Best Sunscreen for Swimming

Welcome to our best sunscreen for swimming review!

Protecting yourself from the sun’s harmful radiation is critical when swimming. You’ll likely be outdoors with a lot of your skin exposed to the sun for extended periods (and the water can intensify the sunlight and resulting damage). This makes you particularly susceptible to UV radiation, increasing your risk of melanoma and potentially causing your skin to sag and wrinkle before it otherwise would.

To protect yourself you should be using only the best quality sun protection equipment and thinking about your swimming. You should have quality swimwear with UV protection and be planning your swims in less intense sunlight (early morning and late afternoon).

These are great first steps, but nothing can substitute for the protection offered by a sunscreen designed for use in the water.

Best Sunscreen for Swimming Comparison

Buyer’s Guide 

For a sunscreen to protect you from the sun while swimming, there are certain requirements:

Broad spectrum protection

Sunlight contains two types of ultraviolet (UV) radiation – UVA and UVB. UVB radiation causes visible damage to your skin in the form of sunburn. UVA radiation is a little more deceptive as it isn’t immediately obvious. Its damage comes in the form of altering DNA in deep skin cells which can lead to skin cancer and advancing the signs of aging.

Sunscreens with broad spectrum protection shield you from both UVA and UVB radiation. This is the gold standard of sun protection. Sunscreens without it should be ignored as they only offer protection from UVB radiation and burning. This leaves you exposed to skin aging and melanoma.

Make sure you check the labels on your sunscreen for ‘UVA/UVB protection’ and ‘broad spectrum’ wording. Be wary if you can’t find this as that product will likely endanger your skin.

Broad spectrum protection is especially important for swimming as the intensity and extent of sun exposure to the majority of your body during a swim could have serious consequences without adequate protection.

SimplySunSafe only recommends broad spectrum sunscreens as they are the only products to offer complete UV protection.

Best SPF for Swimming

Sun protection factor (SPF) is one of the only things people know about the sunscreens they use. But do they actually know what it means? Once you get beyond higher is better, most people can’t provide a definition for what they consider the most important factor when they buy a sunscreen. You won’t be one of these people after this.

SPF is a multiplier to determine the time it will take you to burn using a specific sunscreen. You take the time is takes you to burn without protection and multiply this by the SPF to get the time you’ll be protected for. So an SPF 15 sunscreen on someone who takes 10 minutes to burn will provide 150 minutes of protection. The same sunscreen on someone who burns in only 5 minutes provides just 75 minutes of protection.

This is a confusing measure for something as important as sunscreen effectiveness. If your skin is resilient enough to not burn for 20 minutes and you use an SPF 50 sunscreen, you’d easily be tricked into thinking you’ll get more than 16 hours of protection. This, of course, doesn’t happen as sunscreen usually lasts a maximum of 2 hours. This time is further reduced by sweat and/or water (see water resistance below). So don’t just rely on SPF math and instead work regular reapplication, sunsafe swimwear, and natural shade into your sun protection behaviours.

There are a couple of other important things to know about SPF:

• It only indicates protection from UVB radiation. To understand a sunscreen’s UVA protection you need to know which active ingredients are best (see more below).
• The protection time indicated by SPF is arbitrary and unreliable as it’s also determined by light intensity and thickness of the sunscreen you’ve got on. This makes any time you could calculate pretty much useless.
• The way sunscreens are marketed leads people to believe that SPF 15 sunscreens provide half the protection of SPF 30 sunscreens. This couldn’t be further from the truth as the table below will show you.

To make things a lot clearer and help us choose and SPF to use, let’s just look at the protection each SPF rating offers in the form of the percentage of UVB radiation blocked:

SPF Rating	UVB Protection
None	0%
2	50%
15	93%
30	97%
50	98%
100	99%

This makes things a lot simpler than the actual definition of SPF. Here we can see that SPF levels above 30 provide minimal extra protection. This isn’t clear from the SPF ratings and companies used to take advantage of this, charging a lot more for SPF 100+ sunscreens that weren’t a significant improvement on SPF 30 sunscreens. That’s why the cap of SPF 50+ is now imposed by the FDA.

So now you’ve got a better idea of what SPF means, which rating should you use? I take the side of experts on this and recommend SPF 30 or above. Sunscreens with this rating provide great protection that’s more than enough to keep your skin happy, healthy, and safe. If you’re particularly fair (and therefore more photosensitive) you may want to choose a higher SPF, but you can make that decision based on the numbers above.

