3 days ago
Sunscreen ‘is poison.' Sunscreen is essential. As the debate reaches a boiling point, we asked a dermatologist what to believe
A few weeks ago, the 'mindfully made' indie
skin care brand Primally Pure
launched a series of billboards so provocatively
anti-science
they may as well have been sponsored by the baby oil lobby. 'The sun isn't poison. But your sunscreen is,' read one splashed around Los Angeles and Chicago. 'Sun fear ends here,' said another. The plot twist: Primally Pure was releasing its own sun cream, a zinc and tallow 'seed oil-free sun shield' that it claims 'delivers powerful, non-toxic sun protection.'
Behind all this is the simmering sentiment that you actually don't need to wear
sunscreen
every day — and that existing sunscreen formulations are, in fact, harmful. 'For too long, we've been told to avoid the sun at all costs and to slather on toxic ingredients daily in the name of 'protection,'' reads the caption on a Primally Pure social media post showing off the billboards. 'We're on a mission to encourage mindful sun exposure — because the sun can be medicine.' (Primally Pure, which was founded by Bethany Joy McDaniel, did not respond to our request for an interview.)
A post shared by Primally Pure Skincare (@primallypure)
While certainly not novel — remember those
Lululemon bags
that said sunscreen was worse than sunshine — this rhetoric seems to be gaining steam. If your algorithm feeds you posts about '5 Reasons Seed Oils are Killing you,' or you've got the kind of Pilates instructor who'll riff on the many benefits of alkaline water while you tremble in a side plank, there's a good chance you've come across the growing anti-sunscreen, pro-sun-exposure discourse.
The story goes something like this: Most commercial sunscreens contain 'toxic' chemicals that do things like disrupt your hormones or cause cancer, or break down on your skin when exposed to UV light in such a way that they actually increase your
melanoma risk
. (Here, they'll usually insert a stat about how skin cancer rates have increased since sunscreen was introduced, bypassing the possibility that we're finding more skin cancer because of better access to screening and treatment.)
The offered solution? Your body 'needs' the sun and you should seek it out so that you build up a tan, allegedly nature's oldest form of sun protection. If you insist on some kind of sunscreen, it should be 'natural,' usually zinc mixed with beef tallow, that other current 'clean' darling.
As you might guess, it's not an approach that dermatologists endorse. 'It's gut wrenching. I just can't believe that in 2025 we are still having to defend something that has such a strong safety profile — and saves lives,' said
Dr. Julia Carroll
, a Toronto dermatologist who's on the board of
Melanoma Canada
, a non-profit for melanoma and skin cancer survivors.
Part of what's at play here is the often misunderstood difference between
chemical and mineral sunscreens
. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide (the latter is Primally Pure's filter of choice) are the two ingredients most commonly used in 'mineral' sunscreens, which block UV rays rather than absorb them like the compounds found in 'chemical' formulas. The former have long been popular for folks with more sensitive skin but can leave a white cast. The latter tend to be more cosmetically elegant but, in a post-'clean beauty' world, can suffer from the sinister-seeming 'chemical' label. In the actually scientifically legitimate column, there are concerns about their impact on
coral reefs and sea life
.
To find out how we got to this place of questioning a product that once felt as innocuous as wearing a seatbelt, Carroll said you have to follow the money — or the viral clicks. 'This is a business. When you see these claims, there's usually a financial gain behind them,' she said. 'In this situation, [Primally Pure is] trying to create fear, and pivot people to their solution, which is their sunscreen.'
This narrative projects ulterior motives onto a faceless 'they' of sunscreen manufacturers, scientists and dermatologists, accused of knowingly misleading us, depriving us of the ancient goodness of sun exposure, even poisoning us for their own profit. It's something Carroll finds absurd. 'As a dermatologist, I'm in the business of skin cancer treatment, and the treatment and prevention of aging, so actually I should be anti-sunscreen. It would improve my bottom line,' she said.
While some people who advocate unprotected sun exposure just cite vibes—'I feel so much better when I get some sun,' or 'My skin clears up when I'm tanned' — there is also a lot of so-called scientific 'evidence' that gets thrown into this conversation.
Cosmetic chemist Michelle Wong spends a lot of time debunking this sort of misinformation on her social media account,
Lab Muffin
. 'Yes, there are some scientific studies that claim that sunscreen could be toxic. However, these are misinterpretations of the evidence and don't hold up when you examine the entire body of evidence. A lot of studies tend to overstate their conclusions, and the implications of their research,' said Wong. 'This is an accepted part of scientific publishing — just because something is peer-reviewed doesn't mean it's true — but for people who aren't used to these conventions, these statements can seem very convincing, especially when taken out of context.'
