To help people with darker skin choose a sunscreen that looks good when they put it on, Consumer Reports recruited 83 adults with complexions ranging from olive to deep brown to try 21 sprays and lotions. (Our volunteers were all women, but there’s no reason our results wouldn’t apply to men, too.) All of the participants self-identified their skin tone as type 5 or higher on a research tool called the Self-Assessment Skin Tone Palette. This scale ranges from type 1, which is very light skin, to type 9, which is very dark skin.
The majority of the sunscreens in this evaluation (19) contain chemical active (or protective) ingredients, such as avobenzone or homosalate. These encompass all the CR Recommended sunscreens in our ratings. We test sunscreens to see how well they protect against the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Over the years, we have found that, in general, chemical sunscreens perform better in our tests than mineral sunscreens, which use titanium dioxide or zinc oxide as active ingredients. But some people prefer to avoid chemicals, so we also included the two highest-scoring mineral sunscreens from our tests.
Every sunscreen was evaluated by at least three people. We instructed them on how to apply the sunscreen and asked them to provide feedback on the look and feel of each one and whether they would use it again. Eight of the sunscreens came out on top—those who tried them had mostly good things to say. Five received mostly negative reviews.
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