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Sun protection
Last reviewed: 08.07.2025
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Despite the fact that the beaches are still filled with vacationers eager for a tan, people are increasingly taking jars and tubes of sunscreen creams and lotions with them to the beach. Gradually, the culture of attitude to sunlight is penetrating deeper into people's consciousness. To meet demand, the cosmetics industry is launching more and more new variations of sunscreens.
Today, UV filters can be found not only in special sunscreen cosmetics, but also in day creams, decorative cosmetics, and hair care products. Cosmetic forms also differ in great diversity - these are emulsions, gels, lotions, and sprays.
In the cosmetics industry, the development and testing of sunscreens is a separate area that receives increased attention. Every year, innovative ingredients and technologies appear that allow for the improvement of formulations and the enhancement of the appearance of products.
UV filters: general information
Most often, in special sunscreens, UV filters are listed separately from the other components. Modern sunscreens rarely have one UV filter, usually there are at least three or more. This is explained by the need to provide a sufficiently wide range of protection with sufficiently high efficiency at a minimum concentration of each UV filter. Since UV filters can cause skin irritation, the choice of the right combination of UV filters largely determines the commercial success of the product.
It is not easy to navigate UV filters, since the same substance can be called differently depending on the manufacturer. All UV filters are divided into organic filters, which absorb part of the radiation, and barrier substances, or physical filters, which scatter and reflect radiation.
A person who uses sunscreen daily and spends a lot of time in the sun may be putting their skin at greater risk than someone who uses no sunscreen at all but still practices sensible sun avoidance.
Let us recall that when exposed to sunlight, the skin produces vitamin D, which is necessary for both bone formation and skin cell development. Since residents of cold countries have only their face and hands exposed to the sun for most of the year, using sunscreens with a high SPF can cause vitamin D deficiency. However, if a resident of a northern country decides to go on vacation to a sunny beach by a warm sea, he cannot do without sunscreens. Modern high-speed travel, which allows you to move from fog and snow to sunny lands in a matter of hours, leaves the skin too little time to adapt.
Which sunscreen should you choose?
When choosing a sunscreen, you must first determine its purpose. If this is a product for daily protection, then it is better to simply choose a good day cream and compact powder (or cream powder) with UV filters. If the product is chosen for going to the beach, then again - which beach. If this is a beach in Kyiv, where solar radiation is not very intense, then there is no point in choosing a high protection factor, it is enough to choose SPF 5-10. For a beach on the Black Sea coast, in Turkey, Egypt, Cyprus, etc., you already need to choose a higher factor - from 15 to 30 (and of course, even with sunscreen, you do not need to lie on the beach for hours).
It is important that the sunscreen has a broad spectrum of action, since it has already been proven that UVA radiation is responsible for photoaging and carcinogenesis. It can be said that sunburn is a protective reaction of the skin, forcing a person to leave the beach and not expose themselves to more harmful UV radiation. Those sunscreens that protect the skin only from PV rays "switch off" this mechanism, freeing a person from paying for immoderate enjoyment of the sun. As a result, people can spend the whole day under the scorching sun without getting sunburned, but receiving huge doses of UVA. Although UVA does not cause visible sunburn, it can penetrate the skin deeper than UVB radiation, damaging the dermal layer.
Let us remember that the protection factor indicated on sunscreen packaging only shows the effectiveness of protection against UVB radiation, since the system for testing the effectiveness of protection against UVA radiation has not yet been standardized.
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