Why Can't Sunscreen Brands Be Honest About White Casts?

Refinery29

17 hours ago

Welcome to Sun Blocked, Refinery29's global call to action to wake up to the serious dangers of tanning. No lectures or shaming, we promise. Instead, our goal is to arm you with the facts you need to protect your skin to the best of your ability, because there's no such thing as safe sun.
When cosmetic scientist Dr. Julian Sass first tested Tower 28's new SOS FaceGuard SPF 30 Sunscreen on camera, his disappointment was obvious. Despite the 'no white cast' claim prominently displayed on the PR packaging, the sunscreen left a visible gray tinge on his skin.
'Marketing this as a no white cast sunscreen in 2025? It just makes me feel so undervalued as a consumer,' Dr. Sass said in the clip. 'What frustrates me is that some Black girl is gonna see the advertising about this product and think, Oh my god, they said it had no white cast. And then they're going to end up looking like this.'
Dr. Sass's video, now at 54.3K views and climbing, sparked further debate after he highlighted that the marketing materials showed people applying too little sunscreen — a misleading move that compromises both transparency and safety.
Tower 28 founder Amy Liu responded on Instagram, acknowledging they 'missed the mark' despite extensive testing. As a result, Liu promised to remove the 'no white cast' and 'universal tint' claims, standardize their testing process, and develop a new version of the sunscreen for deeper skin tones. This was welcome news to Tower 28 fans, but the brand isn't alone in making contested 'no white cast' statements. In addition to Dr. Sass, other skincare experts and beauty content creators have increasingly called out claims of invisibility that don't match reality.
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Entire groups of people are excluded from sun protection options because brands don't think it's profitable to include us.
Cosmetic chemist Milan Scott
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Dija Ayodele, an esthetician and founder of the Black Skin Directory, recently tried Merit's The Uniform Tinted Mineral Sunscreen, which left her looking 'dull and gray' despite the brand's ' zero white cast ' promise. 'When I first received the press release, I asked to see evidence of the product on Black skin,' Ayodele tells Refinery29. She says the PR company sent her a video of a Black employee using the product, along with information about the brand's formulation process and challenges. Ayodele accepted the PR package based on this response. 'But if I'd bought that sunscreen, I would be quite cross,' she continues. Adding, 'While it's not the worst I've seen, it didn't meet my expectation of not having a white cast.' 'It's misleading to use those exact three words: zero white cast.'
Beyond Tower 28 and Merit, brands like CeraVe and SkinCeuticals have also been called out for using terms like 'no white cast' and 'transparent' — claims that some content creators are now challenging.
For consumers of color, these misleading claims are not just disappointing, they're exclusionary. So why, when the beauty industry operates under such strict regulations, do countless sunscreens still fail to deliver on their promises?
Why do some sunscreens have a white cast?
AJ Addae, chief executive officer and chemist of SULA Labs — which tests skincare for brands developing products for melanin-rich consumers — explains that when it comes to mineral sunscreens, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only allows cosmetic chemists to use two UV filters: titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Both are white pigments. Addae notes that at the concentrations needed to achieve a broad-spectrum SPF of 30 or higher, it's difficult — if not impossible — to create a mineral sunscreen that doesn't reflect visible, white light.
As such, Dr. Sass explains that currently, a truly invisible mineral sunscreen doesn't exist on skincare shelves. So why are brands that use these filters so sure of their invisibility claims?
Cosmetic Chemist Milan Scott says, 'What they really mean is that it's invisible on lighter skin tones.' She adds, 'When I see 'invisible' claims on a mineral sunscreen that is very clearly not invisible on people that look like me, it makes me wonder who [the brand] tested it on — and who approved these claims.'
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I think that brands need to do diversity and inclusivity authentically and be brave enough to say, 'This product isn't right for everybody because it creates a white cast. However, we do have other products within our offering that are suitable.'
Dija Ayodele, esthetician and founder of the Black Skin Directory
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Dr. Sass explains that when brands make this claim, they typically conduct internal tests on individuals with lighter skin tones and often apply much less than the recommended amount needed to achieve the advertised level of protection. 'Sunscreen is tested at 2 mg per square centimeter of skin, which comes out to about 1/4 teaspoon for just the face and about 1/2 teaspoon if you include the ears and neck,' he says — the optimum amount to protect your skin.
