We’ve been on a roll talking about Summer things lately! We kicked it off by talking about Summer hospitality, then talked about making memories with your family during the summer and now we are talking about one of my favorite things: Natural summer essentials!

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My Summer Essentials:

Immune Boosters:

Elderberry Syrup

You can buy one or make your own. It's very simple to make your own. All you need it dried elderberries, honey, and some spices. See wellness mama recipe for how to make it yourself. Or get a pre-made one from Vitacost.com (just check all ingredients). 

A Good Probiotic

We love all the probiotics from Garden of Life and they have a ton of options - for kids, for adults, specifically for women, or men, etc. We have started using a different brand though for the kids that we found from Grove.co. It’s the Lovebug brand and we love it! They also have a couple of different strains - they have a cold one that’s targeted for immunity. They have a weight loss one, and they even have two infant ones for 0-6 months and 6-12 months. They even have a pregnancy specific one that looks great. 

Immune Defense Essential Oils

These are great for all around immunity defense! Our absolute favorites are the Plant Therapy KidSafe line of Immune Boom and Germ Destroyer. We use them topically and also for diffusing. 

Goats Milk Soap with Essential Oils

We also started trying a new soap. It’s a Goats Milk soap from Bend Soap Company. We got it in bar form and as a milk bath. You just add the shreds to the bath. It's called All Shield and it's basically like their immune defense essential oil blend in the soap! 

Zarabees

Another line we love is Zarabees. They have natural cold and immune support items for kids. You can find it at places like Target, but my favorite place is Grove because their price is much better.  

New Chapter 

For adults: Grove just started carrying New Chapter brand. It's a very natural and healthy supplement brand for adults and I've been a long time fan. They have multivitamins, prenatals, fermented turmeric, maca and so much more! I love this brand but it's an expensive one. So I was excited to see that Grove is carrying it now! 

Choosing a Natural Sunscreen 

Sunscreen is a big one and a hard one! SkinDeep.org has a fabulous Sunscreen guide that you can sign up for for free!! Their biggest ingredients to avoid are: 

Oxybenzone

Vitamin A (retinyl palmitate)

Added insect repellent

And to look for: 

Zinc oxide

Avobenzome

Mexoryl SX

My staple for the past several summers has been the Honest company spray. With 7 people in the family needing to get sunscreened, the spray has been a lifesaver! But we do go through it quickly and the nozel does tend to get clogged a LOT and we've been through too many bottles to think it's a mistake in one or two bottles. 

Grove has several fantastic sunscreen options as well! They carry Badger brand which is very natural. Babyganics is also rated very well and they have a spray. I'm adding this one to my cart to try next! They also carry several kinds of Alba Botanicals. I'm actually very impressed with their natural sunscreen selection and I will be trying several new ones to see if I can find one that works better than Honest.