By Sandee LaMotte, CNN
(CNN) — It’s time to stock up on sunscreen, but few choices on store shelves today are both safe and effective, according to an annual report by the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, a nonprofit health and environmental advocacy organization.
Now in its 20th year, EWG’s 2026 Guide to Sunscreens analyzed 2,784 products and found only 550 — about 20% — deliver safe and effective protection against the harmful rays of the sun.
The new guide, released May 19, lists the best baby and child sunscreens, including those which are a good “bang for the buck” and the top recreational sunscreens designed for outdoor activities such as sports or spending time at the beach.
In addition, consumers can find top-rated daily use sunscreens, including moisturizers with sun protection factor (SPF) and the best lip balms with SPF in the report.
To be recommended by EWG, sunscreens must protect against both UVA and UVB, two types of ultraviolet rays known to damage DNA and age the skin. Due to inhalation risks, sprays and powders are not included. Manufacturers cannot claim over 50+ SPF or use federally banned marketing claims such as “waterproof.”
Consumers are often drawn to more expensive products that reach SPF levels of up to 100+, which claim to block 99% of UVB rays. Yet there’s little difference in effectiveness — a cheaper 50+ SPF sunscreen can block 98% of rays, according to the report.
For some products, SPF numbers may also be inflated. A peer-reviewed study by EWG scientists found, on average, sunscreens provided only a quarter of the UVA protection and 59% of the UVB protection stated on the labels.
Recommended sunscreens in the new guide also avoid retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A; and chemicals suspected to cause cancer, skin irritation, allergic reactions or reproductive harm, developmental issues or neurotoxicity.
“Retinyl palmitate is part of the retinoid family that dermatologists recommend to fight wrinkles and other signs of aging. Those products come with warnings not to expose skin to the sun,” said Alexa Friedman, a senior scientist at EWG.
“In 2010, about 40% of products contained retinal palmitate,” Friedman said. “Today that’s dropped down to 3%, which is good news for consumers.”
Mineral versus chemical sunscreens
Of the 550 products recommended by EWG, 497 are predominantly made from minerals that sit on the skin and physically deflect and block the sun’s rays. Because they are not absorbed into the dermis, mineral-based sunscreens cause little skin irritation or toxicity.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved two minerals for use in sunscreen — zinc oxide and titanium dioxide — which used to be known for the chalky, white cast they left after being applied to the skin. New, innovative formulations and tinted options now on the market have mostly removed that concern, experts say.
Chemical sunscreens, however, are designed to soak into the skin and work by creating a chemical reaction that absorbs ultraviolet radiation as energy, dispersin