Esthetician and skincare expert Alicia Lartey — whose Instagram series Sunscreen or SunSCREAM puts the invisibility claims of SPFs to the test — agrees that clinical trials and SPF testing often lack the diversity they should. Frustratingly, Scott notes that there's no requirement for brands to test on a wide range of skin tones before making such claims.
How do brands get away with claiming their sunscreens leave no white cast?
Surprisingly, Addae notes that, unlike the term 'water resistance,' which requires standardized testing, there are no regulations around the term 'white cast.' The same applies to the word 'invisible,' says Scott. If a brand deems its sunscreen traceless based on its testing, it can label it as such, even if that's not true for darker skin tones.
You're right to be outraged — and so are the experts: 'It's a marketing loophole that a lot of us in the industry side-eye hard,' says Scott. Ayodele has a hunch as to why: 'Brands are doing this because they want to be seen as inclusive at all costs,' she believes. 'They don't want the backlash of [people] saying that they're not inclusive. But if these brands tested their mineral sunscreens [on a more diverse range of people], they'd know whether they were invisible or not.'
That said, it's important to acknowledge the limits of science, says Ayodele. 'Yes, of course, we want diversity and for brands to be inclusive, but by nature, the mineral filters titanium dioxide and zinc oxide aren't inclusive,' she says. 'That's not a problem because not everything is going to be,' she adds. 'Unless further scientific techniques are brought in to make these white mineral ingredients invisible, that's just where we're at.' Still, Scott emphasizes the need for more transparency and testing across shade ranges.
Ayodele's advice to brands is simple: honesty is the best policy: 'I think that brands need to do diversity and inclusivity authentically and be brave enough to say, 'This product isn't right for everybody because it creates a white cast. However, we do have other products within our offering that are suitable',' she says.
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Frustratingly, Scott notes that there's no requirement for brands to test on a wide range of skin tones before making such claims
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TikTok would have you believe that mineral sunscreens are the gold standard. Ayodele acknowledges they have benefits — especially for sensitive skin and conditions like rosacea, melasma, or pigmentation — but stresses that more inclusive options exist. Chemical sunscreens, which use UV filters like avobenzone or oxybenzone, are suitable for everyone.
Still, they've come under scrutiny, with some convinced that chemical filters are toxic while mineral ones are safe. This simply isn't true, says Scott: 'This fear drives people toward mineral sunscreens, even though many of them leave a visible cast on deeper skin tones and make sunscreens less accessible for folks who already deal with health disparities,' she says.
Scott doesn't mince her words: 'This is what medical racism looks like in real time,' she continues. 'It's when fear-based marketing pushes mineral sunscreens as the safer option, even though those same formulas leave people with darker skin out of the conversation entirely.'
So who's to blame? The experts point to the 'clean beauty' movement. 'Clean beauty has been an axe to scientific innovation,' says Lartey. 'Newsflash — everything is a chemical,' she adds, even water.
In reality, chemical sunscreens are often more cosmetically elegant than mineral ones, making them a better option for people with darker skin tones seeking to avoid a white cast. R29 favorites include Glossier Invisible Shield SPF50, $32, The Ordinary UV Filters SPF45, $19, and Dr. Jart+ Every Sun Day™ Invisible Korean Sunscreen Stick SPF 40, $30, to name just a few.
Does a truly invisible mineral sunscreen actually exist?
For those who prefer mineral sunscreens, is a truly invisible option even possible? Scott believes it is. 'For a mineral sunscreen to be invisible on all skin tones, it takes advanced formulation with nano-sized mineral filters,' she explains — a process that's both expensive and time-consuming for brands. She adds that tinted mineral sunscreens offer another solution, but only a few brands, like Wyn Beauty, are getting it right.
'That's because too many companies still don't see the financial value in creating that many [products] to be truly inclusive for darker skin tones,' she says. And that's a real problem: 'Entire groups of people are excluded from sun protection options because brands don't think it's profitable to include us,' says Scott, who sees it as a public health issue.
Ultimately, Lartey believes that brands can easily avoid messy situations like Tower 28's simply by testing products on a wide variety of skin tones — and actually using the correct amount. 'Beyond that, hire a diverse staff, listen to your diverse staff, and make sure there are diverse staff in senior roles,' urges Lartey. 'It's not that hard.'