Sunscreen Is Only Getting Better—What’s New and Begging for Your Beach Bag

As a beauty editor who resides in the United States, it would be easy to lament our lack of access to next-gen sunscreen filters—the same ones available in Europe, Asia, and Australia—and accept subpar formulas that pill, smudge, or leave ghostly white casts. It would also be easy to disregard American SPFs and recommend stocking up on sunscreen the next time you take an international trip. But I refuse because I’m a beauty journalist, dammit! What kind of editor and researcher would I be if I didn’t offer expert-vetted recommendations?

Even though our Stateside sunscreen filters are often considered old news to the rest of the world, that doesn’t mean there are zero options on the domestic market. Nay, there are some shockingly impressive ones. Certain beauty brands have done some fancy footwork and formulated intelligent SPFs—they’re silky, featherlight, and offer additional skin benefits aside from simple (yet critical) sun protection. How did they do it? I don’t know. Maybe it was luck, a magic spell, or the expertise of world-class cosmetic chemists (definitely the last one).