This film-forming agent helps create a flexible barrier on the skin that improves water resistance and holds UV filters in place.

It’s a synthetic polymer that thickens and stabilizes emulsions, helping to maintain a smooth, consistent texture across uses.

Denatured Alcohol helps the sunscreen dry quickly on the skin and gives a lightweight feel. It also enhances penetration of other ingredients.

Allantoin soothes, protects, and helps repair the skin barrier, making it ideal for calming potential irritation from UV exposure or active ingredients.

This modified starch helps absorb oil and reduce shine, leaving a more matte, non-greasy finish on the skin.

It’s used to adjust and balance the pH level of the formula, ensuring stability and skin safety.

This polymer is a texture enhancer and stabilizer, giving the product a lightweight, gel-like consistency and improving its water resistance.

This licorice root derivative has anti-inflammatory and soothing properties, helping to calm sensitive skin during sun exposure.

Aqua is simply water. It acts as a solvent, helping dissolve other ingredients and maintain the sunscreen’s consistency.

Naturally derived from chamomile, bisabolol soothes and calms the skin, helping reduce any potential irritation from sun exposure or active ingredients.

This broad-spectrum chemical filter offers powerful UVA and UVB protection with exceptional photostability and low skin irritation potential.

Butane is a propellant used in aerosol sunscreens. It helps spray the product evenly onto the skin.

Also known as Avobenzone, it’s a UVA filter. It protects skin from long-wave ultraviolet rays that cause aging and skin damage.

It serves as a humectant, drawing moisture into the skin and enhancing the penetration of other active ingredients.

It’s a natural moisturizer that nourishes the skin and adds a luxurious, rich texture to the formula.

It’s an emollient that gives the sunscreen a smooth, non-greasy feel and helps dissolve UV filters for even distribution.

Calendula extract is known for its calming, anti-inflammatory properties that soothe irritated or sun-stressed skin.

A lightweight emollient derived from coconut oil. It softens skin and improves spreadability without feeling greasy.

This multifunctional ingredient provides hydration and acts as a gentle preservative booster, enhancing product longevity and skin feel.

Carbomer is a thickener that helps stabilize and gel water-based components, giving the product a smooth, spreadable texture.

Derived from plant fibers, Cellulose Gum thickens the formula and enhances spreadability, ensuring a smooth, even layer on the skin.

Often praised for its healing abilities, Centella helps promote skin repair, reduce irritation, and improve the skin barrier—all useful in protecting skin from sun damage.

A fatty alcohol (not drying!) that acts as an emulsifier and thickener. It gives the product structure and a creamy feel.

This fatty alcohol acts as an emollient and thickener, giving the sunscreen a creamy, smooth texture without drying the skin.

It’s a silicone-based emollient that leaves a silky-smooth finish and enhances water resistance.

Also called FD&C Blue No. 1, this blue pigment is used to give color to the sunscreen, often for aesthetic balance or branding purposes.

Also known as D&C Yellow No. 10, it’s a yellow dye used to tint the product, often for aesthetic purposes or to counteract white cast.

CI 77491 is red iron oxide, a pigment that adds a warm tint to sunscreen and can enhance protection against visible light, including blue light.

Also known as iron oxide (yellow), this pigment adds a tint to the product and offers some protection against visible light, including blue light.

CI 77499 is black iron oxide, a pigment used to add color or tint to sunscreens, and it also contributes to protection against visible light—especially helpful in tinted formulations.

Citric acid helps adjust the product’s pH to match that of the skin, ensuring compatibility and stability.

Derived from coconut oil and sugar, it serves as a gentle cleansing and foaming agent, and also helps emulsify the product.

This ingredient has antimicrobial properties and also conditions the skin, helping the formula stay fresh while supporting skin clarity.

It’s a solvent and emollient that helps sunscreen apply smoothly and evenly, often used to improve the feel of UV filters on the skin.

A fast-spreading emollient that improves skin feel and helps distribute sunscreen evenly.

This is a lightweight emollient that enhances the skin feel—making the sunscreen smooth and non-greasy.

This modern UVA filter absorbs long-wave UVA rays and remains photostable, making it ideal for lasting protection.

It's a highly photostable UVB filter that absorbs UV radiation efficiently, offering strong protection against sunburn.

It works as a surfactant and emulsifier, helping oil and water-based ingredients blend smoothly for a stable, uniform product.

It’s a silicone that forms a protective barrier on the skin, making it feel silky and helping to lock in moisture. It also improves water resistance.

Like butane, Dimethyl Ether is a propellant that helps aerosol sunscreens spray evenly as a fine mist.

It’s a gentle surfactant derived from coconut oil, often used to help emulsify or cleanse the skin without irritation.

Derived from horse chestnut, escin strengthens capillaries and reduces swelling, helping to calm skin exposed to UV stress.

It’s a UVB filter that absorbs short-wave UV rays. It helps prevent sunburn and also stabilizes other sunscreen ingredients.

