Dermatologists accuse Nara Smith of promoting skin cancer with latest homemade sunscreen video
Nara Smith, née Pellman. Where do we even start? Do we begin with the gourmet meals the model and influencer cooks from scratch while wearing couture fashion? Maybe with her three children who were all birthed before the gentle age of 23, or perhaps with her all-natural and self-made approach to life? But maybe we should just jump straight ahead to her latest controversy which has seen the modern tradwife come under fire for making her own sunscreen. And according to some skincare experts, she might have taken it a step too far with this one…
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In case you didn’t know, Gen Z is the generation that spearheaded a revolution in skincare. We asked the gods to cure our acne, blemishes and dark spots, and they gave us internet prophets in the form of Skincare by Hyram, Mixed Makeup, Caress, and Kemi Fabusiwa.
They taught us the power of niacinamide and hyaluronic acid, introduced us to The Ordinary and The INKEY List, tested all the newest next-gen brands for us, aka Florence by Mills and Kylie Skin, and distilled their knowledge into easily digestible TikToks. Shoutout to our babes.
Above all, however, they taught us the golden rule: one law actually, of always applying sunscreen, like, every single day without exception because it is the most important step of every skincare routine. I’m really not exaggerating here, this was life-changing advice for me, folks.
Sunscreen is sacred in the eyes of the online skincare community. If you mess with sunscreen you might as well be messing with the water supply cause you’re obviously trying to poison us all. However, Smith seems to have not gotten that message cause she recently uploaded a very controversial video in which her husband did indeed share a recipe for self-made sunscreen. Oh boy.
“We’ve been spending a lot of time outside by the pool and I realised that we ran out of sunscreen, but I asked Lucky to make me some,” the mum of three explained in a video shared on 26 June 2024. It has accumulated over 2 million likes and 25,753 comments since.
@naraazizasmith 🤍 #fypツ #easyrecipe #sun #fromscratch #skincare #marriage
♬ Just Give Me One More Day - Alej
The recipe contained coconut oil, beeswax, shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil and zinc oxide powder. You know, very casual, everyday ingredients that everybody has on hand.
“We all burn pretty easily, so we went with something with a little bit more SPF,” Nara said in her voiceover.
Most users admired the couple’s craftiness as always. However, others called attention to sunscreen being a drug, or medical product that shouldn’t be homemade.
“Homemade sunscreen is also homemade melanoma [skin cancer],” one netizen shared. “Y’all are going to FRY this summer with this concoction,” another user warned. “I’m in Greece right now, my mom has been wearing zinc sunscreen and I’ve been wearing regular chemical sunscreen. She looks like a tomato and is covered in blisters and peeling. I’m not even slightly pink.”
A final user wrote: “Yeah, I’ve done some research. I love this girl, but this is not a good idea.”
In a Washington Post column titled A TikToker made sunscreen from scratch. We tried her recipe, US-based dermatologist and fellow at the American Academy of Dermatology Yolanda C. Holmes shared that the only ingredient in the Smiths’ recipe proven to provide any sun protection is the zinc oxide powder.
“These ingredients can be good moisturisers for the skin, but that doesn’t mean they will protect you against the sun. And using it could make you subject to sunburn.” the expert explained.
Holmes reminded readers that “sunscreens should be scientifically tested in labs to make sure they are offering a certain level of sun protection.”
In other words, Smith’s recent video is for the bin. Sorry babes, while you can convince me to make Oreos from scratch and maybe the occasional balm, sunscreen will continue to remain a store purchase.
