Which Sunscreen Should You Use?

Isabel Platt and Laura Gottschalk, PhD, Cathryn Bigham, National Center for Health Research

sunscreen, how does spf work

Sunshine is important for our daily dose of vitamin D. The time in sunlight needed for enough vitamin D synthesis can vary between 5-30 minutes a day. This range depends on geographic location; cloud cover; time of day; skin tone; presence of sand, snow, or water; and whether a person is wearing sunscreen.[1,2] For example, a fair skin individual near the equator at midday will need less time in the sun than a dark skin individual at a northern latitude on a cloudy day.

Other than this small amount of direct sun exposure, staying out of the sun should always be the first choice for skin cancer prevention.[3] But, even if you do go out, there are ways to reduce the damage your skin gets from the sun. Wearing protective clothing, hats, and limiting sun exposure during the sunniest parts of the day are all great ideas. When you cannot avoid sun exposure, sunscreen can help protect you from some of the damaging effects of the sun.

But what kind of sunscreen is best? Spray or lotion? SPF 15 or SPF 70? Waterproof or moisturizing? It seems that new rules come out every year. To clear up mixed messages, here is a guide to choosing the best sunscreen for you and your family.

A Note on Skin Cancer

Spending too much time in the sun puts you in danger of skin cancer. In fact, skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the world. [3] There are three types of skin cancer: basal cell, squamous cell, and melanoma. Basal cell cancers, the most common, are slow-growing and are the easiest to treat. Squamous cell cancers detected at an early stage are curable and cause minimal damage. Melanoma is the least common but most dangerous kind of skin cancer. If not caught early, it can spread throughout the body and become fatal. [4, 5]

Ultraviolet radiation can cause all forms of skin cancer.[4] Melanoma is the 5th most common cancer for both men and women but the most dangerous.[5,6] Unfortunately, the number of women 50 years or older who are diagnosed with invasive melanoma has been increasing by about 3% per year. Rates have stayed stable for men 50 and older.[5] If you have fair skin, you are more likely to get melanoma than someone with darker skin. Yet, a study from 2014-2020 found that Black people who get melanoma are 24% less likely to survive at least 5 years compared to the general population.[5] This is often due to a late-stage diagnosis of melanoma.[7]

Abnormal moles, a family history of skin cancer, and the use of tanning beds all increase a person’s chances of developing skin cancer.[5] Whether they are new or old, moles are not cancerous, but they increase a person’s chance of developing melanoma and other skin cancers.[8] Abnormal moles that can be a warning about melanoma can be identified using the ABCDEs of melanoma.[9]

Asymmetrical mole
Borders are uneven or poorly defined
Color is not the same for the whole mole or is blue, black, or tan
Diameter is greater than 6mm; about the size of a pencil eraser
Evolving: the mole is changing in size or color

If you notice a new mole or changes to an existing mole or lesion, go see a dermatologist.[5]

The easiest way to reduce your chance of developing melanoma is to apply sunscreen to exposed areas of skin as part of your everyday routine. Don’t forget that it only lasts about 2 hours, so you may need to apply it again later in the day if you’re outside.[10, 11] In addition to cancer prevention, applying sunscreen every day reduces aging of the skin.[12]

Protecting your kids from sunburn is especially important. Getting sunburned during childhood increases your chance of getting cancer later in life.[4] Get your kids into the routine of applying sunscreen every morning, no matter how cloudy it is outside.

Which SPF to Use?

