The Story of Sun Milk - A Natural Sunscreen Made In Lake Tahoe

I am coming up on about six years since I unexpectedly went down the “sunscreen rabbit hole.” I had been researching many other topics when I came across a video of an anthropologist talking about how people used to spend 88% of their lives outdoors, and nowadays, that number has dropped to around 10%. This is sad and is a separate rabbit hole for another day, but part of her point was simple: if we as people used to spend 88% of our lives outdoors, in the sun, then skin cancer should have been a vast and historic killer – probably more so than any other disease. This got my attention and steered my research away from my original plan, so I dug deeper.

I have always been aware of the nasty chemicals in sunscreens but have never truly researched them, which is what I set out to do. It didn’t take long before I came across a video of a doctor talking about sunscreen, tanning, and the fact that there was no such thing as skin cancer 60-70 years ago. Skin cancer didn’t exist until the advent of sunscreen and sunglasses, for that matter. Interesting… So, humans spent 88% of their time outdoors in the sun for hundreds/thousands of years, with no skin cancer whatsoever…it flat out didn’t even exist. Now, humans (sadly) only spend around 10% of their outdoors, and skin cancer is not only a thing but quite prevalent and deadly. If you’re following along then you realize this doesn’t compute and is not adding up, I thought sunscreen was meant for and developed for preventing skin cancer. Moreover, that sunglasses were created to protect our eyes from the “harmful” UV rays…it quickly became apparent that something was amiss and that this rabbit hole went deeper than expected. I kept digging…

Breaking down the list of ingredients in mainstream sunscreens was next on the research list. If you’ve not done this, I’ll make it short and simple: the list of ingredients in sunscreens is a smorgasbord of chemical names and words that you cannot pronounce. Having done many deep dives into our food industry, I’ve come to know the most straightforward litmus test for knowing whether an ingredient is good or not comes down to whether you can a) pronounce it and b) know it. If you cannot pronounce it nor have ever heard of it before, then it’s not something you ever want to ingest. Period. This brings us to our next important point that most people either aren’t aware of or just don’t think about when it comes to sunscreens (likely because they think, as most do, that sunscreens were created to ‘save us from the sun’s rays). Most people think that their skin is like a layer of protection, armor protecting our inners, our organs, etc. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Our skin is the largest organ in our body. So, as I stated above, in regard to not ingesting ingredients you cannot pronounce, etc., the same goes for putting such ingredients/chemicals on your skin. Would you lather up your heart (if you could reach it) with engine lubricant or some other nasty and deadly chemical? No, you wouldn’t, so why are you doing that to the largest organ in your body? Because that is exactly what you’re doing when you use mainstream sunscreens. Furthermore, as you delve into each chemical that sunscreens are made of, you realize that almost ALL OF THEM are carcinogens (meaning they are cancer-causing). Not only are they all carcinogens but they are highly absorbable to boot.

What does that mean exactly?

You buy sunscreen thinking it’s going to help “protect” you from the nasty UV rays of the sun (we will get into this statement shortly as it’s also pertinent in the big picture) that we’re told are bad for us and we need to avoid. You lather that nasty concoction of highly absorbent chemicals onto your skin and go out into the sun thinking, “You’re protected” when in reality, you basically have engine lubricant/gasoline on your skin that you’re now cooking into your skin and body. After a few hours, it’s gone, vanished, so you apply more. Where did it go?

Well, all those highly absorbent carcinogenic chemicals went straight into your bloodstream and straight to your liver. Overtaxing and compromising your liver. If you’ve done the research on cancer and the liver, then you know that cancer cannot survive, nor even establish itself in a body with a healthy and fully functioning liver. In short, using mainstream sunscreen is taxing your liver and putting yourself at high risk for developing cancer, and not just skin cancer as that’s what we’re discussing here, but all types of cancer. Imagine then what this is doing to your children…you are compromising, basically beginning the destruction of your child’s liver; and thus, putting them at risk for cancers and all types of other diseases as a result.
Which then begs the next question. What do I do if sunscreens are bad because I’m told that I’m supposed to be protecting myself from the harmful sun and it’s big bad UV rays.

Another lie by the establishment.

