for our reefs. And if you go to places like Key West or Hawaii, you're not allowed to use them anyway, right? We are all now, I hope. Using mineral sunscreens, which are sun blocks, which are physical blockers of those UVA and UVB rays.

They lay right on top, right on top of your skin, whether it's zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. Those rays are bouncing off of that, of those minerals on your skin so they're not being absorbed. So those UV filter chemical ingredients that we wanna be avoiding are things like avobenzone and. Okta Sally and things like that.

And if you have my top 25 toxins to avoid, you have the whole list of all the ones you want to avoid. And on that list you're gonna see Okta Sally, right? It's definitely one of those things you want to avoid. Now manufacturers of a sneaky ingredient called butyl octal. Salate are putting it in sunscreen ingredients, but it doesn't have to be put in the active ingredient section.

So when you're somebody who's shopping for sunscreens and you pick up a sunscreen, there's gonna be two sections to the label. There's gonna be on the top where it says active ingredients, and then on the bottom it's gonna say. Inactive ingredients, and usually when I teach somebody how to read a sunscreen label, I say, look to the active ingredients, because that's where you're gonna find those chemical UV filters, and that's how you're gonna know to avoid them.

And in that active sunscreen ingredient section, you're gonna want to see zinc oxide. Or titanium dioxide non nano, which I, you know, I haven't seen any nano options here in the United States. I really, while it's great to say that it really hasn't been an issue, I do want to mention if you are using a aerosol form or a spray sunscreen, you are gonna wanna be careful if it has titanium dioxide in it, because while titanium dioxide is.

Fine. When it sits on top of your skin is a mineral sunscreen. It is. You don't wanna inhale it. So if you're using a spray and it has titanium dioxide in it, just be really, really careful. Maybe just avoid it in general. I personally avoid it in general, but. The thing about butyl octal cell is it is allowed to be in the inactive section, but it is basically the same ingredient with the same structure and the same function as salate.

And you know, this is where manufacturers start to really play a role in how brands formulate things, because this is how this conversation goes. You have companies who are. Creating this ingredient and they're selling it in these formulations to sunscreen companies, and they're saying, you can put this ingredient in the inactive section of a label, and what that means is it will boost your SPF factor or your sun protection factor.

You can use a higher SPF, but you can. Lower the amount of zinc oxide or titanium dioxide in your ingredients, and why is that something that a company might wanna do? Well, if you've ever put on mineral sunscreen, you know that if it's got a lot of zinc oxide in it, it's kind of chalky. It's not really smooth.

It's harder to put on, and it's just harder to formulate with. So if a company can use less percentage. Zink oxide and add in butyl tal salate, and you still get that high SPF factor. They're gonna do it right. They can make things that are smoother, creamier. People love them more. And I'm not saying it's nefarious.

I'm not saying these brands are going out of their way to create something where they're tricking you, but I am saying the manufacturers are. I have seen some of the emails from companies who are using this ingredient where it is very clear to me that the manufacturers and the people that are formulating are going to brands and saying, you can put this ingredient in your sunscreen.

You can have a higher SPF that you sell, and you can lower the amount of mineral sunscreen that is actually in your product, and people will like it better, and you can sell it for cheaper. I've seen the emails, and so I think it's really hard and really disheartening when you're a customer and you're realizing that the bottom line for these companies is often what matters the most.

So when you're shopping for a sunscreen, I want you to read not just the active ingredient label. And use the top 25 toxins to avoid with whether you're sitting in a, you know, store, a Target, or Ulta or Sephora, and you're looking at sunscreen. I want you to take a look at the active ingredients, but I also now want you to look at the inactive ingredients for that particular sunscreen ingredient and to make your life.

They're just. Don't blend really well. If you put a moisturizer on your face right before you put on your mineral SPF, it goes on like agere and it still works fantastic. So I highly recommend that hack. And if you are looking for clean sunscreen, whether you wanna find that on Amazon or in target. Or Ulta or Sephora, or you wanna buy directly from brands that are making some really high quality SPF, like primarily Pure, just released their tallow based super organic, super smooth SPF.

They also have a stick and a lip balm that I absolutely love. All of the options, all of them, everything that I have reviewed. Making sure all the ingredients that are super clean and none of them are on my top 25 toxins. To avoid list, if you head on over to toxin freeish.com/sun Care, you're gonna find all of my faves.

Now, you're also gonna see some things came off the. Attitude tinted moisturizer sticks that are really popular. That's no longer on my shopping guide. And that's because they are using beautiful octal salate, which is super sad for me because I used to be able to say, you know, everything the attitude has is clean.

This is gonna be one of those exceptions. But if you wanna see the updated list and you wanna make your shopping experience this summer, super, super easy. Just head on over to my shopping guide.

Okay, that's a wrap. I told you it was gonna be a short episode, but it was a good one, and I think this is such good information. So if you learn something, send it to a friend, shout it out, tag me over on Instagram, I will share it over on my account. I love hearing from you guys. All right, I'll see you next week.