What's the Deal with SPF Makeup?

why you keep being told it "doesn't count"

“Why doesn’t my makeup with SPF count as sunscreen?”

A client recently asked me this question, which is one I get very often. But this time, I tried a new way of explaining the answer, which she said was the first time it finally made sense, so I wanted to share it with you (and elaborate to my liking!) To understand why your makeup with SPF (usually) isn’t enough, it’s helpful to think about what it means that sunscreen is a drug and that drugs have doses. 

For starters, think about things you already recognize as drugs, like over-the-counter Tylenol or prescription Wellbutrin. You understand that in order to get the intended result, you need to take the proper dose. One or two Tylenol at a time, maybe three if you’re feeling wild. Similarly, you know that a prescription drug will have specific doses, maybe 10mg once a day or 100mg twice a day etc. It makes sense that if you didn’t take the prescribed dose, you wouldn’t be getting the full benefit. Drugs need to be tested & dispensed in standardized, uniform ways so that you know how much to take or use for the intended result. Oral medications are an easy way to demonstrate dosages, but not the only example. Are you also a loyal Tretinoin user? Do you use a pea sized amount or just smear as much as you feel like and hope for the best? That “pea size dose” may seem small, but it is based on decades of research. Anyone who has dared experiment with something more resembling a grape can tell you that more is not more. 

In the US, skincare products are either cosmetics or drugs. If they are drugs, this means they have active ingredients that are regulated, tested and approved by the FDA to treat or prevent certain conditions. In the example above, Tretinoin is a prescription topical skincare product, but like Tylenol, there are plenty of over-the-counter skin care products that are classified as drugs…like sunscreen. 

According to the FDA, sunscreen is intended to “help prevent sunburn or to decrease the risks of skin cancer and early skin aging caused by the sun.” Amazing! Since sunscreen is a drug, it means there must be some “dose” associated with it in order to get the proper protection. Otherwise it’d be a free for all – how would anyone know how much to use, be able to buy different sunscreens from different brands, different countries etc. How could testing happen to ensure efficacy if there was no standard for how much to use? 

Important note: This is where my great comparison starts to fall apart because not all countries classify sunscreen as a drug or have it regulated by the same governing body as other drugs, like the FDA does. But because the importance and efficacy of sunscreen is a universal concern, the methodologies for testing are the same worldwide, which is the larger point I’m getting at ;)  

The “dose” for sunscreen, universally, is 2mg/cm² So for every centimeter squared of your skin, you need to apply 2mg of sunscreen in order to get the protection on the bottle. This specific amount is how all sunscreen is tested and evaluated and it remains constant, regardless if it’s called sunscreen, tinted moisturizer, foundation etc. If a product has an SPF value, then it has been shown to provide that SPF protection at the given dose. Just like taking less than your prescribed medicine, if you take “less sunscreen” then you aren’t taking the full dose and thus, you are not getting the full protection. 

But how does anyone know how many cm² their skin is? Obviously in a lab, this is much simpler and there is actually a way to measure your own face using tape. But because we want everyone to wear sunscreen and don’t expect everyone to take the measurements of their face and weigh their sunscreen, we’ve come up with some good approximations. The approximate “dose” of sunscreen for your face is ¼ teaspoon. For your face, neck and ears, it's ½ teaspoon. If you use less than this amount, you are not taking the full dose, thus not getting the full protection.

At last, let’s get back to the question about SPF makeup and why it “doesn’t count.” It is not that your foundation isn’t capable of providing the proper protection (because again, as we now know, if it has an SPF value, it has been tested and approved the same way any other sunscreen would be). It is because no one is out here using ¼ teaspoon of foundation. Try it, you won’t like it! And think about reapplying! No thanks! Your makeup cannot be your only form of sun protection because you are almost definitely not using enough of your makeup to get the proper “dose.” Your makeup is just added bonus protection! 

My best suggestion when trying a new sunscreen is to measure it out in a teaspoon first and see how many pumps/drops are needed to fill that teaspoon. Then you know you always need X amount of pumps. Or you can put it on your fingers first, then scrape into a teaspoon to see how many finger lengths you will need.

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Sunscreen Recommendations

The button below will bring you to some of my favorite sunscreens, but there are 3 that I want to call out here.

Naturium is leading the way in US sunscreen. In addition to stellar cast-free formulas at accessible prices, they recently released one of the coolest innovations in sunscreen packaging that I’ve ever seen. The cap of their Dew Glow SPF 50 Moisturizer has a divot that is ¼ teaspoon! I’ve been using this tool to measure all of my other sunscreen too. It is extremely handy. This particular sunscreen can work for most skin, but it is quite moisturizing and may feel heavy to some. You likely won’t need to use a separate moisturizer underneath. If that doesn’t sound up your alley, you are in luck! The newest sunscreen Naturium released is the single most elegant formulation of US sunscreen that I’ve ever tried. It feels like nothing and has a soft-focus, blurring velvet finish. It’s the type of sunscreen that will convert someone to a daily sunscreen wearer. If it had a dewier finish, it would probably take the top spot of my favorite sunscreen of all time, but for now that honor still goes to the Isntree Hyaluronic Watery Sun Gel SPF 50. It’s hydrating, it’s dewy, it’s everything to me.