The irony of influencers telling people that suncream causes cancer – when it is quite the opposite – is shocking. One must wonder, how can people ergo suncream to slap natural ingredients on their skin and call it a day? And what’s the politics behind this movement?
Multiple news outlets have delved into the figures, describing the sorts of posts found online, and explaining the psychology of why people are falling for this.
Glam recorded the surge in this trend in 2024 by the rise of internet searches on whether suncream was carcinogenic.
The Independent noted a resurge of videos and views on the same issue in the Summer of 2025.
The heatwave in 2026 marks another wave of influencers promoting a ‘homemade alternative’ suncream, explains AFP.
The very emphasis on only ‘natural’ components that this anti-suncream community (or conspiracy) holds as a moral rule, suggests that natural indelibly equals good. However this argument of natural equals good can be blown and twisted to fit a narrative.
The point is, the public’s relationship with nature is being distorted, and our connection to it weakening. In a desperate attempt to return to nature’s roots, the alternative health and wellness community can become extreme and out-of-touch with scientific consensus – observing the likes of raw milk and meat-eaters who swear by its primal and natural rationale as being beneficial for us.
The U.S.’s context of industrialisation and development drives wellness extremists to seek answers out of the norm. In an effort to escape the system they are stuck being a part of, they make themselves feel ‘special’ and ‘different’ by exoticising the idea of natural, traditional practices or ingredients. They take this idea, and completely fabricate their own suncream ‘recipes.’
Disillusionment with industry and science is where this seemingly liberal phenomenon intersects with far-right conservatism.
By 2010, conservatives in the United States became the political group most distrustful of scientific knowledge. The claims that your body adjusts to UV radiation or that a ‘base-tan builds resistance’ is reminiscent of right-wing Climate Change deniers who insist that fluctuations in climate are ‘natural.’ These types of conservatives manifest in hyper-individualism where they are suspicious of any organised, overarching form of information, and take in knowledge on their own basis for subjective scrutiny.
In sum, the politics behind this dangerous trend is what makes it so intriguing, as it continues to resurface online despite hard evidence against it. The fear-mongering nature of these ideologies makes the case gripping, whilst paradoxically failing to deliver on the sense of liberty and freedom that it promises – whether it’s coming from a hippy’s desire to reconnect with nature, or a conservative conspirator’s worst nightmare. This is a case of deep-seated systemic suspicion and the illusory truth effect at its finest.
If you want to go more ‘natural’, please – go vegan, or walk around with unwashed hair. But your body will not ‘adjust’ to the sun. We have not been a friend to nature; and sometimes, nature is not our friend.
“Sortez couvert” by Sunfox is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
