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As guys grow more skin care-aware, the importance of using a daily SPF becomes ever clearer: Sunscreen is your single best anti-aging ingredient. But it can be a difficult category to love. Traditional chemical sunscreens absorb into your body, raising some real health questions. Because of that, there has been massive progress in products that use a mineral shield on top of your skin—but these are still usually awful to rub in and will often leave a ghastly white cast on your face.
It doesn’t have to be this way. On the other side of the Pacific and Atlantic, chemical sunscreens formulated in the EU and Asia (namely Korea, Japan, and China) go beyond the outdated filters that soak into the body. Instead, many of the best sunscreens from these continents use newer ingredients (such as bemotrizinol and bisoctrizole) that sit on top of the skin—and also apply cleanly and elegantly.
But wait one second: Isn’t the US supposed to be the land of innovation? What’s the hurdle for our brands using these same ingredients? (And how can you get your hands on the good stuff in the meantime?)
Why US SPF Regulations Are Out of Date
Sunscreens in the US are regulated like medications, not cosmetics, so any new ingredients require expensive rounds of testing and approvals before they can be used here. And while medical regulation is, on the whole, a good thing, in this case it has led to products considered safe and uncontroversial in other countries to be effectively banned. It has been 25 years (!) since the last new chemical filter was approved.
Changing this state of affairs has become a pet project of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has collaborated with Dieux Skin founder Charlotte Palermino to get the word out, so it’s possible the regulations will change eventually.
How to Buy the Best Sunscreen in the Meantime
We can’t speak to the legality of purchasing sunscreen without FDA approval, and of course we’d never encourage anyone to break the law, but the reality of the situation is that foreign sunscreens are widely available on eBay, from third-party Amazon sellers, and from retailers like Skin Cupid and Senti Senti. (Some will even cover international shipping costs over a certain threshold.)
Do with that information what you will!