CHOICE, June 2025: 20 Australian Sunscreens Tested
Last updated September 13, 2026
CHOICE bought 20 sunscreens off Australian shelves and had each one tested on a ten-person panel to the Australian standard, publishing every measured figure next to the SPF on the label. Sixteen of the 20 returned a result below their labelled claim on CHOICE's reckoning; the regulator later applied a stricter threshold and counted 18.
What the round was
- Published by CHOICE, Australia
- Date 12 June 2025
- Publishes a measured SPF per product yes
- Original publication 16 of 20 sunscreens didn't meet SPF claims in CHOICE test
Method, as CHOICE states it. AS/NZS 2604:2021, incorporating ISO 24444 (in vivo SPF) and ISO 24443 (in vitro UVA); a 10-person panel under a solar simulator, run at Eurofins Dermatest in Sydney.
What the body itself said about the limits
Republishing a number without the hedge that travelled with it changes what the number means. These are the qualifications the bodies published alongside the results.
…any sunscreen is better than none at all…
Variability of SPF test results associated with the ISO 24444 test is a known problem internationally and domestically
…under the current Australian standard, SPF 50+ products must have a test result of at least SPF 60. The TGA therefore considers that 18 out of the 20 products did not meet the testing requirements.
Consumers are advised that SPFs in the range of 30 to 59 provide 'High protection', while a SPF of 60 or higher (SPF 50+) provides 'Very high' protection. Therefore, products with an SPF of 30 are effective to use.
The 20 products, as CHOICE measured them
Every figure below is CHOICE's, taken from the media release, which lists each product with the value it tested at and describes the lowest result in prose rather than in the list. Each product name links to a page carrying that product's quote, the brand's published response where there was one, and what happened afterwards.
Two of the four products CHOICE counted as meeting their claims — Cancer Council Kid Sunscreen 50+ at 52 and Mecca Cosmetica To Save Body SPF 50+ at 51 — fall on the other side of the line under the threshold the TGA applies, which requires an SPF 50+ product to return a test result of at least SPF 60. That is the whole of the difference between CHOICE's count of 16 failures and the TGA's count of 18. It is one set of measurements and two pass marks.
The retest CHOICE ran before publishing
CHOICE did not publish its lowest result on one laboratory's word. It sent a different batch of the same product to a second laboratory, Normec Schrader Institute, Germany, and published the outcome alongside the first.
The validation test returned an SPF of 5.
The same release named the laboratories: Eurofins Dermatest in Sydney for the main round, and Normec Schrader Institute in Germany for the validation retest, with all 16 failing products run on a ten-person panel to the Australian standard.
Primary documents
SPF List did not test these products. The results on this page were published by the named test body or regulator; quotes and links go to the original publication. Brand responses and later developments are listed where they were published. Formulations change; a result applies to the batch and date tested.