The Truth About Sunscreen

There's been some controversy recently with certain skincare companies over how they label their sunscreen. The FDA is taking mislabeling of sunscreen product very seriously and they aim to make sure that skincare companies adhere to the guidelines. Their first issue is with the term "waterproof". Ultimately, there's no such thing as a waterproof sunscreen. All sunscreen must be re-applied after swimming, otherwise, you run the risk of acquiring a sunburn. Their other beef is with UVA/UVB protection. The SPF number does not apply to UVA protection, only to UVB protection. The indication for UVA protection would be 'PA' (PA being the least effective, then PA+, PA++ and PA+++, being the most effective) and often, this is not clearly marked on the bottle. Lastly, there is controversy over the highest SPF that is most effective. The truth is that anything over an SPF 30 is not much more effective. What do those numbers mean anyway? If you use an SPF15, then that means that you can stay out in the sun relatively safely ten times the SPF number longer than you normally would without sunscreen (15 multiplied by 10 equals 150 minutes). In any event, sunscreen of any number needs to be reapplied every couple of hours for the greatest protection.