How SPF works in natural sunscreen vs chemical sunscreens

Today on the Grahams Natural blog I would like to talk about one of the many questions we receive regarding sunscreen protection. People are becoming more aware of that applying chemicals to their skin can affect them worse than the benefits that they are getting out of the product. However, I feel most people don’t know the facts about SPF protection and I wanted to share how it really works! Firstly, here is a question we received the other day and it is one of the most common questions we get asked about our sunscreen. 

“Your SunClear is only 30+ SPF protection? Why would I buy that when I can get a 60 SPF Sunscreen that provides double the protection?”

 Makes sense, right? From a logical point of view, 60 SPF has more than 2 times (2x) the protection of an SPF 30+! However, this is not the case and can be easily explained through the graph below.

As you can see this graph shows the SPF (bottom) vs the percentage of UVB Rays that is protected (left). As you can see the 60 SPF sunscreen is protecting 98% of the UVB rays vs a 30+ SPF which protects 96% of the rays. Now obviously 98% protection is better than 96%, but you have to consider other factors of the sunscreen and look past the marketing scheme.

 Now that you know how it works, it is really just up to you decide when choosing your sunscreen and to weigh up whether you go with an all-natural 30+ sunscreen that is 2 hour water resistant with 96% sun protection for those full 2 hours, or a chemically based cheap with 60+ SPF that is probably doing more harm than good.