Allergy Problems

On a recent grocery shopping trip to Walmart, I was browsing the new summer sunscreen display, picking up bottle after bottle, checking the ingredients list, and putting it back on the shelf. Spray sunscreen is so convenient but with my avobenzone allergy, I haven't found any I can use in years. I was thrilled, then, to find a brand I hadn't seen before on the shelf and not see avobenzone on the label. I sent my mom a photo of the ingredients label and we decided I should give it a try, so I bought two, one of each of the Alba Botanica spray varieties, the next time I was at Walmart.

Raising fair, blue-eyed children, my mom started sunscreen almost from day one. When I was in kindergarten, she bought a new sunscreen and, like every day, lathered me head to toe. I broke out all over in a red, itchy rash and from then on, we always put "allergic to Parsol in sunscreen" on the school and camp medical forms. When I was older, we stopped seeing Parsol on labels and learned to look for its other name, avobenzone, instead.

Amazed at my discovery of avobenzone-free spray sunscreen, I was eager to try it out but soon broke out in a rash on my arms and then legs. I thought maybe it was from sitting outside at McCalister's in the pollen-laced wind the other day. But since the sunscreen was the only new factor, I decided to Google the ingredients I wasn't familiar with, starting with the longest, scariest sounding name: butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane. I couldn't believe what came up on my screen:

Are you kidding me, Alba Botanica?! While virtually every other sunscreen manufacturer in America uses the word avobenzone on their labels, you thought you should use butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane? Does it make your "happy planet" brand easier to sell?

So don't mind me as I go about my life with this red, itchy rash on my arms and legs for the next few days (and hopefully not weeks). At least now I know I am allergic to avobenzone aka Parsol aka butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane. Hopefully it doesn't get renamed again anytime soon.