Sunscreens

While the rest of the cosmetics industry is awash with confusing and conflicting advice about products and their benefits, it is conclusively proven that sunscreen protects our skin from burning, aging, and cancers caused by the sun’s UV rays.

This means that choosing a sustainable option is particularly important; although we can reduce our exposure with hats, umbrellas, and clothing, it's hard to completely cut it out if we’re spending time outdoors. But while the need for sunscreen is clear, the associated sustainability and health concerns are less so.

Chemical versus Mineral sunscreen

Most sun lotions fall into two major categories, depending on the active ingredients and ‘mode of action’ they use: chemical sunscreens and mineral sunscreens.

Chemical absorbers

Chemical sunscreens contain organic compounds such as octolcrylene, oxybenzone, octinoxate and others, which act by absorbing UV rays and releasing them from the skin as infra-red heat.

Compared to mineral sunscreens, they spread more easily onto the skin, requiring less to be applied; they are also less susceptible to washing off in water or sweat. Because they blend easily into the skin, chemical sunscreens tend not to produce any visible whitening effect.

On the other hand, the active chemicals they contain have been known to produce allergic reactions on sensitive skin, and may also cause brown spots and discolouration, due to the raising of the skin’s internal temperature.

There are concerns over potential harmful impacts of chemical sunscreens when they wash off our skin and into the environment – chiefly around the threat they pose to coral reefs, as discussed later in this guide.

Mineral reflectors

Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are naturally occurring compounds and have been used to protect the skin from sunlight for thousands of years. They shield the skin by sitting on the surface and deflecting UV rays.

They tend to be gentler on sensitive skin compared to chemical sunscreen since they don’t contain chemical allergens and because they deflect heat away from the skin rather than absorbing it, they are unlikely to cause prickly heat, brown spots or other heat reactions.

Mineral sunscreens work on the surface of the skin which means that they can be harder to blend into the skin, and wash off more easily. This can also create a visibly white layer as the light is reflected away unless nanoparticles are used (see below).

Non toxic sunscreens

We have rated all companies for their policy on the use of three harmful substances common in many cosmetic and personal care products: parabens, phthalates and triclosan.

Companies committed to not using or phasing out all three substances received our best rating, while banning two out of the three scored a middle rating.

To find out more about toxic ingredients in health and beauty products, head to our feature 'Toxic Beauty'.

Eco Friendly Sunscreen?

Bleach on the beach: Is sunscreen killing coral?

On 1st January 2020, the Pacific island nation of Palau became the first country to prohibit sunscreens due to their impact on marine life including coral reefs. The US state of Hawaii will follow with similar legislation coming into force at the start of 2021.

In the past decade or so, multiple studies have shown that certain chemicals used in sunscreens can cause bleaching of coral. Bleaching is a phenomenon whereby corals expel the colourful algae living in their tissues in response to changes in their environment, causing the coral to turn completely white.

Bleached corals do not immediately die, and can recover, however they become far more vulnerable and susceptible to disease and frequently perish, while healthy corals can survive for thousands of years.

One substance of particular concern is oxybenzone (often labelled in ingredient lists as Benzophenone-3 or BP-3), which is used as an active UV filter in many chemical sunscreens. The majority of published studies in this area have focused on oxybenzone, with results showing that the chemical causes deformation in young corals leading to bleaching. This was due to the chemical acting like natural growth hormones, artificially stimulating bone growth and, in a macabre twist, causing the coral larvae to become encased in their own skeletons.

If that weren’t enough, the hormone-disrupting properties of oxybenzone have also been shown to cause the feminisation of male fish, due to it acting like oestrogen and inducing the growth of eggs.

Studies have also suggested that there are higher concentrations of oxybenzone in coastal areas where bathing is common, although oxybenzone also can also enter the ocean via wastewater streams, where man-made pollution is pumped into the ocean.

Another common chemical UV filter, octinoxate, is associated with similar concerns, although it appears to be less well-researched than oxybenzone. The Hawaiian ban will explicitly prohibit sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate from being sold in the state.

The following brands were found to include either oxybenzone or octinoxate in at least some of their sunscreen products at the time of writing (in many cases this did not apply to a brand’s entire product range; most also had products available that did not contain the two chemicals):

• Malibu
• Yaoh
• Banana Boat
• Hawaiian Tropic
• Avon
• L’Oréal (octinoxate only)
• Kiehl’s (octinoxate only)
• Shiseido (octinoxate only)

Murky waters indeed. Still, on the basis of current research, oxybenzone appears to be most conclusively linked to coral damage, and the most obvious one to avoid if you are going to be swimming anywhere near a reef.

A drop in the ocean?

While there is strong evidence that some sun creams can cause harm to coral, it is important to place this in context. The rapid depletion of coral reefs is one of the major biodiversity crises our planet faces. It is estimated that around half of the worlds’ corals have already been lost, and reefs could disappear entirely by 2070 if the harm stays on its current trajectory.

By far the greatest driver of coral reef depletion is the rising water temperatures caused by climate change, which is causing mass-bleaching events to occur more and more frequently across the world. So, while it is definitely sensible to choose the sunscreen least likely to cause harm, we may be doing the coral a far greater favour if we don’t take a flight to that tropical destination in the first place.

Microplastics

Microplastics, or microbeads, are all around us, in the air, in the water and in our soil. On a global average, a human being absorbs up to five grams of plastic per week, which is roughly the weight of a credit card. Find out more about microplastics in our feature, Microbeads: The hidden plastics in your cosmetics.

Of the sunscreen companies rated, most were found to have no policy or an inadequate policy. These brands have positive policies addressing this issue:

Amazinc!; Alba Botanica, Green People, JASÖN (Hain Celestial); Lavera; Neal’s Yard; Not the Norm (Shade) and Weleda.

Palm oil free sunscreen

Palm oil derivatives are frequently found in sun creams, as well as in the other and personal care products made by the same companies.

the table below shows how the companies fared against our rating for palm oil policy and practice:

Read our feature to find out more about palm oil and cosmetics.

Vegan sunscreens

As with other personal care products, sunscreens often contain animal derived ingredients such as keratin and lanolin, as well as honey and beeswax.

Of the brands rated in this guide, the following produced sunscreens that were marketed as vegan friendly: Alba Botanica, Attitude, Lucy Bee, Holland & Barrett, Tropic Skincare, Odylique, Organii and Yaoh.

Two companies were 100% vegan across all products (this only includes brands whose ultimate holding company produces only vegan products): Attitude and Yaoh.

Alternative packaging

Perhaps a more obvious way sunscreens are affecting the oceans is through plastic pollution. An estimated 120 billion units of packaging are produced every year by the global personal care industry, with a large proportion of this being made up of non-recyclable or only partially recyclable plastics.

Sunscreen is particularly difficult to obtain without a plastic bottle or tube, at least among those products found in high- street shops and pharmacists.

The following three brands offered alternatives to standard plastic packaging for their sunscreen products:

Tax avoidance

The companies behind the following brands received our worst rating for the likely use of tax avoidance strategies: Alba Botanica, JASÖN (Hain Celestial); Avon (Natura); Banana Boat; Hawaiian Tropic (Edgewell Personal Care); Boots (Walgreens Boots Alliance); Clarins; Eucerin, Nivea (Beiersdorf); Garnier Ambre Solaire, Kiehl's, Vichy (L'Oréal); Holland & Barrett; Shiseido; Superdrug (CK Hutchison Holdings); Piz Buin (Johnson & Johnson).

One company received our middle rating: Riemann (Orkla). All the others received our best rating.