We need to talk about Nara Smith. No, not her ability to churn butter while simultaneously looking after three children. Or her perfect hair and OTT outfits.
We need to talk about the sunscreen. That is, the homemade sunscreen she's making from scratch.
If you're not yet across the great 'tradwife' aesthetic of 2024, allow us to give you a quick rundown. Nara Smith is an American model and influencer who is believed to be 24 (she's never confirmed her age). She married her husband — model and devout Mormon Lucky Blue Smith — in 2020.
In the past three years, the couple had three kids, named Slim Easy, Rumble Honey and Whimsy Lou.
She has 8.4 million followers and really is the ultimate housewife on TikTok.
Watch: How to protect your skin from the sun. Post continues after video.
Recently, among her videos of hand-making lollipops, chewing gum and... *checks notes*... toothpaste, the mother of three posted a TikTok in which she formulated her own homemade sunscreen using ingredients from her pantry.
"We've been spending a lot of time outside by the pool, and I realised we ran out of sunscreen," Nara narrates her vid, which has been viewed over 19 million times.
The footage shows Smith and her husband combining ingredients like coconut oil, beeswax, shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil and zinc oxide powder to make SPF. Smith assured her followers that her husband "is a baker, so he makes sure that everything is very precise", adding, "We all burn pretty easily, so we went with something with a little bit more SPF."
And we... we just...
She also said that the homemade sunscreen "went on so smooth and didn't leave a white cast".
Coolcoolcool.
While some people praised the couple for their DIY approach, some wondered if the video was satire. Because it is, really, just that hard to believe.
Have you watched it? Here it is below. Please do not attempt this at home:
@naraazizasmith 🤍 #fypツ #easyrecipe #sun #fromscratch #skincare #marriage ♬ Just Give Me One More Day - Alej
As a slew of horrified dermatologists and experts shared, baking and cosmetic chemistry are two very... different things.
A dermatologist by the name of Dr Adel commented, "NARA PLEASE."
Another follower wrote: "My cosmetic chemist heart is crying."
"Yea homemade sunscreen is also homemade melanoma," someone else commented.
And gosh, it's true. It's impossible to ignore just how seriously flawed the logic is here. Like, it's just very incorrect. And extremely dangerous.
There is not only absolutely no way to know how much sun protection it provides (if any), but also, using sunscreen that doesn't protect your skin properly exposes your skin to harmful UV rays and increases your risk of skin cancers, as well as skin ageing (like wrinkles and dark spots).
Ask any expert and they'll tell you that the information regarding 'homemade SPF' and how to make it is just wildly irresponsible. Especially on a platform like this.
It reeks of Gwyneth Paltrow pushing SPF as highlighter.
Beyond Nara Smith and her husband sending an extremely dangerous and incorrect message about DIY sunscreen, there's also that very familiar undertone of greenwashing.
In this video (and many others — *insert homemade toothpaste*), there's the very obvious and worrying implication that making 'natural' sunscreen, free from 'harsh chemicals' is better than conventional sunscreen. Which is, of course, BS and totally unproven.
There's no medical definition of 'clean' sunscreen. Or 'non-toxic' sunscreen. Because it's not a thing.
So, no. Don't turn your kitchen into a cosmetic lab and try to make your own sunscreen. While this might sound fairly obvious, videos of DIY 'natural' sunscreen recipes are everywhere on TikTok and there are many controversial 'wellness' influencers peddling a very harmful narrative when it comes to sunscreen.
And this clip just adds to that noise.
While we're all for trying trendy beauty hacks, messing around with sun protection is no joke. You're literally putting your skin — and your life — in danger.
What do you think of Nara Smith and her homemade SPF? Share with us in the comment section below.
Feature image: TikTok/@naraazizasmith; Instagram/naraaziza.
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