Wong links anti-sunscreen sentiment to the same ideology that undergirds the
'clean beauty' movement
. 'We tend to assume that natural things are safer than synthetic things, even though the most toxic substances on earth are natural. Sunscreen ingredients have long scary names, but the sun is natural, so it's easy to misjudge the risks,' she said.
Sunscreen, she continues, has joined a host of other once-benign things that have become politicized in our post-pandemic world, like vaccines, fluoride and pasteurized milk. 'It's a generalized distrust of institutions, a sort of conspiracy mindset,' she said.
Sometimes, the institutions don't help themselves, said Jill Dunn, a beauty editor and co-host of the
Breaking Beauty podcast
. 'Every single country has their own governing body on what sunscreen filters they approve or do not approve,' said Dunn. 'Because there's no universal standard for it, it leads to a lot of confusion.'
The 'biggest blow' to sunscreen's credibility, Dunn said, happened in 2019. The Food and Drug Administration, the body that regulates sunscreen in the United States, requested 'more information' about some of the most common chemical active ingredients found in sunscreens, in an effort to ensure that their requirements for approval reflect the latest science. At no point did they tell people to stop using these ingredients. At the same time, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide were declared to be 'generally recognized as safe and effective.'
'That set off a lack of confidence in using traditional sunscreens,' Dunn said, 'We'd had the La Roche-Posays, the Neutrogenas, the Ombrelles of the world using chemical filters for years and years, but then all of the sudden the FDA is saying, 'You can continue to use them, but we want more safety data now, and what we're saying is safe currently is titanium dioxide and zinc oxide.' Five years later, the FDA has not released any followup on this, although it has called for further industry testing, specifically around whether it's harmful that some ingredients may be
absorbed into the bloodstream
. Health Canada didn't comment on it and continued to
recommend both chemical and physical UV filters
(it did issue a 2024 warning about using homemade sunscreens).
It didn't help matters that not long after, in the spring of 2021, there was a recall of spray sunscreens from major brands like Aveeno, Coppertone and Neutrogena because of the presence of benzene, a known carcinogen. Crucially, though, it was in the propellant to get the sunscreen out of the bottle, rather than in the formula itself.
Strike three in the zeitgeist against sunscreen was a sun-kissed, invariably blond esthetic that began emerging on social media.'You had this perfect storm of not trusting sunscreen, but then the look of being tanned became popular again,' said Dunn, nodding to the r
esurgence of tanning beds among Gen Z
. She recalls a story on this in the
Washington Post
last summer that quoted a TikTok comment: 'I'd rather die hot than live ugly.'
There's maybe something inherently enticing in being given permission to not wear sunscreen, which can be a hassle or sticky or mess with your makeup, and just
be
in a world that often asks so many things of us.
'It's like, 'My grandmother never wore sunscreen, so I'm not going to,' that kind of thing … Until you have someone in your life that dies from melanoma,' said Dunn. 'I've known three young people who have died from melanoma. It's so upsetting because it's so preventable, and I fear that young people in particular are really just not getting the message.'
If they are, it's often one slathered in misinformation, or screaming at them from social media — or even writ large on a billboard.
Ultra Violette Future Fluid SPF 50+ Superlight Mineral Skinscreen, $54,
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This mineral sunscreen is from Australian brand Ultra Violette and contains Japanese zinc formulated for an ultra-light texture.
Shiseido Ultra Sun Protector Sunscreen Spray SPF 40, $49,
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This lightweight chemical sunscreen mist is a joy to apply and leaves limbs feeling hydrated (it contains water-retaining hyaluronic acid) with no sign of shimmer or cast.
Naked Sundays CabanaCreme SPF 50 Hydrating Moisturizer, $30,
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As seen above, Australians make some of the best sunscreens and this easy-to-blend chemical SPF 50 daily face moisturizer from Naked Sundays is no exception.
Vichy Capital Soleil Sport Ultra-Light Refreshing Lotion SPF 60, $34,
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Great for those days when you're playing back-to-back pickleball games in the park, this SPF 60 lotion is water- and sweat-resistant for up to 80 minutes.
Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Dewy Defense SPF 30, $48,
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This K-Beauty brand favourite needs no introduction. Its new sunscreen contains chemical filters as well as glycerin, watermelon seed oil, and Vitamin E for hydration.
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