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Hating sunscreen has strangely caught on, but hopefully, that’s about to change.
I’m a different sort of sunscreen evangelist. Last week at WWDC, I found myself chasing down my pastier peers as the sun crept over Apple Park. Did you put on sunscreen? If anyone said no — and many did — I’d tsk and reach into my bag for a tube of Round Lab Birch Juice Moisturizing Sun Cream. I’d demand they hold out three fingers and I’d squeeze out three identical lines of Korea’s finest SPF technology onto their hands. Some were grateful. Most winced, expecting something greasy, hard to rub in, and likely to sting their eyes.
All were shocked when this sunscreen was none of those things.
That’s because for the past 26 years, American sunscreen has been terrible compared to sunscreens available in the rest of the world. For over two decades, we’ve been suffering with white casts, sticky textures, and that weird chemical-y smell, begrudgingly rubbing in minuscule amounts that likely fell short of offering the labeled SPF protection. (You need a quarter teaspoon for your face alone!) Meanwhile, Asia, Australia, and Europe have had elegant formulations that not only feel better to wear, but are also more effective at protecting skin. It’s led to Americans dodging sunscreen like Neo dodging bullets in The Matrix, even though skin cancer is the most common cancer in the US.
But finally there’s good news. Last week, the FDA approved a new chemical sunscreen filter for the first time since 1999. Meaning, at long last, better sunscreens are on the way.
My second favorite sunscreen in my personal stash. Photo: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
The new filter is bemotrizinol, also known as Tinosorb S or BEMT. What makes it exciting to cosmetic chemists in the US is it offers broad-spectrum protection against both UVA and UVB rays, is much more photostable, can help stabilize other sunscreen filters, and isn’t as likely to be absorbed into the bloodstream because it’s a larger molecule. That’s major for several reasons, but perhaps the most important one is that it could help defang the anti-sunscreen movement.
Anti-sunscreen fears flared up in 2019 and 2021 after the FDA tweaked sunscreen regulations and requested more safety data for some chemical sunscreen filters. Researchers had found that older chemical filters were absorbed into the bloodstream. Meanwhile, mineral sunscreens like zinc and titanium dioxide were deemed GRASE — or generally recognized as safe and effective. (For the record, BEMT has also been deemed GRASE.)
That reinforced the notion that mineral sunscreens are superior to chemical ones, which are “bad for your health.” The reality is the FDA was simply asking for more data. Mineral and chemical sunscreens largely protect your skin in the same way — by absorbing UV rays and using a chemical reaction to dissipate them into heat. The difference is mineral sunscreens also reflect a small portion of UV rays and sit atop your skin, while chemical filters are absorbed.
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