Ingredients with a documented concern, from official datasets and our reviewed database.
Sensitive skin: High cautionDry skin: High cautionBabies & kids: Use with cautionEczema-prone: Best avoided
- Irritation:Drying and barrier-disrupting in high-alcohol formulas with regular use.
Denatured ethanol gives products a fast-drying, weightless feel, but as a leading ingredient it degrades the skin barrier with repeated use — a poor match for dry, sensitive or eczema-prone skin.
Sensitive skin: High cautionPregnancy: Best avoidedBabies & kids: Best avoidedEczema-prone: High caution
- Allergy risk:The most common cause of sunscreen photoallergy.
- Environmental impact:Linked to coral bleaching; banned in Hawaii and other reef regions.
Caredermis curated dermatological review
The most controversial chemical UV filter: a top cause of sunscreen allergy, a suspected endocrine disruptor found in blood and breast milk, and banned in several reef jurisdictions for coral toxicity.
Sensitive skin: Best avoidedPregnancy: Use with cautionBabies & kids: Best avoidedEczema-prone: Best avoided
- Allergy risk:Fragrance is the single most common cause of cosmetic contact allergy.
- Irritation:Frequent trigger of stinging and redness on reactive skin.
Caredermis curated dermatological review
An umbrella term that can hide dozens of undisclosed scent chemicals. Fragrance is the leading cause of allergic contact dermatitis from cosmetics, and dermatologists routinely advise fragrance-free products for eczema, babies and sensitive skin.
Sensitive skin: Use with cautionBabies & kids: Use with cautionEczema-prone: High caution
- Allergy risk:Rising cause of contact and photoallergy, especially in children.
- Environmental impact:Accumulates in aquatic life; degrades into benzophenone over time.
A stabilizing UV filter that can degrade into benzophenone as products age, and an increasingly reported allergen — replace old tubes of octocrylene sunscreens.
Sensitive skin: Use with caution
- Allergy risk:Degradation products can cause photoallergy when unstabilized.
The main UVA filter in US sunscreens. Safe when properly stabilized, but it breaks down in sunlight into potentially sensitizing fragments in poorly formulated products.
Babies & kids: Use with caution
- Irritation:Occasional stinging and irritation, mostly around eyes and on damaged skin.
Today's most common preservative, considered safe by the SCCS up to 1%. French authorities advise avoiding it in wipes and diaper-area products for children under 3 as a precaution.
Sensitive skin: Use with cautionBabies & kids: Use with caution
- Irritation:Can irritate sensitive or compromised skin.
A synthetic preservative capped at 0.3% in the EU; generally tolerated but a known occasional irritant.
Pregnancy: Use with cautionBabies & kids: Use with caution
A UVB filter the EU sharply restricted in 2022 after its scientific committee flagged potential endocrine effects at former use levels.
- Environmental impact:Not biodegradable; accumulates in the environment via wash-off.
The workhorse silicone — inert and non-sensitizing on skin (even FDA-approved as a skin protectant), with persistence in the environment as its main criticism.
- Environmental impact:Poorly biodegradable; can remobilize heavy metals in waterways.
A metal-binding stabilizer that is safe on skin at the tiny amounts used; its criticism is environmental persistence.
- Allergy risk:Rare reports of sensitivity.
A widely approved blue dye with a benign cosmetic safety record.