How much UV does a REAL mineral sunscreen absorb and scatter?

sunscreen center mount

Warning: Very nerdy content ahead! If you’ve been following sunscreen discourse (apparently this is a thing now) you’ll know that mineral sunscreens mostly work by absorbing UV and only scattering a small amount, in the region of 4-5% across the range of UV. This was quantified in a pretty commonly cited 2016 paper by Curtis Cole, Thomas Shyr and Hao Ou-Yang, “Metal …

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Zinc Sunscreens Don’t Work Better: Every Myth Busted

Chemical vs Physical Sunscreens: The Science (with video)

There are so many myths around mineral or physical sunscreens – the ones with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide – and how they’re supposedly better than chemical sunscreens with scarier names like oxybenzone and octocrylene. And it’s usually zinc oxide that gets all the hype. Some of these advantages are true… but so many are just myths. And a lot …

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Octocrylene Causes Cancer? and I’m Propaganda Now

There’s been a recent study published about the sunscreen ingredient octocrylene turning into benzophenone over time. According to the paper, “benzophenone is a mutagen, carcinogen, and endocrine disruptor”. I wasn’t going to do a proper analysis of this paper because it only really got lots of attention in France and not many other places, but then I saw that I …

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Do They Work? Evy 6-Hour Sunscreen, Dermablend Drops in SPF

Evy & Dermablend: Do They Work?

Being the “sunscreen nerd” person, I get a lot of questions about unusual sunscreen products and whether or not their claims work out. Last time I talked about the Colorescience powder sunscreen and the Skinnies “pea-sized amount” claim. Related post: Do They Work? Colorescience SPF Powder, Skinnies “Pea-Sized Amount” (with video) This time I’m talking about two more products that people …

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How to Protect Your Skin Against Blue Light: an Update

Blue light protection products

I’ve talked about visible light and blue light, and their effects on pigmentation in lots of detail before. There’s been more studies done since then – fortunately my conclusions are still correct! In short, the vast majority of us don’t have to worry about visible light or blue light coming from our screens. There just isn’t enough light coming from …

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How Do Sunscreens Work? The Science

Sunscreen mechanism thumbnail

I’ve had a lot of people ask me to explain the nitty gritty behind how sunscreen ingredients work. I warned everyone it would be super nerdy and really quite complicated, but a lot of people said it was fine… so here it is: the deep dive into how sunscreen ingredients work! A warning: this goes into physical chemistry, at upper …

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Do They Work? Colorescience SPF Powder, Skinnies “Pea-Sized Amount”

Colorescience and Skinnies: Do They Work?

I’ve had a lot of questions about certain sunscreen products with unusual claims, and what I think of them. I’ll be talking about what I personally think of the claims for 2 products in this post, but there are a lot more products that I’ll talk about later – let me know if there are more products you’re wondering about …

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