Sunscreen SPF50 – Please Recommmend Sunblock

I use Sun Sence Daily Face 50+ Made In Australia 200 ml – invisible tint finish, just love it.

whats everyone been using?

I use Invisible Zinc Spf50. Be warned it does leave a white stain on your face. It takes a while to rub it in, but sun protection is EVERYTHING!

Quick PSA about aerosol sunscreens!

In May 2017, Rebecca Cannon, mother of 14-month-old Kyla, followed the guidelines on the back of the spray sunscreen she bought. The label stated that the spray was safe for children 6 months of age and older, and that to apply to the face, the sunblock should first be sprayed onto hands, then rubbed onto the skin.

After reading the BH article and peoples comments on the article I was still confused, did some googling and stumbled across this Marie Claire article which whilst comparing American sunscreens does help explain a little. I’ll post this link on the article page too. https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.marieclaire.com/beauty/makeup/news/amp28736/best-asian-sunscreen/

I remember the investigation into the sunscreens, there were a few which had way less actual spf protection than they displayed on the label, the banana boat spf50 was only something like spf30.
I didn’t realise that chemical sunscreens dont stop freckling or pigmentation.

In 2015, a couple of popular Australian sunscreens were put to the test and completely failed to meet our standard testing regulations (ahem, Banana Boat), so forgive me if I do not put a lot of stock (if any) into our Aussie regulations. These were existing Australian-brand sunscreens already made available on the market which mislabelled SPF levels of their sunscreen.

Couple that with what the great Lab Muffin (who is a credible Aussie science educator/blogger with a PhD in Chemistry) has said before: “Also note that sometimes there are changes to SPF labelling for sunscreens sold in Australia, for two reasons. Firstly, the Australian sunscreen system simplifies SPF ratings into a few brackets – 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 and 50+ (which means 60 or above) – so the rating will need to be rounded down to the appropriate number. Australia also has a stricter SPF test, which means that sometimes the label will be downgraded – either because companies won’t fork out the money for extra testing, or because it tested as lower.” (my emphasis in bold)

That is one “strict” threshold behind the strict regulations postulated. Take from that what you will but it doesn’t correlate that it necessarily didn’t meet a quality standard either.

I’m not here to tell you which sunscreen or from which jurisdiction it came from to use. YMMV but it is simply not true that Australian sunscreen testing regulations, or Australian cosmetics testing regulations in general for that matter, are superior to every other jurisdiction’s. If so, show me the testing regulations applied in every jurisdiction because I have seen the contrary. It is not convincing to say Australia has the strictest testing regulations if you are familiar with the Australian sunscreen testing regulations only. That is an untenable position to uphold.

It is also not true that Asian-brand sunscreens do not come with English translations, and even if some do, this is really easy to search online if you type in the product name. There are so many online resources provided by dedicated people who have spent time providing that information to the public. I have made this offer before: if you are interested in an Asian-branded sunscreen, post in one of our Asian beauty threads and I will look into it for you.

Thanks duality for this. I love Korean and Japanese sunscreens. They work well for me. And I’ve had zero issues with no burns or pigmentation developing when using them.

Reviving this thread as an information resource based on the latest BH article on Japanese sunscreens and some of the comments about Japanese not being up to our standards and we have the strictest requirements and they aren’t good enough for our harsh conditions and the ingredients aren’t in English but this isn’t entirely accurate.

I’m not at my PC so I can’t access my saved links but just as a start I’ll throw this one in and come back to edit when I’m back home and have time.

• world sunscreen regulations
  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283515177_An_overview_of_sunscreen_regulations_in_the_world

• Australia’s TGA requirement for sunscreens
  https://www.tga.gov.au/book/export/html/5307

As far as ingredients go Australia is a good 5-7 years behind the Asian market, we copy their lead years later when it comes to beauty industry related ingredients. Europe has some of the strictest laws regarding products and their effects on our health, there are many ingredients banned for use in the EU and Australia still allows them and this includes some chemical sunscreen ingredients.

We are not “the best” we are not “the strictest” and we have a lot to learn. Saying one country is better than another is questionable at best, because each country has different ingredients and different ways to measure the effectiveness of sunscreen. Our skin here in Aus is some of the most photo-damaged in the world so our “laws” clearly aren’t protecting us. Sure a sunscreen may stop you getting burnt, but if it’s chemical it won’t stop you freckling and it won’t stop pigmentation issues.

The recent sunscreen trial here on BH showed that we still do not have full labelling laws for sunscreen and companies don’t have to list all the ingredients in their sunscreens.

This article briefly summarises how each country tests their sunscreen:

https://phcogj.com/sites/default/files/10.5530pj.2016.3.1.pdf

So disappointed to see that one of the top ingredients in the La Roche-Posay Anthelios Nutritive Oil SPF50 is alcohol denatured- this alcohol is a drying type that can irritate and sensitive skin! What an absolute shame and PERFUME!!!
Still its a pretty nice oil for the body. It is CHEMICAL.