By Maggie Miles | Correspondent
We all have certain essentials we need at the beach. But it comes with an inevitable debate: what sunscreen to buy? What should we put on skin after a sunburn (oops)? Where to even find products?
Since I know we all love supporting local makers, I’ve come up with a list for you, so that you can create your very own all-natural beach care kit — made up solely of products by Outer Banks small businesses that use only local, organic ingredients in their lotions and potions.
Sunscreen from Preesh Product Co.
Preesh Product Co. is a natural self-care and travel product company, started by local surfer Jacob Fremeau. Surfers are some of the pickiest types when it comes to their sunscreen, so their endorsement of Preesh shows that it’s the good stuff! Products use all-organic, minimal ingredients and are reef safe. Preesh provides people on the Outer Banks with useful tinctures and topicals that are environmentally friendly. With only a small portion of the world’s reefs left intact, this should be something we can all get behind. Their sunscreen contains coconut oil, beeswax, mountain mint essential oils and zinc oxide combined for the perfect paste. Buy it online or purchase at Banks Surf Supply in Nags Head. Preesh also offers a great all-natural, all-purpose balm!
After-Sun Body Spray from Natural Selections Apothecary
Natural Selections Apothecary, located at the Scarborough Faire Shopping Village in Duck, is the place in town to find locally sourced, small-business-made, from-the-earth alternative medicinal products. The owner, Austin Brockway, loves providing all-natural, holistic products that help her customers heal from the inside out. Brockway created her line of herbal products, A and O Organics, because she had once been prescribed antidepressants but wanted to find a natural option. The problem was all of the products she looked at were mass produced and had a ton of additives.
Botanicals’products online and at local shops, such as Sisters Boutique in Manteo. KATELIN KIGHT/COURTESY
She started creating her own formulas, and it is now her passion to share them with locals and vacationers on the Outer Banks. Her online and brick-and-mortar shop includes her own products and ones from other local makers. And, if you are making an all-natural beach kit, her After-Sun Body Spray, made with A&O Lavender Oil, A&O Spearmint oil, vitamin E and coconut oil, is perfect for soothing your toasty skin after a long day in the sun.
Stay moisturized with Moon Tide Botanicals
Moon Tide Botanicals, founded by Katelin Kight, offers an array of products free of the harmful parabens, silicon, GMO ingredients and synthetic perfumes found in conventional skincare and beauty. She sources pure ingredients and makes each product in micro-batches to ensure the quality and potency of the ingredients you’re placing on your skin. She even charges them with crystals under the moon to bring even more benefits to each product.
The first item for your beach care kit is her REPAIR — an active face oil, formulated to have the multi-correctional activity of a serum. The ingredients in the REPAIR oil have many individual benefits: Pomegranate oil is a powerful antioxidant which fights free radicals and slows the aging process. Meadowfoam Oil naturally helps your skin form a barrier to lock in moisture and deliver nutrients deep into your epidermis. Red Raspberry Seed Oil is unique because it contains a very high essential fatty acid profile, along with a good vitamin E content. Ylang Ylang is extremely effective in maintaining the skin’s moisture and oil balance and keeps it looking hydrated, smooth and young. Leave it to these luxurious-sounding ingredients to reverse any damage after a day in the sun!
Other products I recommend would be her Honey Pot lip treatment, her Coconut body oil and her Sea Salt hair texturizing spray if you want to keep that salty beach hair look going after you leave the beach. You can shop online or find her products at clothing boutiques and salons around the Outer Banks.
Got it? Good. You’re now armed and protected to go enjoy a day in the sun!