Ah, summer! Sunshine, warm breezes, the scent of fresh-cut grass.

Then there are the other signs of the season – hot, blistering skin after a lazy day on the beach; mosquitoes, wasps and other flying or crawling menaces.

Fortunately there are products that can aid summer fun enjoyment without worry. Best of all, these are as natural as the season itself.

Ingredients like lavender, tea tree oil, lemon grass, aloe and coconut oil can be both soothing to the skin and repulsive to creepy-crawlies.

These are some key components of products offered by Lambeth’s Jaydancin and Sparta’s Steed and Company Lavender Farm.

Jaydancin owner Vickie Balazs came to appreciate organic, plant-based products during a decade of operating a Northern Ontario wilderness resort. She now puts that awareness to use in creating a plethora of skin-care offerings.

Suzanne Steed, of Steed and Company Lavender, finds her background in public health nursing affords better insight and understanding of her product ingredients.

Balazs researched her sun protector, Simply Coco Loco, at the Coconut Research Centre in Colorado with Dr. Bruce Fife, a naturopathic doctor and internationally-recognized expert on the health and nutritional aspects of coconut and related products.

Balazs emphasizes that it’s not a sunscreen but a product that protects skin from the sun’s harmful rays.

According to Fife, “Coconut oil protects the body from sunburn without blocking the beneficial UV radiation, so you get the benefit of both worlds. It works by preventing free-radical reactions which lead to all the consequences caused by overexposure to the sun.”

It’s easy to apply and not sticky or greasy, Balazs says. “And it works. My grandkids have used it since they were born and it’s perfectly safe.”

She developed Jaydancin’s Love Bug Spray as a product to keep bugs at bay but not kill them. “These bugs are part of the ecosystem and I did not want to destroy or violate what nature created.”

The spray combines essential plant oils with astringent and moisturizing ingredients. Oils from eucalyptus and lemongrass have antiseptic and antibiotic properties to heal and naturally repel insects. The scent of lavender oil is a potent bug deterrent. She also uses witch hazel, soothing aloe juice and grapeseed oil, which is a natural preservative and moisturizer.

“We tested (the spray) last year at a cottage,” she says. “We sprayed one arm with Love Bug and left the other without any spray. Not one mosquito bite on the Love Bug arm.”

Steed and Company’s Lavender Bug Balm contains lavender, tea tree oil and lemongrass – all natural insect repellents, Steed says.

“It’s really quite effective and it’s been wonderful to get that feedback from our customers.” She notes that, last summer, a woman from Prince Edward Island was skeptical about the product but bought one anyway. A couple weeks later, she emailed to order another 14 because her country club chums were so impressed.

Steed says lavender is a natural analgesic so she uses the essential oil directly on the skin when her children get mosquito bites or bee stings.

While Steed and Company doesn’t have a specific sun protection product, she says customers report using the company’s linen spray on sunburns and that it takes away the burn and sting.

As a bonus, customers can see where the lavender in their purchases comes from. The farm grows about 10,000 angustifolia lavender plants, which are harvested and used in the products.