We received an email below from an Australian woman wanting to know about a sunscreen her laser clinic recommended as being superior to all others. Making a claim that any skin-care product is superior to all others is marketing stupidity at its best, but it is even more ludicrous for a sunscreen because they are regulated in the same core style by cosmetic regulatory boards around the world!

We thought you might find the woman’s letter and our response interesting.

Dear Paula,

I went to a cosmetic laser clinic and the therapist recommended Actinica Liposomal Sunscreen SPF 30.  She said that regular sunscreens become ineffective after a couple of hours, and you need to re-apply them during the day for all day protection.  Actinica’s sunscreen is based on a new technology which allows it to stay effective all day until you wash it off.  Medical studies seem to have been done that show this sunscreen prevents some forms of skin cancer much better than regular sunscreens. Is this the elite sunscreen that it is being marketed as?

This was our reply:

Before we discuss the formula, we need to address the claim that regular sunscreens become ineffective after 2 hours. Although it’s true that reapplication of sunscreen is necessary to maintain protection, it is not true that sunscreens just stop working after two hours no matter what. How soon any sunscreen becomes ineffective depends on the following:

• The sunscreen formula
• How much sunscreen is applied (liberal application is key)
• Geographic location (someone in Australia is getting much stronger sun exposure than someone in Minnesota)
• Altitude (someone skiing in the mountains is getting more intense sun exposure than someone at sea level)
• Time spent outdoors versus inside
• How much outdoor time is spent in the shade versus getting direct sun
• Swimming or sweating requires reapplication after 2 hours no matter what sunscreen you are using.

Here’s a practical example:
If you apply a sunscreen rated SPF 15 in the morning and then drive to your office where you spend the better part of your day indoors, there’s no reason to reapply your sunscreen. Why? Because sunscreen actives require sun exposure in order to break down. That is simply how they work, and it’s why reapplication during long days outdoors is a must for everyone, especially after perspiring or swimming and/or toweling off.

The Actinica SPF 30 product is expensive ($59 for 80 grams/2.8 ounces) which will ABSOLUTELY discourage liberal application. Oddly enough, it seems Actinica doesn’t agree with the marketing claims they make because the product says it is only water- and sweat-resistant for 2 hours. So much for all-day protection!

In terms of the active ingredients, Actinica contains avobenzone and two forms of Tinsorb for UVA protection, which is great, but hardly unique to this product. It is a typical combination for sunscreens sold in Australia and throughout Europe. This sunscreen’s claim of once-daily application is dangerous for those whose skin is exposed to sunlight in the outdoor situations mentioned above.

There seems to be two studies Actinica refers to for this product. Not only wasn’t the study your clinic mentioned done double-blind, but the participants who weren’t using the Actinica sunscreen were allowed to use any sunscreen they wanted. Who knows if the other sunscreens being used were only an SPF 8 or didn’t contain active ingredients that protected from UVA damage (many sunscreens don’t)! That alone would account for the results the “study” generated, but we don’t know the details because that study wasn’t peer-reviewed or published.

The second study concerning Actinica was published but wasn’t independent. Moreover, this study was only done in a lab dish, not on people. It concluded that the photostability of Actinica in comparison with two other sunscreens “[were] poor under our experimental conditions.”  Given that there are hundreds of brilliant sunscreens on the market, choosing just two has no meaning, not to mention the study protocol was unrelated to how people use sunscreens.

Interestingly, the study mentioned Actinica’s sunscreen is a class 1 medical device—something you don’t see for the majority of sunscreens sold today. But guess what? A class 1 medical device isn’t as prestigious or superior as it seems! In fact, a Band-Aid® has the same classification.

Bottom line: Actinica SPF 30 will provide reliable broad-spectrum protection but there are many other sunscreens that offer this benefit and cost a lot less money, so you’ll be more inclined to apply liberally and reapply when necessary and that is truly the way to get superior sun care.

“Are you kidding me?!?”
It’s the only utterance I could muster as I hung up the phone in exasperation after talking with the salesperson at the Nordstrom’s Clarins counter. The only information I needed was the active ingredients in their new moisturizer with sunscreen. It was an easy question that someone with even the most limited amount of skin-care sales experience could handle—just turn the package over and read the three or four words that are written on it. But as soon as I asked, I should’ve known that things were not going to go well…

“Clarins’ counter, how many I help you?”

     “Hello!” I greeted her warmly. “Can you tell me what are the active sunscreen ingredients in the Bright Plus HP Hydrating Day Lotion SPF 20?”

“Let me look,” she said, as she shuffled around. “Ah yes, here it is. It’s SPF 20.”

     “Yes, but what are the active sunscreen ingredients in it?”

“It has SPF 20 sun protection.”

     “I understand what the SPF is because it’s in the product name. I want to know which active sunscreen ingredients are in the product to make the SPF 20.”

“Umm. Please hold.”

     I could hear her muffle the receiver with her hand, some indistinct talking, and then a new, French-accented voice came on the line.

“How may I help you?”

     “Hi, I’m curious about the sunscreens in the Hydrating Day Lotion SPF 20. Can you tell me what they are?”

“Yes, they are SPF 20.”

     I tried not to audibly sigh, but my patience was waning. “I am aware of the SPF because it’s in the product name, what I want to know is what are the active ingredients—the ones listed on the side of the box?”

“Oh yes, I see…” and then she began to rattle them off.

     As I wrote them down, I asked, “What are the percentages of those ingredients?”

“They are …” and she began to rattle those off, too. Then, suddenly, she stopped before the last sunscreen amount and said, “From there, you can do the math.”

     “Pardon me?” I stopped short, legitimately not understanding her statement.

“The math—you can do the math. So it adds up to 20, because, like I said, the SPF is 20.”

At that point, I think I was stunned into silence, because this is absolutely not how SPF works—and anyone selling skin care should know this!

We get questions all the time from Paula’s Choice customers and Beautypedia subscribers who are confused about how SPF works and which SPF they should use, and it’s no wonder if they’re dealing with salespeople like these at the Clarins’ counter. Here’s what you need to know:

• First, be very cautious of any information a cosmetic salesperson gives you about the products they are selling.
• When it comes to sunscreen, a product’s SPF number lets you know how long you can stay in the sun without burning while wearing that product.
• If you can stay in the sun for, say, 15 minutes before your skin starts to turn pink, then applying a sunscreen rated SPF 15 will allow you to stay in the sun 15 times longer. So, 15 (minutes) x (SPF) 15 = 225 or 3 hours and 45 minutes of sun protection.
•  It’s vital to know that the SPF rating refers only to protection from UVB radiation (the sun’s sun burning rays, not UVA, the sun’s silent, “aging” rays that cause deep cellular damage).
• There is no way to judge the UVA protection in a skin-care product with sunscreen unless you check the ingredient listing.
• Only a handful of ingredients can protect skin from the UVA spectrum, so any sunscreen, regardless of SPF must absolutely contain the UVA-protecting ingredients of either titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, avobenzone, Tinosorb, or ecamsule (Mexoryl SX).
• While the SPF is determined by the combined percentage of active sunscreens, it is not a cumulative equation. Simply adding up the percentages is not how SPF is determined!

What I would have really liked to say to the Clarins’ woman I spoke to is this: I can do math, and algebra, calculus, trig, and a bit of geometry, too, but that won’t help me know a percentage of an ingredient in any skin-care product. However, I can add up your customer service skill and skin-care knowledge and it equals absolute zero