In my last post, I stressed how important it is to be protected against UVA. And how there is no rating scale for UVA. So what are we supposed to do?
Well, we have no choice but to rate sunscreen ourselves by looking at the ingredient list. I bet some of you are thinking this is a pain.. Indeed it is. But it’s no different from picking up a box of cookies and seeing if it has any bad fats or additives.
The very first thing I do is look at the ingredient list on the back. For sunscreens, you will always see Active Ingredients listed separately from the rest of the ingredient list. (It’s a labeling law.) Then I look at the percentage of those active ingredients.
The Sun Protection Guide will give you background information about Sunscreen Active Ingredients, along with a sortable list of the 17 sunscreen active ingredients approved for use in the U.S., which shows you maximum percentages allowed. I also discuss the differences between physical vs chemical sunscreens, and why percent concentration matters.
