Since the sunscreen market is better, finding a safer and more effective sunscreen that works for you is one you’ll actually use.
“The market has improved,” David Andrews, Ph.D., chief science officer at the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, said in a statement. “The number of harmful ingredients like oxybenzone has nosedived, the percentage of products that are mineral sunscreens has nearly tripled and consumers are more informed than ever.”
However, Andrews said, the most American sunscreens fail to deliver adequate UVA protection, critical for reducing skin cancer risk, including melanoma.
Ewg’s “20th Annual Guide to Sunscreens” evaluates nearly 2,800 SPF products.
The results show 550 of the 2,784 SPF products EWG evaluated meet its criteria for both ingredient safety and balanced UV protection.
Sixty-two sunscreens have theEWG Verified mark. To qualify, they need to:
- Meet EWG’s highest standards for safety and ingredient transparency.
- Satisfy EWG’s standard for ultraviolet A, or UVA, and ultraviolet B, or UVB protection.
- Surpass U.S. and European requirements for UVA protection.
In total,130 SPF products, including moisturizers and lip balms, are EWG Verified.
20 years of measurable progress
“Wearing any sunscreen at all is key to reducing health concerns about excess UV exposure,” said Andrews. “But not all sunscreens are created equal.”
EWG’s guide is a resource that consumers can use to find the sunscreens that offer the strongest broad-spectrum protection without concerning ingredients, he said.
When EWG launched the first Guide to Sunscreens, in 2007, oxybenzone – a chemical linked to hormone disruption and environmental harm – was found in 70 percent of non-mineral sunscreens. Today it’s in 5 percent.
Vitamin A, which can degrade in sunlight and potentially accelerate rather than prevent skin damage, has dropped from 41 percent of sunscreens to 2 percent.
Mineral sunscreens using zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, the only active sunscreen ingredients the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed asgenerally recognized as safe and effective, have grown from 17 percent to 47 percent of products EWG reviews.
A promising new ingredient on the horizon
In 2025, the FDA proposed classifying bemotrizinol, a UV filter used safely since 1999 in European and Asian sunscreens, as safe and effective for the U.S. market.
Bemotrizinol is the most significant development in American sunscreen regulation in 25 years, Alexa Friedman, Ph.D., senior scientist at EWG, said.
Bemotrizinol provides advantages, including:
- Strong broad-spectrum UVA and UVB protection.
- Greater stability in sunlight than avobenzone, currently the only chemical filter in the U.S. that provides meaningful UVA protection.
- Minimal skin absorption.
- Potential for combination with zinc oxide for even greater UVA coverage, unlike avobenzone.
If the FDA finalizes its proposal, consumers who prefer non-mineral sunscreens will have a better option for the first time in nearly three decades, Freidman said.
However, one new ingredient won’t fix a marketplace that has been stuck in neutral for a generation, said Melanie Benesh, EWG vice president of government affairs.
Benesh said the FDA proposed reforms to sunscreen regulation in 2019 and 2021 – stronger UVA standards, SPF value limits, better labeling, updated safety data requirements.
However, none of those reforms have been finalized, Benesh said, adding Congress needs to act.
Most sunscreens still fail on UVA
EWG research tested 51 U.S. sunscreens and found that products delivered on average only 59 percent of their labeled UVB protection and only 24 percent of the UVA protection implied by their SPF labels.
UVA radiation penetrates deeper into the skin than UVB, is a driver of melanoma and photo-aging, and causes damage year-round through car and office windows, on cloudy days, and at high altitudes.
Melanoma cases are projected to rise 10.6 percent this year, according to the American Cancer Society. The rate of new melanoma cases has tripled since the 1970s.
The problem is compounded by misleading high-SPF marketing, she said.
In laboratory conditions, an SPF 50 product blocks 98 percent of UVB rays. SPF 100 blocks 99 percent. The difference is negligible, but manufacturers continue to push SPF 70-, 80-, and 100-plus products using chemical boosters that may inflate the number without improving UVA protection.
“The SPF number on your sunscreen bottle doesn’t tell you the whole story,” said Friedman. “Consumers who reach for the highest SPF because they want maximum protection are often getting the least reliable UVA coverage of all.
Friedman said it’s a public health problem and the FDA has the authority to fix it.
Undisclosed “fragrance” in 36% of SPF products
More than one in three sunscreens EWG evaluated in 2026 list undisclosed “fragrance” on the label. It can conceal hundreds of chemicals, including allergens, hormone disruptors, and carcinogens.
For daily sunscreen users, those exposures accumulate. One study found the cumulative health effects of repeated fragrance exposure are poorly understood and inadequately regulated. Congress set a 2024 deadline for the FDA to address fragrance allergen labeling in cosmetics, a rule that would have covered moisturizers with SPF. The agency missed the deadline.
There’s no fragrance disclosure for sunscreens, so consumers have no way to know what’s hidden behind that word.
“‘Fragrance’ on a sunscreen label doesn’t describe a single ingredient,” said Jilly Senk, science analyst at EWG Verified.
“When you apply that product every day – to your face, your children’s skin, year after year – those undisclosed exposures add up,” she said. “The EWG Verified mark exists precisely because the law does not require the transparency consumers deserve.”
How to find a sunscreen that works for you
The 2026 Guide to Sunscreens also offers lists, including a selection of the top-rated recreational sunscreens, the safest for kids and babies, moisturizers with SPF, and lip balms. They’re the products EWG scientists ranked the highest for their overall protection from UVA and UVB rays and other factors.
EWG also recommends “12 Bang for Your Buck Kids Sunscreens,” all priced at less than $20.
Here’s EWG’s guidance for choosing a sunscreen:
Choose mineral protection. Look for zinc oxide, which provides stable, balanced UVA and UVB coverage. EWG also recommends titanium dioxide for daily use.
Choose lotions or sticks over sprays. Sprays raise concerns about inhalation and often result in uneven coverage, especially in wind.
Skip high SPF numbers. Stick with SPF 50 or lower. Products with SPF 70, 80, or 100+ may not provide better UVA protection and can create a dangerous false sense of security.
Avoid chemicals of concern and undisclosed fragrance. Ingredients such as oxybenzone and octinoxate are linked to hormone disruption and environmental harm. Undisclosed fragrance masks potentially harmful chemicals.
Use EWG’s tools. Search EWG’s Guide to Sunscreens, use the EWG Healthy Living app to scan products while you shop, and look for the EWG Verified mark, which requires sunscreens to exceed U.S. and European UVA protection standards.
