Almost every second sunscreen product “failed” in the test

However, three products only received an “average” rating because they were contaminated with a plasticizer that consumer advocates consider critical. Five products received the “red card” with the rating “unsatisfactory” – they do not meet the stated UV protection. When choosing sunscreen, one should not be guided by brands or price – the quality of the products varies from test to test every year, the experts concluded. The most important task of a sunscreen product is to protect the skin from UVA and UVB radiation and thus from premature skin aging and skin cancer.

• Other products in the test: Sun protection for the face: These products failed the test

Failure to provide UVA and UVB protection

In the test, one lotion and one cream fell short of the stated UVB protection factor. Another product did not offer adequate protection against UVA rays. A spray and another cream “failed to protect against both UVA and UVB rays – so badly that they hardly provided any protection,” the testers were annoyed. The latter product was also by far the most expensive in the study at 44.39 euros per 100 milliliters. All five were rated as “unsatisfactory.”

For the first time, it was checked whether any health-critical plasticizers were included, and the VKI found them: three products contained the plasticizer DnHexP, which is prohibited in cosmetics according to EU regulations. The substance can arise as a contamination during the manufacture of a UV filter. Such a thing is avoidable, and stricter quality controls are expected from suppliers, criticized VKI project manager Birgit Schiller. However, the concentrations found were so low that, according to the German Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), they do not pose an acute risk. The three products scored “average” overall.

• Read also: One in three people has already had sunburn this year

Advice: Use sunscreen generously

Another finding is that you cannot rely on the quality of a particular brand: a sunscreen that “failed” this time came from a manufacturer whose products had been convincing in previous tests. “Only with complex and expensive laboratory tests can the protective effect be reliably measured and the quality of a product assessed,” says Schiller.

“In principle, we continue to recommend using sunscreen generously,” stressed the consumer advocate. In this test, the products from Today (transparent sun spray), Nivea Sun (protection & care), Sun Kiss (sun lotion sensitive) and Sundance (sun spray) proved to be good and inexpensive.