If you’re diligent enough to wear sunscreen, you probably want to make sure your sunscreen contains the most effective ingredients, don’t you? I wrote about my experiences to find the best sunscreen and sunblock - one that works best to not only protect against burning, but wrinkles and cancer as well. From my testing, I concluded that Zinc Oxide-based sunscreens work best for me, but Mexoryl-based sunscreens are extremely promising.
To get a bit technical, you want your sunscreen to protect you against UVA and UVB rays. UVA is what is responsible for aging your skin, giving you wrinkles, and skin cancer. UVB is what causes your skin to darken and burn. While all the information I read is a bit conflicting, here is a general idea of how the wavelengths of UVA and UVB breakdown:
UVB (burning) has a wavelength range (in nanometers) of:
280-320
UVA (aging) has a wavelength range (in nanometers) of:
320-400
To get the best sun protection, you want your sunscreen to contain ingredients that cover as wide a range as possible in the 280-400 spectrum. Here’s how a few of the best and most common sunscreen ingredients breakdown:
Zinc Oxide 290-380
Mexoryl 290-400
Avobenzene 340-375
Titanium Dioxide 290-340
Octinoxate and Octisalate 320-240
Oxybenzone 320-240
Now many sunscreens combine ingredients to cover a wider range of the spectrum. However, you can see that Zinc Oxide and Mexoryl cover the widest spectrum all by themselves, and they are photo-stable ingredients. This is extremely important, because it means your sunscreen won’t lose effectiveness an hour after you apply it like Avobenzene, for example, which is not photo-stable. I briefly mentioned in the best sunscreen post that Neutrogena and some other companies use Helioplex, or other ingredients to make their Avobenzene more photostable. I haven’t experimented with these ingredients, but I doubt they are as photo-stable as Zinc Oxide or Mexoryl.
I am still a huge fan of Zinc Oxide, and have not tested Mexoryl sunscreens much yet. I tried La Roche Posay’s Anthelios, which is great in theory, but it caused me to break out like crazy and get a face-full of zits after every use! I was not able to determine if it caused my face to feel like it was on fire, which is how I feel when I use a sunscreen with Avobenzene.
Because Mexoryl covers a slightly better UVA range than Zinc Oxide, I will be on the lookout for more new sunscreens to test. However, I like sunscreens that have an SPF of at least 30, and I don’t want to try the Anthelios line again, so my choices are limited. Also, aside from the Mexoryl, I don’t want a product that contains any pore clogging ingredients. I need to find out once and for all if it’s the Mexoryl that is clogging my pores. If I find another high SPF sunscreen with Mexoryl, and it doesn’t clog my pores, the next step will be to test it outside in the hot sun for an hour or so. I should have started this testing this summer:( I’ll keep you posted with my results.
Don’t miss out…get Savvy Skin posts via email!
Related posts:
Get
Savvy Skin posts via email!
November 19th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
You might want to try BioDerma; I am fair-skinned myself, and very concerned with sun damage. I have found BioDerma SPF 50+ Lait PhotoDerm Max to be the best overall sunscreen. I also broke out from the Anthelios brand, and BioDerma was originally designed for those exposed to extreme sun conditions- so it really will protect you. It is difficult to find in the states, but I purchased my current stock from http://www.zitomer.com. Best wishes!
November 20th, 2007 at 1:32 am
Maren,
Okay thanks, I want to try that sunscreen! I see it contains Tinosorb instead of Mexoryl. I will probably have to wait til next summer to try out all these new sunscreens, since the sun isn’t bright enough now! There are a bunch of reviews about BioDerma on makeupalley.com, as well as a bunch of other European sunscreens that sound interesting!
January 18th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Hi Jeni, I used the Anthelios sunscreen on holiday and it turned my face into an oil slick :( . Now I’m using the Shiseido one and love it.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
DR,
I’m glad you like the Shiseido! Yeah the Anthelios did seem sort of oily. I only tried one (I know they have like 10 different formulas) but the one I tried also make me break out like crazy.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Hi there. I would recommend you do some real research on sunscreens. You have been influenced by mass media that says that a high SPF product is a better sun screen. Do you know how much more uvb absorption is achieved by an SPF 30 vs. an SPF 15? about 2% more uvb…that basically means you can stay in the sun minutes longer. The key is to reaplpy your sunscreen often, in other words do your skin a favor and fight against skin cancer by using a sunsccreen that focuses on the best protection against UVA. You are correct on one thing, Mexoryl is the best UVA protection. Do you know why? Because it protects you from both UVA long ray and UVA short ray…no other sunscreen in the market protects from UVA short ray. You should also know that the Anthelios products have been clinically tested on patients with highly sensitive skin (Dermatosis), and proved to be extremely safe. Anthelios SX is acnegenic, and the texture is amazing!! I recommend you try it again…perhaps you were hormonal when you used it and are blaming the sunscreen for your breakouts.
March 13th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
(oops… had to edit previous post, please accept this one instead and delete this line if possible)
thanks for the info. some other considerations with the sunscreen research and controversy (research ongoing, keep googling):
- some sunscreen agents have little UVA protection, most products have UVB only protection, with limited UVA (short-wave) protection. (Wish me luck on returning a bunch of products that I’ve learned aren’t really that “broad spectrum”)
- those agents that provide UVA protection can have estrogenic effects and cause photo sensitivities (i.e. Avobenzone degrades upon UV exposure and over time decreases protection, increases photosensitivity). There are studies in Australia saying there are increased incidences of skin cancer with some UVA sunscreen products (especially with people staying out in sun too long thinking they are protected).
- newer media info: overuse of “high SPF” sunscreens has been linked to Vitamin D deficiencies in some people (still following this one, mostly Australian studies). Tthere appears to be minimal difference in protection between SPF 15 and 30 with regards to sun exposure (96% v. 98%), and looking at previous human generations, some sun is necessary for health (albeit today’s climate seems more severe that in the past). Maybe you only need SPF 15 to 30, but reapplied more frequently during peak sun hours (10 to 3 daily). SPF 40, 50 or higher is controversial.
- don’t know much about Meroxyl except that L’oreal owns the patent (parent company of La Roche Posay). Was going to try their sunscreen but I have problems with sunscreens and breakouts. Thanks for the advice.
- so far, I’m hoping 2 newer products I got with mineral sunscreens will work out better (especially since I have oily-combo skin that’s sensitive, light olive complexion so I don’t really burn that much, UVA more of a concern). One is zinc-oxide based, the other titanium based (but microparticle so less “white”), both are “organic/natural” (we’ll see, I like to research). Zinc is supposed to offer better protection, also zinc is commonly used for medicinal purposes (diaper rash, wounds, zits, etc.) so I prefer this so far. Let you know how I fare before I dare promote anything.
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:43 am
That’s odd that most of you broke out from Anthelios.I have extremly sensitive skin with eczema and the Anthelios is the only sunscreen that doesn’t break me out. In fact, creams containing zinc oxide produced red bumps every where- I always thought that since zinc oxide is a physical barrier, it could clog pores. I have mature skin which is dry most of the time, probably the reason Anthelios works for me. I could see someone with oily skin having a problem with Anthelios because it is rich. Neutrgena and Olay just makes me super shiny.
December 14th, 2009 at 4:19 am
I’m wondering where you got the wavelength information from?
From what I understand Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide protects along the whole spectrum from 230-700.
Can you please correct me if I’m wrong?