Everyone forgets to apply or reapply sunscreen when enjoying the outdoors, but the side effects can quickly turn into a painful inconvenience. No one wants to be left with red, dehydrated and inflamed skin, so it’s important to look for effective ways to help treat sunburn when you find yourself feeling the heat.
Treating sunburns naturally helps to build and retain moisture levels, calms inflammation while repairing and protecting your skin’s barrier from radical damage. So, we’ve put together some of our favourite natural ingredients that will help you heal your skin and treat sunburn naturally.
How Long Does Sunburn Last?
Sunburn happens when your skin is overexposed to UV light, so the severity of sunburn will depend on the intensity of sunlight, skin type and the length of exposure.
Mild sunburns usually take about three to five days to heal, leaving your skin a pink-reddish colour. You are likely to feel mild pain when you touch the affected area, and the skin may begin to peel as the skin cells begin to regenerate.
Moderate sunburns are painful and inflamed skin can be hot, sore or tender to touch. The skin appears redder and usually takes about a week or so for it to completely heal and the skin will still continue to peel.
Severe sunburns cause extremely red skin that can severely blister and may require a visit to the hospital. Recovery can take up to two weeks to fully recover and requires plenty of rest and hydration.
The Benefits of Natural Ingredients for Treating Sunburn
Using natural ingredients to help ease and relieve sunburn pain offers a gentle way to soothe and hydrate without aggravating the skin. Sunburns can dehydrate, damage, inflame, and leave your skin feeling tender. It's essential to use gentle products that can moisturise, heal, rejuvenate and protect.
Natural ingredients ease and effectively treat sunburn damage without using harsh chemicals or causing harmful side effects.
8 Natural Ingredients to Treat Sunburn Naturally
Sunburns easily aggravate the skin, leaving it to feel raw and extremely dehydrated and tender. Using natural ingredients to treat sunburn offer gentle relief to soothe, hydrate and protect the skin from radical damage from pollutants and further environmental damage. Here are eight natural ingredients that are known to help treat and soothe sunburn:
Witch Hazel
Witch hazel heals aged, damaged skin and is widely known for its natural compounds to soothe inflamed skin and sunburns. In fact, according to a 2013 study, witch hazel is extremely potent in tannin antioxidants with powerful anti-inflammatory effects found to effectively ease inflamed skin.
Its combination of polyphenol and tannin antioxidants also promotes skin growth and reduces irritation, making it perfect to soothe sunburn and encourage healing.
Grapefruit Essential Oil
Grapefruit essential oil is a natural antibacterial agent and is filled with antioxidants to clean and protect your skin from environmental and radical damage. When absorbed, grapefruit essential oil encourages a healthy immune system while promoting calmness and stress relief and is a great option for damaged, dehydrated skin.
Mandarin Essential Oil
Mandarin essential oil calms you from the inside out and is packed with anti-inflammatory properties. It will deeply penetrate below the surface to improve the circulation of blood and lymph and is filled with anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. Overall, promoting clean, healthy skin by locking in moisture.
Shea Butter
Shea butter restores skin elasticity, soothes, and reduces the appearance of scarring and stretch marks and a high concentration of fatty acids and antioxidants. With natural anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties, shea butter works wonders for moisture retention and acts as a protectant against radical damage and pollutants from the environment.
Healing sunburns can take up to several weeks to completely heal; shea butter deeply penetrates the skin and builds moisture back into the skin and repairs the epidermal barriers. This makes shea butter perfect for soothing while providing protection and replenishment to gently repair the skin.
Sea Buckthorn
Sea buckthorn has extremely high levels of Vitamins A, C, and E, high concentration of fatty acids such as omega-3 and omega-7. As a natural anti-inflammatory agent, sea buckthorn dates back to ancient Chinese remedies and is effective in reducing redness and increasing moisture retention. Sea buckthorn deeply penetrates the skin and replenishes moisture, and is a popular choice for soothing inflamed skin while encouraging healing.
Camellia Tea Oil
Camellia tea oil is filled with fatty acids, anti-inflammatory, and anti-aging abilities to soothe and increase skin elasticity while smoothing the skin. As a powerful antioxidant, camellia tea oil is rich in Vitamin A, C and E, reduces the appearance of minor scars and replenishes moisture, making it perfect to ease sunburn. It also acts as a protectant against radical damage while repairing dry, inflamed skin.
Hemp Seed Oil
Hemp seed oil is rich in fatty acids such as linoleic and oleic acids, omega-3 and omega-6, making it a powerful soothing agent for sunburnt skin. With its anti-inflammatory properties, hemp seed oil also matches lipids in our body to replenish moisture, soothes the skin and promotes collagen production.
Jojoba Oil
Jojoba oil is rich in nutrients, promotes healing, increases skin elasticity and is known to reduce redness and dryness in the skin by deeply penetrating the skin to retain moisture. Packed with anti-inflammatory abilities and antioxidants, jojoba oil can also mimic sebum and balances oil production to help heal and soothe dehydrated skin.
Discover Black Chicken Remedies Natural Body Balms & Hydrating Misters
Black Chicken Remedies provide an all-natural selection of skincare remedies, including natural body balms and natural hydrating misters to soothe sunburns. Our all-natural product range hydrates, repairs and relieves sensitive, inflamed, damaged or irritated skin while protecting against pollutants and toxins.
Packed with natural antioxidant ingredients, our range of products provide a cruelty-free alternative without harsh chemicals or additives to heal, protect and soothe all skin types.