How we ensure that we supply you with broad spectrum, 5-star UVA sunscreen

At Altruist, our mission is to reduce the incidence of skin cancer, through increased use of quality sunscreen together with better education and awareness. This means that we have a responsibility to deliver high quality sunscreen that ensures your protection and that of your loved ones from harmful UV rays.

SPF, is the sun protection factor and shows how much UV radiation is needed to create sunburn on the protected skin relative to the UV radiation needed to create sunburn on unprotected skin. The SPF value shows the UVB protection that the sunscreen provides.

PPD is the Persistent Pigment Darkening method, which shows how much time it takes for human skin to tan when exposed to UV rays. As an example, a PPD of 52 means that when the skin has been smeared with the correct amount of sunscreen, it needs 52 times more time to tan after being in contact with UVA rays, than if the skin was not smeared with sunscreen. 

What kind of filters does ALTRUIST use?

Sunscreens can be divided into two broad types: physical/ mineral sunscreens, and organic/ chemical sunscreens.

Organic sunscreens work by a chemical reaction, converting ultraviolet energy into heat, which is then released from the body. Physical or mineral sunscreens work by reflection and scattering. Recently, it’s also been found that mineral sunscreens have similar action to chemical sunscreens, in that they also have a chemical reaction and release heat, too. Also, there are now some innovative sunscreens, such as Tinosorb A2B, which is in most of the Altruist suncreams, which does both reflection and scattering and is what’s known as a micronized filter. This is the most efficient filter on the market.

At Altruist, as protection comes first and foremost, we use a mixture of mineral and chemical filters to achieve optimum protection across the UV spectrum. Altruist formulations contain a broad range of photostable UV filters. The sunscreen has been specifically developed for sensitive skin and is fragrance & paraben free, hypoallergenic and non-pore blocking (non-comedogenic).

Lab tests

Each and every Altruist products goes through vigorous testing. The testing is done via an external lab. In order to understand the results below, we would like to explain about in vivo testing and in vitro testing. In vivo refers to the procedure being done on a living organism, in this case on a human as we do not test on animals. In Vitro testing refers to the procedure in which the sunscreen is applied to an artificial substrate, and is exposed to UV rays and helps to measure the UVR transmittance.

Two of our products have undergone a slight formulation change since 2022, namely the Altruist Sunscreen SPF50 100ml and Altruist Face Fluid SPF50.

Below you can see the test results from both these products in 2022 and 2023: