Sarasota
My lovely cousin Erin is getting married this summer in Sarasota, and I just got our tickets. We were planning to fly from Moline to Tampa, then renting a car and driving to Sarasota, but that itinerary had 2 stops (Minneapolis and Memphis–how stupid to fly to Minneapolis to get to Florida) and really beastly departure times.
For only a little bit more money, I found an intinerary that has much better departure times and goes straight to Sarasota. It still means driving to Moline, but that’s no big deal; it’s just an hour or so and a very familiar path. I’m getting excited about the whole thing. I haven’t seen an ocean since our honeymoon coming up on two years ago.
I need to buy some sun-blocking clothing. I have the unfortunate combination of a sunscreen allergy and aspirin-white skin, but I also love to swim and snorkel. I was thinking maybe something like this… (thanks, Linds).
I’m confused…how can you wear sunscreen every single day (as attested in your birthday entry) if you have a sunscreen allergy?
I am allergic to the main ingredient of most sunscreen, octyl methoxycinnamate. It gives me a really bad rash/hives. However, I am not allergic to zinc oxide or titanium oxide, which are sunscreen ingredients found in certain makeup with sunscreen, which is what I use everyday.
There are non-chemical sunscreens with those ingredients, but I’ve never found an all-over-the-body one that doesn’t irritate my skin to some degree (though less than the octyl methoxycinnamate ones). I wonder if I’m also irritated by the creamy base they put in the whole-body ones.
Thank you for the happy birthday comment! I have an “Ocean Potion Anti-Aging SPF 50 Ultra Light” sunscreen that doesn’t have ocytl methoxycinnamate or octinoxate listed anywhere on the bottle…
Where’d you get that, Katy? I’ve tried a few different brands of hippie sunblock and never found one that left me completely rash-free. I haven’t heard of that one, though.
I love the brand new Burt’s Bees chemical free sunscreen. It has hemp oil and it’s super moisturiing. Check it out!!
Hmm, I can’t remember where I picked it up, but it might be on opotion.com. The kind I have comes in a purple bottle like so:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v199/TaffyDavenport0/DSCN1194.jpg