Truth is the sun is the most critical factor in human health. Vitamin D is one of the most essential building blocks of our physiology, immune system, and overall health. And similarly to having a healthy liver and how that affects having/not having cancer, Vitamin D is equally as important. Vitamin D can help prevent and treat almost all types of cancer; and thus, being Vitamin D deficient puts you at high risk for all types of cancer.

I mentioned earlier that skin cancer first appeared not long after the introduction of sunscreen and sunglasses. Sunglasses?? We will save that deep dive for another blog, but in short, you absorb the most Vitamin D through your eyes. Wear sunglasses, you lose the ability to absorb Vitamin D via your most effective receptacle.

Mainstream sunscreens used to tout that they blocked UVB rays, which are the ones attributed to causing your skin to burn, which makes sense; block those, and it would appear that the sunscreen is working and doing what you want it to do. However, it’s been recently revealed that it’s actually UVA rays that ‘can cause’ skin cancer (these are in quotes because they only can if you overdo it, otherwise they’re extremely healthy and good for you), not UVB. So now you can buy sunscreens that block both UVA and UVB rays… incredible you think, right? Wrong, now you’re getting ZERO sun, ZERO Vitamin D. Now you’re Vitamin D deficient which is the #1 reason and cause for skin cancer, along with almost all other cancers. And that’s not even including all the chemical issues we already discussed.

Moment of pause. As you can probably tell, this rabbit hole runs deep, very deep and is one I spent weeks and weeks on 6 years ago. I have mentioned that we will be creating an “Education and Research” section on our site where we will post all of our research and findings for people to access. For now, I’ll leave this journey here, or this blog could end up being a novel. However, all of the above was the impetus for creating Sun Milk…
Having grown up in Florida as an avid surfer, diver, etc., I’m no stranger to the sun, sun burns, and sun exposure. I was always aware of the fact that the best way to handle the sun was to have a tan, as it’s your body’s natural sunscreen, but that involves discipline and time. One must slowly (usually after winter) reintroduce the sun and tanning in order to not overdo it, burn, peel, etc. And that’s just not realistic for most people; however, it should be everyone’s goal – to be naturally protected by having a tan. And this goes for fair-skinned, freckled people as well. Everyone can ‘tan’ appropriately if handled and done correctly.

My wife has a fair-skinned, freckled, Irish-decent skin tone. I shared all of my research with her 6 years ago and told her after learning what I learned, you could never get mainstream sunscreen near me or anyone I know ever again. About 3 years ago, she started testing different natural oils and ingredients to develop her own all-natural sunscreen. Mineral sunscreens always leave a white film or sheen; bees wax, tallow, and shea butter sunscreens are hard to rub in…she was on a mission to develop the perfect all-natural sunscreen that had none of these issues.

We live in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The elevation of the Lake is 6,225ft; some of her testing was done at the Lake, and most was at our house, with an elevation of 6,850ft. Why is this important? For starters, I’ve yet to see another sunscreen company testing and developing in the high mountain elevations. Elevation significantly affects the UV index as the atmosphere is thinner and absorbs less radiation, thereby causing the UV levels to increase higher than normally seen. A unique and perfect testing ground to develop the world’s best all-natural, all-organic sunscreen.

After the better part of three years, testing, developing, and ratio adjusting she finally nailed it. The perfect combination of natural oils and ratios for an all-natural, all organic sunscreen…and she named it Sun Milk. A name I was immediately drawn to – the sun for obvious reasons, but mainly because the sun is the most important factor to human wellness and life, and milk because of it’s nutritional connotation and the fact that it is an essential building block of all mammal life. This was only further cemented when she showed me that it turns a milk-white color when you shake it, yet once you smooth it on your skin, it goes clear. Brilliant and Bravo.

So much bravo that I decided to leave my 30+ year corporate career to start a company selling her creation. As I mentioned, I’ve spent 6+ years doing a ton of research on many topics, more rabbit holes than I care to know, but most have revolved around health. Subsequently, when I saw the opportunity to not only share all that I’ve learned but evangelize it while selling a product that will profoundly change peoples’ lives and health. Being dedicated to bringing the cleanest and healthiest products to market, I was all in, and Sun Milk, the company, was born.