Sun protection factor (SPF) choices range from SPF 8 all the way up to SPF 100+. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), SPFs below 15 protect against sunburns, but they do not prevent damage that can cause skin cancer.[13] Very high SPFs are misleading, since they don’t increase protection by very much: SPF 15 protects 93% of radiation; SPF 30 protects against 97% of UV rays; SPF 50 protects against 98%; and SPF 100 protects against 99%.[14] While the higher SPF can provide slightly more protection, it is also more expensive.  It can result in less protection if individuals use less sunscreen because they assume it is much stronger. If you do choose sunscreen with a higher SPF, make sure you reapply as often as you would for a sunscreen with a lower SPF.[14,15]

Make sure to choose “broad-spectrum” sunscreen, which guards against both UVB and UVA rays. While only 10% of UV radiation from the sun is UVB, this type of radiation is the primary cause of sunburns, wrinkling, and skin cancer.[4] UVA rays penetrate deep into the skin to cause premature aging, and can also damage DNA to cause cancer.[16]

Lotion or Spray? Waterproof or Water-Resistant?

Liquid sunscreens are best because it can be harmful to inhale sprays and powder sunscreens, especially for small children. The health impact of inhaling zinc in some sunscreens is not yet known, but the International Agency for Research on Cancer has stated that titanium dioxide is ‘possibly able to cause cancer,’ and we therefore recommend that you avoid it in powder or spray sunscreens.[17,18] Unfortunately, these powder sunscreens are still available, and 5 of the top 10 Glamour recommended powder sunscreens contain titanium dioxide. Sunscreen lotion provides better protection, without the hazard of inhaling dangerous chemicals. If a spray sunscreen is the only available option, first spray it in your hands before applying it to children. Do the same before applying it to the face of adults.

Waterproof sunscreens are no longer for sale. The FDA issued new guidelines that companies can only label sunscreens as “water-resistant.” They also must say whether the sunscreen protects for 40 or 80 minutes while sweating or swimming.[13] Be sure to reapply your water-resistant sunscreen right after getting out of the water.

Regulation and Ingredients to Avoid

The FDA reviews non-prescription drugs (also called over-the-counter (OTC) drugs ) to determine if an active ingredient in sunscreen is ‘Generally Recognized as Safe and Effective’ or GRASE. This process is called the OTC monograph program.[19] Companies submit their product with information on the safety of the sunscreen ingredient and its ability to prevent skin damage.[19] However, companies are not required to submit long-term studies, even though longer studies are more likely to reveal harm.  In addition, companies choose which studies to submit to the agency, and the FDA does not conduct these studies. Instead, companies often design and pay for the studies, and that means they can do studies that are more likely to show the advantages of their products rather than the disadvantages or risks.[20]

In 2021, the FDA released a “final order” that allows for 16 active sunscreen ingredients to remain on the market.[21] They then released a “proposed order” (which is an official proposal) that only two of those 16 ingredients, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, be considered GRASE. The agency listed 14 other ingredients as non-GRASE (listed below) because there was a lack of information about their potential to enter the blood stream and therefore whether they are safe and effective.[22] Two sunscreen ingredients about which the FDA specifically expressed safety concerns were Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and trolamine salicylate.[23]

2021 proposed ruling:

GRASE non-GRASE (safety concerns) non-GRASE (insufficient data)
Zinc oxide, titanium dioxide PABA, trolamine salicylate Cinoxate, Dioxybenzone, Ensulizole, Homosalate, Meradimate, Octinoxate, Octisalate, Octocrylene, padimate O, Sulisobenzone, Oxybenzone, Avobenzone

Unfortunately, the FDA has not made progress since 2021 to regulate or restrict the 14 proposed non-GRASE active sunscreen ingredients. There is a current proposal to add Bemotrizonal (i.e., PARSOL) to the list of active sunscreen ingredients; no other new active sunscreen ingredients have been considered GRASE or proven safe and effective since 1999.[24] Because of this uncertainty, we recommend avoiding sunscreen products with any of the 14 proposed non-GRASE ingredients and instead choose sunscreens with zinc oxide or titanium dioxide as active ingredients.[23,25]

