Determination of sun protection factor (SPF) of sunscreens by ultraviolet spectrophotometry

The aim of this research was to determine the sun protection factor (SPF) of sunscreens emulsions containing chemical and physical sunscreens by ultraviolet spectrophotometry. Ten different commercially available samples of sunscreen emulsions of various manufactures were evaluated. The SPF labeled values were in the range of 8 to 30. The SPF values of the 30% of the analyzed samples are in close agreement with the labeled SPF, 30% presented SPF values above the labeled amount and 40% presented SPF values under the labeled amount. The proposed spectrophotometric method is simple and rapid for the in vitro determination of SPF values of sunscreens emulsions.