This Summer is already going by so quickly, and I haven’t spent nearly enough time enjoying the outdoors, but I have already had a pretty bad sunburn. The last day at Firefly Music Festival I got a nice little tank top sunburn (aka shoulders, arms and neck) despite repeated applications of sunscreen. It looked like it was going to blister and peel pretty bad. Of course we had a wedding coming up in just about a week – I didn’t want to have peeling skin for it!

(There was a random woman in the back of this photo talking on her phone, so I blurred her out – hence the blur behind my right shoulder).

Luckily, when I got home, Jonathon said he had the perfect cure: tea tree oil, followed by coconut oil. I was a bit unsure, but it is probably best to trust the 100% Irish man in this case as he’s dealt with sunburns much more than I ever have. I’ve already written about how I love using coconut oil for removing stubborn makeup, and I often use it as lotion, but tea tree oil? I was skeptical, but let him apply it to my burn anyways. What could it hurt?

At first the burn looks even worse, but after letting the tea tree oil soak in, we applied coconut oil and went to bed. The next morning I woke up and my burn was already looking better! Not only did my burn completely go away in less than 3 days, but I was left with a great tan and hardly any peeling! (I slacked on the last day and forgot to apply both oils, so I think that’s why I peeled a bit – oops! But seriously, the peeling was a minimum and should have been worse).

I thought it might be a fluke, but this past weekend Jonathon got a pretty bad sunburn on his arms, legs and feet, so we’ve been slathering him with tea tree oil and coconut oil. His burns last a bit longer than mine, but here we are 2 days later and his burn is almost gone! As a bit of an experiment, we didn’t apply any to his neck which also got burned. The difference is incredible!

I’m now a believer in applying tea tree oil and coconut oil to sunburns. The worst part is smelling a bit like a hippy, but that’s a small price to pay for making a sunburn go away quickly!

Do you have any weird, natural remedies for sunburns?

Let me know what else I should try in the event I get burned again this Summer!