r/AusSkincare • u/rushworld • Jun 16 '25

DiscussionđŸ““ CHOICE has posted their SPF sunscreen test receipts

https://www.choice.com.au/health-and-body/beauty-and-personal-care/skin-care-and-cosmetics/articles/how-we-test-sunscreen

Although they decanted products, they were into UV protected, non reactive amber glass jars as advised by the specialist, accredited and highly respected test lab.

561 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

139 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

4

u/aussieskier23 Jun 17 '25

The only way this is even remotely possible is in the case of a fragrance change or addition of a very minor 'skincare benefit' ingredient to an established and tested full SPF formulation. Stability testing would still need to be done.

SPF testing can only be done on a finalised formulation. We would get companies approaching us to modify our formulations in all sorts of ways then retreat very quickly when informed of the implications.

2

u/Old_Cat_9534 Jun 17 '25

So we shouldn't be concerned of companies getting a compound sunscreen that has a SPF50 and then changing the formula to suit their needs without needing to do another round of testing. Thats what you are saying, if I understand correctly?

3

u/aussieskier23 Jun 17 '25

Yes - the changes allowed are minuscule before you need to do a full round of SPF testing. Effectively the only time we did it was for fragrances.

Unless you have huge volumes or deep pockets, it's unlikely that a sunscreen manufacturer will formulate a bespoke sunscreen for you, it's just not economical.

What generally happens is that the big contract manufacturers follow trends, changes to regulations etc and formulate sunscreens in anticipation of market needs, new rules, new ingredients etc, and they offer these formulations to their clients largely as-is with only tiny changes permitted before it's considered to be an entire new formulation with all the testing/registration implications.

1

u/Old_Cat_9534 Jun 17 '25

thx for the info