It’s an emollient that helps the sunscreen glide on smoothly and contributes to a pleasant skin feel.

It’s one of the most effective UVB filters available, offering high absorbance with minimal concentration, and excellent photostability.

It acts as a skin-conditioning agent and preservative enhancer, improving both the feel of the product and its shelf life.

Glycerin is a classic hydrating agent. It keeps skin moisturized and helps maintain the skin barrier while wearing sunscreen.

It’s an emollient and emulsifier that helps moisturize the skin while supporting the blend of oil and water phases in the formula.

It’s an emulsifier and emollient. It helps blend oil and water ingredients and gives the sunscreen a smooth, creamy texture.

Hexylene glycol works as a solvent and helps improve the spreadability and texture of the product on skin.

This ingredient helps support skin regeneration and hydration, enhancing the skin’s resilience under UV stress.

It enhances the texture and helps the product absorb quickly into the skin, giving a light, silky feel.

It’s an emollient that softens the skin and improves the spreadability of the sunscreen, often giving a silky finish.

Lactic acid mildly exfoliates and hydrates the skin, which can improve the appearance of sun-exposed skin and help even application.

It serves as a texture enhancer and absorbent, helping to reduce oiliness and improve the feel of the product on the skin.

Niacinamide, or Vitamin B3, helps improve skin tone and strengthens the skin barrier, making the skin more resilient to UV damage.

A highly effective UVB filter that also stabilizes other ingredients like Avobenzone. It helps protect against sunburn and photoaging.

Panthenol (Provitamin B5) soothes and hydrates the skin, reducing irritation that can sometimes occur with sun exposure.

An emulsifier that helps stabilize oil-in-water formulas, ensuring the sunscreen remains mixed and consistent.

It’s an emulsifier and surfactant. It helps oil-based ingredients mix with water and can also act as a mild cleanser.

It acts as a preservative, preventing the growth of bacteria and keeping the formula safe and effective over time.

It’s a UVB filter that absorbs harmful short-wave UV rays, helping protect against sunburn.

Known for its antimicrobial and anti-fungal properties, Piroctone Olamine can help keep skin clear and reduce irritation—especially beneficial in sunscreens for oily or acne-prone skin.

It acts as an emulsifier and helps mix oil- and water-based ingredients, ensuring a smooth and stable formula.

It serves as a pH adjuster, balancing the formula to make it more compatible with the skin's natural acidity.

It acts as a humectant and skin conditioner, drawing moisture into the skin and helping maintain hydration during sun exposure.

It's used to adjust the pH of the formulation, ensuring it remains skin-friendly and chemically stable.

It’s a humectant that attracts moisture to the skin and can help other ingredients penetrate more effectively.

Also known as butcher’s broom, this plant extract helps reduce redness and puffiness thanks to its anti-inflammatory and circulation-boosting properties, making it a soothing addition to sunscreens.

Though primarily known for its acne-fighting properties, salicylic acid can lightly exfoliate and keep pores clear, which may help sunscreen apply more smoothly.

Silica helps absorb excess oil and gives the sunscreen a soft, matte finish, reducing shine throughout the day.

Silver Chloride is often used for its antimicrobial properties, helping to preserve the product and prevent contamination over time.

This is a surfactant and emulsifying agent that helps create a uniform, creamy texture, aiding in even application of the sunscreen.

Commonly known as salt, it helps thicken the formula and stabilize emulsions.

It acts as a buffering agent, helping to regulate the pH level of the product and support the stability of active ingredients.

A mild surfactant and emulsifier derived from coconut oil and amino acids. It helps blend ingredients and is gentle on skin.

This is a form of hyaluronic acid that deeply hydrates the skin by attracting and retaining moisture, helping keep the skin plump and comfortable under sun exposure.

Sodium hydroxide adjusts and stabilizes the pH of the sunscreen to match the skin’s natural acidity.

This ingredient acts as a mild emulsifier that helps bind oil and water, maintaining a stable and gentle sunscreen formulation.

Typically used as a thickening or viscosity-adjusting agent, it helps maintain the right texture and stability of the formula.

Tapioca starch helps absorb excess oil and reduces greasiness, leaving a matte finish on the skin.

It’s a physical (mineral) UV filter that reflects and scatters both UVA and UVB rays. Great for sensitive skin.

As a nanoparticle form of a mineral UV filter, it reflects and scatters UV rays while minimizing the white cast on skin.

This is a stable form of Vitamin E, which works as an antioxidant to help protect skin from free radical damage caused by UV rays.

Triethyl Citrate helps control odor and has mild antimicrobial activity, supporting overall product freshness and skin comfort.

Urea is a humectant and skin conditioner. It keeps the skin hydrated and smooth, which can help the sunscreen spread better.

As a natural thickener, xanthan gum stabilizes the product's consistency and ensures an even, smooth application on the skin.