§ Claim under review · Mixed
"Mezclar dos protectores solares diferentes para hacer tu propio tono altera la fórmula y hace que la protección ya no sea la que indica el envase" (Caption version: "No mezcles protectores solares de diferentes tonos para hacer 'tu color'. Se altera la fórmula y la protección ya no es la que dice el envase.")
Verdict
Mostly accurate
Confidence
MediumSummary
The advice not to blend two different sunscreens to make a custom tint is mostly sound, but for a narrower reason than it sounds. An SPF number is a lab result for one specific product, measured by applying a fixed amount of that exact formula to skin under a standard test. Mix two products together and what is on your skin is no longer the thing that was tested, so the number on either bottle has not been verified for it. What nobody has actually measured is whether blending two sunscreens makes protection worse, and if so by how much. The closest real evidence comes from a different situation, sunscreen combined with insect repellent, where a clinical trial found protection dropped, and from lab work showing that UV filter combinations do not simply add up. Pointing the other way, one study found that moisturiser applied just before or after sunscreen did not reduce its measured effectiveness, though that is layering rather than mixing. So the caution is reasonable and the reasoning about the label is correct, but the claim is firmer than the evidence on this specific habit, which has not been tested. This is general information, not medical or dermatological advice.
The readings
key figures from the evidenceproduct quantity applied in ISO 24444 SPF test
countries using ISO 24444 in vivo SPF method
claimed UVB protection reduction from sunscreen dilution (unverified figure)
Why this verdict
Evidence
An SPF number is not a property of the UV filters in the abstract. It is a measured result obtained on one specific finished formulation, applied under a fixed condition. FDA describes the "determined" SPF as the value produced by the SPF testing required under its regulation, and notes that a product's determined SPF may differ from the SPF statement on its label. The ISO 24444 in vivo method, used for SPF determination in roughly sixty countries, applies a controlled quantity of the product, 2 mg per square centimetre, evenly to a marked area of human skin. Both frameworks test the product as it is sold.
No published study was located that mixed two finished sunscreen products together and measured the SPF of the blend. The nearest direct evidence concerns sunscreen combined with a different topical product: Murphy and colleagues' human clinical trial reported that sunscreen loses efficacy when used together with the insect repellent DEET, and a 2025 ex vivo human skin model reported that a commercial sun cream protected against UV effects while concomitant repellent application impaired that protection.
Formulation evidence shows that UV filter performance in a mixture is not simply additive. Couteau and colleagues tested combinations of inorganic filters such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide with EU-authorised organic UVB filters in vitro and found that the SPF of the combination is not predictable from the components alone.
Evidence also exists in the other direction for a related but distinct practice. Gálvez and colleagues compared UV absorption by sunscreen with and without a moisturising cream applied shortly before or shortly after, using ultraviolet reflectance photography, and reported that sunscreen effectiveness was not altered by concomitant use of moisturiser. That study tested sequential application, not blending in the palm.
Separately, how a product is spread matters to the protection actually obtained. Liverpool researchers using UV photography found facial and eyelid coverage was poorer with SPF moisturisers than with sunscreen.
Findings
✓ What's accurate 4
- An SPF number is established by testing one specific finished formulation under a fixed protocol. ISO 24444 applies a controlled 2 mg per square centimetre of the product to marked human skin, and FDA defines the determined SPF as the result of the testing its regulation requires. A blend made by the user in the hand is not the formulation that was tested, so the printed number has not been established for it.
- Combining a sunscreen with another topical product on the skin can reduce measured sun protection. A human clinical trial found sunscreen loses efficacy when used with the repellent DEET, and an ex vivo human skin model reported impaired UV protection when repellent was applied with sun cream.
- UV filter performance in a mixture is not additive. In vitro testing of inorganic filters combined with authorised organic UVB filters found that the resulting SPF is not predictable from the individual components.
- The claim does not quantify the change or assert that protection disappears. It asserts only that the labelled value no longer applies, which matches how SPF is defined and measured.
≈ What's misleading 4
- The claim states as established fact that mixing two sunscreens alters the formula. No published test of blending two finished sunscreen products was found. The supporting evidence comes from a different combination, sunscreen with insect repellent, and from formulation studies of filter systems. Applying those results to tint blending is an extension beyond what was measured.
- The wording implies the protection changes in a known direction. Nothing in the located evidence establishes whether the SPF of a blend of two tinted sunscreens falls, stays similar, or lands between the two. "Not the tested value" and "lower than the label" are different statements, and the claim's phrasing invites readers to hear the second.
- Reasoning about film uniformity and filter distribution, which is how this advice is usually explained in general-audience coverage, is a mechanism, not a measurement. It can motivate caution but does not establish an effect.
- At least one human study points the other way for a neighbouring practice: moisturiser applied shortly before or after sunscreen did not alter measured sunscreen effectiveness. That study used sequential application rather than blending, so it does not refute the claim, but it does show that combining sunscreen with another product does not automatically degrade protection.
? What's uncertain 5
- Whether blending two finished sunscreens changes the delivered SPF at all, and by how much, is unmeasured. No trial or in vitro study of this specific practice was found.
- Whether the answer depends on the pairing is unknown. Two emulsions of the same chemistry at the same SPF, an organic filter product blended with a mineral one, and products with different pH or different emulsion type would plausibly behave differently, and none have been compared.
- Whether the labelled SPF of either input product survives dilution by the other in any practical sense is unknown, since the blend ratio a user chooses is unconstrained.
- No evidence was found on whether blending affects UVA protection or photostability, which the claim does not address but which the label number also covers in jurisdictions using a UVA requirement.
- The specific labelling rule applying where this post was published was not retrieved, so the verdict rests on the US rule and the ISO method rather than on a named local instrument.
Sources
8 of 8 linked to recordsFDA, "Sunscreen Drug Products for Over-the-Counter Human Use" (guidance) and 21 CFR 201.327(i)
FDA, "Labeling and Effectiveness Testing: Sunscreen Drug Products for OTC Human Use, Small Entity Compliance Guide"
ISO 24444 in vivo SPF determination, protocol summary (Eurofins testing laboratory)
Murphy ME, Montemarano AD, Debboun M, Gupta R. "The effect of sunscreen on the efficacy of insect repellent: a clinical trial." J Am Acad Dermatol, 2000
Couteau C. et al. "Effect of the combination of organic and inorganic filters on the SPF determined by in vitro method." Int J Pharm, 2007
Gálvez MV et al. "Sunscreens effectiveness are not altered by concomitant use of moisturizing creams: an ultraviolet reflectance photography study." Photodermatol Photoimmunol Photomed, 2022
Computational histology study of repellent applied with sunscreen, ex vivo human skin model, Parasites & Vectors, 2025
Lourenco EAJ et al. "Application of SPF moisturisers is inferior to sunscreens in coverage of facial and eyelid regions." PLOS ONE, 2019; British Association of Dermatologists press summary