I love the sun, I love its warmth on my skin and the nice weather it brings. However, it’s become difficult for me to enjoy it since two friends of mine had skin cancer. Every time I sit in the sun, I have a nagging thought about how harmful the sun can be. Now that I have a baby girl, I not only worry about my skin but also hers. I take care to protect her delicate skin as much as I can but I refuse to use sunscreen with harsh chemicals on her. What options do I have? Keep her inside all day? Loving Naturals was the answer to my dilemma!

Loving Naturals offers a range of skin care products including sunscreen, body wash, lotions and anti-aging cream, lip balm, and even bug repellent. All their products are made with safe and natural organic ingredients. In fact, the ingredients in each product are clearly listed both on their website and on the product label itself. There is even an ingredient glossary with good descriptions in case you want to know more about a specific ingredient. I like that they are transparent about what goes into their product and each ingredient is included for a justifiable reason. I wish I could say the same about the skin care products I used before… half the ingredients I couldn’t pronounce and had no idea what their purpose was.

In case you’re not already convinced that Loving Naturals products are amazing, let me add that all their products are certified by the EWG’s (Environmental Working Group) Skin Deep Cosmetics Database and have some of the best ratings! Thousands of cosmetic products are carefully tested by the EWG each year for their toxicity and health risk. For example, Loving Natural’s Adorable Baby Clear Baby Sunscreen SPF 30+ has a safety hazard rating of 1 out of 10 which means an overall low safety hazard, and also obtained a ‘good’ rating for UVB protection and an ‘excellent’ rating for UVA protection. To give you a comparison, my former sunscreen – which I won’t name – has a hazard rating of 5/10 which means moderate safety hazard with a moderate allergy and immunotoxicity risk and a high risk of neurotoxicity and irritation. Needless to say, I won’t be using it anymore! If you’re curious about your own sunscreen or any other cosmetics that you use, I suggest that you check out EWG’s Database.

Now that we’ve established how good the products look on paper, let’s talk about how they worked for me and my family. Loving Naturals kindly provided me with a bottle of Adorable Baby SPF 30+ Sunscreen, an Adorable Baby SPF 30+ Sunscreen Stick as well as the Loving Naturals Insect Repellent Spray.

I have to admit, this is by far the best sunscreen I’ve ever used, not only on my daughter but also on my own skin. Both the cream and the stick version are virtually odorless. The only ingredient I can smell is the Grape Seed Oil which has very mild scent and once it’s absorbed the smell is gone. They are both water resistant, very easy to apply and do not leave a greasy residue. The best part of course is: no sunburn!

The stick is best for the face, neck, and shoulders. It’s super quick to apply an even coat even on a squirmy baby. It melts on skin contact but you can rub it in even more for faster absorption. I wanted to take a picture to show you but since it absorbs quickly and doesn’t leave a residue, well you couldn’t really see anything in the picture.

The cream is ideal for the rest of the body. It has a nice texture, not too thin, not too thick. It’s white but unlike other sunscreen, it doesn’t leave a white film on the skin. In fact it is fully absorbed by the skin within seconds. In the pictures below, you can see the texture of the cream before it’s applied, then after rubbing it in the skin for 1-2 seconds, then after 5-10 seconds it’s all gone!

The one thing I absolutely hate about summer is bugs! Unfortunately for me they love me… Last time I went for a walk in the woods, I came back home with 11 bug bites on my arms only (yes, I counted them) and my baby had 3. I basically can’t step out of the house in the evening or go to a woodsy area without being literally eaten alive. I’m most definitely the ideal test subject for a bug repellent spray, wouldn’t you agree?

I’ve tried all kinds of bug repellents with varying effectiveness but all of them contained tons of chemicals so I stopped using them. Loving Naturals Insect Repellent is the first all-natural bug repellent I’ve tried. It’s packed with ingredients whose odor bugs hate such as witch hazel, citronella, lemongrass, and cedarwood. It definitely has a powerful scent (mostly citronella) but I don’t find it unpleasant.

I have a (somewhat) scientific background so I thought I’d submit the Insect Repellent to a little experiment. I went to the woods with my daughter on a warm sunny day WITHOUT spraying ourselves with the Insect Repellent. Result: after a 40-45-minute walk, I had 2 bug bites and was surrounded by 6-7 larger flying insects (or mini-helicopters I should say). They didn’t bite but were terribly annoying and I kept trying to get rid of them by waving my arms up and down. A couple days later, I went back (another warm and sunny day) and walked the exact same path WITH Insect Repellent sprayed on us beforehand. Result: after the same 40-45-minute walk, no bug bites on me or my daughter! As an added bonus, the mini-helicopters didn’t bother us. On 3 occasions, one would venture around us and buzz in our ears but without any intervention on my part, it would leave within a few seconds! Now I know this isn’t a double-blind experiment but in terms of real life results, I think this is about as good as it gets!

The greatest thing is I could see mosquitos on the path ahead of us and all around but they stayed away from us. I even attempted to stand near a muddy puddle where bugs were hovering (which without the Insect Repellent would be unthinkable) and again, they didn’t touch us. If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I would not believe it!

In terms of applying the Insect Repellent, I simply sprayed my arms and legs, my hair and the back of my neck then rub it a few seconds until it was absorbed. I sprayed my t-shirt too. I also put some on my daughter’s legs and arms and on her hat. By the end of our walk, I could not smell the Insect Repellent on our skin, only on our clothes. The smell was quite powerful initially but then again, the smell is what makes it so potent. I personally like citronella so I didn’t mind. That’s definitely a product that I’ll keep using!

To purchase Loving Naturals products, visit their website or Amazon. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Loving Naturals will generously give one of our lucky readers all the products I reviewed: Adorable Baby SPF 30+ Suncreen, Adorable Bsby SPF 30+ Sunscreen Stick, and Loving Naturals Insect Repellent. The contest is open to US and will end August 7. For your chance to win, enter the Giveaway Tools below. Good luck!

Javascript must be enabled to enter this giveaway. Learn how to activate Javascript by clicking here.

Loading Entry-Form

Rachel