Avoid oxybenzone and vitamin A. As of 2025, 2% of sunscreens have Vitamin A, and 9% contain oxybenzone.[15] These numbers used to be much higher, but the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has reported that the combination of sunlight and Vitamin A on the skin can increase your chances of cancer.[26] Due to market pressure, companies chose to remove these ingredients from sunscreen.[15] Oxybenzone is an endocrine disrupting chemical. This means it disrupts hormones and can increase your likelihood of diabetes; obesity; infertility; and hormone-dependent cancers such as breast or testicular cancer.[27, 28] 

The Environmental Working Group recommends that individuals aim to avoid the following ingredients in sunscreen: 

  • SPF boosters: Like other sunscreen ingredients, the skin can absorb SPF boosters. Some of these can turn into chemicals that potentially harm sperm and fetal development in pregnant women.[15,29,30]
  • Combined sunscreen/bug repellent: sunscreen can increase your skin’s ability to absorb chemicals. Frequent application with a combined sunscreen/bug repellent can lead to overexposure of bug repellent ingredients like DEET, which can be neurotoxic at high doses and should be used cautiously.[31] Bug repellent can also decrease the SPF protection of sunscreen. [32,33]
  • Fragrances: Sunscreen companies are not required to disclose the ingredients they use for fragrances, which can cause allergic reactions or contain hormone disrupting chemicals.[15,21]

Unfortunately, sunscreens can contain dangerous ingredients. In 2021, Valisure detected benzene, a known cancer-causing chemical, in 27% of the sunscreen samples they tested. Sometimes this amount was up to 3 times the restricted limit. This limit is only considered acceptable for products that provide a ‘significant therapeutic benefit.’[34,35] Benzene is not necessary for the manufacturing of sunscreen and thus is not needed to provide a significant therapeutic benefit. Valisure filed a Citizen’s Petition requesting the FDA to recall the benzene-contaminated sunscreens. They also asked for better benzene contamination testing throughout the manufacturing process.[36] Another Valisure study found that expired sunscreens were more likely to contain benzene. The FDA states that a sunscreen that does not contain an expiration date on the label is considered expired after three years.[35]

Sunscreen Brand Recommendation Sources

Every year, Consumer Reports researches sunscreens on the market and rates them for safety and how well they work. Their ratings are not available without a subscription, but they evaluated and recommended several widely available sunscreens that we can tell you about. These include Coppertone Water Babies Lotion SPF 50; La Roche-Posay Anthelios Kids Gentle Lotion SPF 50; Supergoop! PLAY Everyday Lotion SPF 50; Everyday Humans Oh My Bod! SPF 50; Coppertone Every Tone SPF 50; and Eucerin Advanced Hydration Lotion SPF 30. These are all lotions, and they do not contain oxybenzone or vitamin A. Unfortunately, some have fragrances and instead of zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, they have other active ingredients.

The Environmental Working Group is another source of safety and effectiveness ratings for specific sunscreens. To see how your sunscreen compares, visit their website. The EWG measures the safety of sunscreen ingredients and their ability to protect from the sun when labeling their sunscreens. Unfortunately, none of the 111 sunscreens that EWG labels safe are from the most popular brands sold in most drug stores. However, several of the brands (such as Sunly by Attitude and Babo Botanicals) are available online or in major chain stores. Banana Boat, and Hawaiian Tropic are two examples of popular sunscreens that are NOT highly rated by either Environmental Working Group or Consumer Reports.

The Bottom Line

So, what should you do to prevent sunburns, premature aging, and skin cancer? Wear a hat and sunglasses, and generally try to stay in the shade. Apply a generous amount of SPF 15 – 50 sunscreen lotion before going outside, which includes either zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. Do not use expired sunscreens or those more than three years old, and never use tanning beds and sun lamps. Both of these emit UV rays and can cause skin damage leading to cancer in the same way as the sun. If you have fair skin or have a family history of skin cancer, be extra careful. And always remember to reapply your sunscreen after extended sun exposure, sweating, and swimming.

All articles are reviewed and approved by Dr. Diana Zuckerman and other senior staff.

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