Archived Post

Sunscreen 101: What protects what? UVA ingredients, UVB ingredients, broad spectrum! What you need to know!

zArchived
Christine |

Protecting yourself from the sun is essential. With as much research out, it is no longer an optional step in your beauty routine. Most of understand that anti-aging creams are not nearly as effective as taking preventative steps that reduce aging rather than attempting to reverse what has already occurred.

UVA & UVB? UVA damage occurs in shortwave (320 to 340nm) and long-wave (340 to 400nm), while UVB occurs between 280 to 320 nm. UVA tends to penetrate into the skin, while UVB damages the top layer of skin.

Common Ingredients for UVA Protection: Avobenzone, Ecamsule (Mexoryl SX), Zinc Oxide; Titanium gives some, but not the entire range of the spectrum

Common Ingredients for UVB Protection: Octyl methoxycinnamate, octyl salicylate, octocrylene

Ingredient to watch for: Zinc Oixide provides protection against short and long UVA as well as UVB. Avobenzone protects against UVA, while oxybenzone only protects against short wave UVA and titanium dioxide protects up to 385nm (of 400nm).

Caution: SPF is a measure of UVB protection, NOT UVA. In fact, many sunscreens labeled “broad spectrum UVA/UVB” do not protect against the entire UVA spectrum (short and long waves).

Ingredients known for sun protection:

  • Octocrylene is an organic compound used in sunscreens.
  • Oxybenzone is a derivative of Benzophenone and an organic compound often used in sunscreens.
  • Octisalate is a chemical suncreen ingredient that blocks UVB.
  • Homosalate is an organic compound used in sunscreens to absorb ultraviolet rays.
  • Avobenzone is an oil soluble ingredient that may also go by Parsol 1789, Eusolex 9020, Escalol 517.
  • Octyl methoxycinnamate or octinoxate is an organic compound used for sun protection.
  • Octyl salicylate is an organic compound used in sunscreens. It absorbs ultraviolet light.
  • Dioxybenzone is an organic compound used to block UVB, derivative of benzophenone.
  • Titanium Dioxide is used in sunscreen, and it is often used to because of its high refractive index.

How effective is your SPF? Calculate how long you can stay in the sun with your sunscreen.

Explore Temptalia

We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!

Here are some useful resources for you:

Foundation Matrix™

Find your next foundation or concealer match!

The Dupe List™

Find a product dupe or compare two palettes.

Swatch Gallery™

Find swatches by color, product, formula, etc.

Compare Any Two

Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!

11 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
plee Avatar
plee

According to this analysis from Environmental Working Group (EWG), findings of the CDC study indicate that Oxybenzone reacts negatively with sun exposure and have negative impacts on our bodies such as:

– triggering possible allergic reactions by sun exposure.
– forming free radical chemicals that may be linked to cell damage.
– disrupting the hormone system.
– absorbing through the skin in significant amounts.
– accumulating in the fatty tissues in the body for many days.
– helping other chemicals penetrate the skin.

Not Even Avatar
Not Even

Actually, Neutrogena is coming under attack from the new Environmental Working Group Study. It contains neither zinc oxide nor titanium oxide.

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!