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You're never gonna think about sunscreen the same way again.
Summer usually brings two trends to our social media feeds: beach photo dumps where everyone looks a little more bronzed, and videos claiming sunscreen is doing more harm than good. Together, they’ve fueled a simple question, “If looking tan is attractive, should you actually avoid sunscreen to get there?”
The answer isn’t as straightforward as either side makes it seem. Here’s what the research says about tanning, sunscreen, and whether the internet’s biggest summer health debate holds up.
Does tanning actually make you hotter?
Unfortunately for everyone in healthcare, we find tan people hotter.
Humans tend to perceive warm, golden skin tones as healthier and more attractive. One reason is carotenoid coloration. These are the yellow, orange, and red pigments found in fruits and vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, and papayas that accumulate in our skin after eating a carotenoid-rich diet.
Research has found that people with greater carotenoid skin coloration are consistently rated as healthier, more active, and more attractive than those without it.
What is a tan?
- Any sort of tan is a sign of skin damage.
- Your skin triggers melanin production (darkens) in response to UV exposure and is trying to prevent further damage.
- The same skin coloration can come from eating carotenoids in fruits and vegetables.
- Three specific carotenoids change skin color: beta-carotene, lycopene, and lutein.
So, yes, a tan can make you appear more attractive, even if the biological reason you got that color isn't the same.
What does sunscreen actually do?
Sunscreen is made to protect your body from damaging UV rays: UVA and UVB.
UVA accounts for about 95% of the UV rays that reach Earth. It penetrates deeper into the skin, is primarily responsible for premature skin aging, and contributes to skin cancer.
UVB is higher energy, causes most sunburns, directly damages DNA, and is the wavelength that triggers vitamin D production in the skin.
But sunscreen can’t fully block the rays. SPF 30 provides your skin with 97% coverage, and it goes up only incrementally from there. SPF 50 covers 98% and SPF 100 covers 99%, but you will see sun damage if you aren’t reapplying every one to two hours.
How does sunscreen affect your tan?
- You can still get a tan while wearing sunscreen because none block 100% of UV rays.
- It is designed to reduce cumulative damage.
- By reducing burns — with the right amount of reapplication — sunscreen prevents skin peeling, blotching, and inflammation.
But if you still get a tan while wearing sunscreen, what’s the point of it?
Is sunscreen actually a scam?
Quick answer: no. The cumulative damage that sunscreen protects your skin from is skin cancer, including Melanoma.
But there are two specific sunscreen controversies you should know about:
- Cancer risk from sunscreen ingredients.
- Potential hormone disruptions from oxybenzone.
Let’s look into these claims.
Do sunscreen ingredients cause cancer?
There are 16 sunscreen ingredients the FDA allows. Out of those, only two have the FDA's full stamp of “safe and effective:” zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.
The other 14, the chemical ones in most spray and clear sunscreens? The FDA says there’s “insufficient data.”
So, approved filters have no established causal link to cancer, and sunscreen use lowers skin-cancer risk but, the only proven safe sun protection is mineral-based sunblock, not chemical-based sunscreen.
Can sunscreen cause hormone disruptions?
- Hormone (endocrine) disruptors are found in many daily products, and they work by mimicking, blocking, or altering your natural hormones.
- These effects lead to destabilizations, potentially causing reproductive issues, metabolic disorders, and hormone-dependent cancers.
- Those types of ingredients are systemically absorbed, meaning they enter your bloodstream through your skin after application and circulate throughout your entire body.
Two chemicals to watch
Superpower’s own scientist and researcher Julija Rabcuka, BA(Oxon), MSc, PhD candidate, breaks it down this way:
Chemical 1 — Hormone risk
In lab studies, one chemical sunscreen ingredient, octinoxate, does some things you don’t love to see. It acts like a weak version of estrogen, it gets in the way of testosterone, and it messes with thyroid signaling.
In a worst-case scenario, these endocrine disruptors can cause:
- Reproductive defects that lead to infertility
- Lower testosterone levels
- Delayed pubertal development
Now, most of those alarming studies used animals or doses way higher than a human would ever absorb. And the human research so far is mixed.
But when the underlying biology is pointing the wrong direction, and there are cleaner alternatives (mineral sunblock) that work just as well, “We haven’t proven it’s harmful yet” isn’t good enough for us. Why roll the dice when you don’t have to?
Chemical 2 — Hormone & cancer risk
Octocrylene is the other common ingredient and it’s used to stabilize avobenzone. When avobenzone isn’t stabilized, it loses its ability to protect the skin from UVA rays by 50-90% in one hour, making the sunscreen ineffective. Basically, it requires octocrylene as a complementary ingredient.
The big issue is that octocrylene degrades over time into a compound called benzophenone, which is a suspected carcinogen and hormone disruptor.
It would be impossible to list every chemical sunscreen you need to avoid that has the avobenzone and octocrylene combo, because they almost all do.
Hormone disruption sounds scary, what do I do?
The good news is that mineral sunscreens don’t have these issues because they contain zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide which sit on the surface of the skin and provide protection against both UVA and UVB rays.
Even better news? There are plenty of mineral sunscreens made now that don’t leave a white cast behind, making them friendly for all skin colors, conditions, and ages.
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