Physical not chemical

Sunscreens protect you from radiation in different ways. Physical sunscreens sit on the skin and reflect sunlight away from your skin. Chemical sunscreens work by absorbing the radiation before it gets to your skin. This difference is important as one is better than the other.

Research has been done about the effectiveness of each method of protection and the results are in. Physical sunscreens stop more radiation reaching the skin – it’s as simple as that. Physicals also last longer on the skin, are less likely to irritate the skin, work immediately upon application, and have a longer shelf life.

If you aren’t convinced to ditch your chemical sunscreen already, know that many chemical sunscreens contain endocrine disruptors (ingredients that mess with with your hormones). One of the most dangerous (and scarily common) of these is oxybenzone – an ingredient basically written off by sunscreen safety authority the EWG.

Check your sunscreen labels for the words ‘physical’ or ‘mineral’. This means you’ve got a sunscreen with safe ingredients that provides more effective protection. If you can’t find this wording, look for high levels of zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide (the active ingredients in physical sunscreens).

Water-resistant

After providing enough protection, water resistance is the most important feature of a sunscreen for swimming. It will make sure you stay protected throughout your swim and will prevent sunscreen getting into your eyes, stinging and slowing you down.

This is no mean feat as swimming is rigorous exercise through water. You’ll be sweating your sunscreen off while the water around you tries to strip it away. This is an uphill battle, but there are sunscreens on the market up to the task.

Back in the day sunscreens would label themselves as 8+ hours waterproof and sweatproof. You don’t find these products anymore because changes to labeling regulations banned the words ‘waterproof’ and ‘sweatproof’ and approved only the use of ‘water-resistant’.

The new rules also limited the times you could claim. Now you’ll only see 40 or 80 minutes – a far cry from the hours companies could claim a few years ago. These rules protect consumers from ridiculous claims and help to remind people to reapply regularly (although this isn’t necessarily possible during a swimming marathon).

To make sure you’re getting a quality water-resistant sunscreen for swimming, make sure you stick to those that promote themselves as water-resistant for up to 80 minutes. This doesn’t sound that impressive, but it’s the best indication you’ve got.

Another (less reliable) way to pick a decent swimming sunscreen is to check the package for ‘sport’, ‘water’, or ‘ocean’ labeling. Although these are marketing terms, the manufacturer usually takes steps to test these products in those conditions. This is because their target audience will use them as advertised and provide them with the feedback they deserve. So if one of these sunscreens is highly rated/recommended, you know that feedback is relevant to the way you’ll use it.

Rub on lotion not spray

The market share of spray sunscreens has been increasing in recent years. This is probably because of the perceived convenience of spray-on application. But don’t be sucked into this marketing ploy. The FDA has been warning people about the dangers of spray sunscreens for years. They are especially concerned about the dangers of these products to children.

Basically, breathing in sunscreen chemicals can lead to lung injury as this is a far more direct form of exposure. This is especially true when the sunscreen contains nano-sized and micronized ingredients.

As if that wasn’t enough, spray sunscreens are believed to provide inadequate protection from the sun as their method of application makes it difficult to create a consistent layer that covers all exposed areas.

The FDA has threatened to ban spray sunscreens, though they are still legal to sell. Before the ban hits, companies are taking steps to provide evidence of their safety. They’ve already had years and no such data exists. For this reason spray sunscreens aren’t recommended on SimplySunSafe.

Appropriate for daily use

If you swim often, the sunscreen you choose will be in action frequently. This is why you should look for sunscreens with a formulation gentle enough that it can be used daily without affecting your skin.

This is particularly true for swimmers with sensitive skin. From the recommendations below, Badger Sport Sunscreen has the fewest ingredients and is 100% natural. Definitely read about all of the products listed, but that’s probably the best sunscreen for swimmers with sensitive skin.

5 Best Sunscreens for Swimming

After thorough research that combined discussing issues with customers, reviewing customer feedback, examining manufacturer specifications, and participating in skincare and swimming forums SimplySunSafe has chosen the 5 best sunscreens for swimming. All of these sunscreens provide broad spectrum protection, have the maximum marketable level of water resistance, and are suitable for daily use.

1. SolRX Waterblock SPF 44 Dry Zinc Sunscreen

Last update on 2023-10-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

This is our best sunscreen for swimming, SolRX Waterblock SPF 44 Dry Zinc Sunscreen is a combined physical and chemical sunscreen that is highly recommended within the swimming community. It is rated as one of the best sunscreens by long distance swimmers who spend hours in the water at a time. It uses a combination of zinc oxide (10%), octinoxate (7.5%), and octisalate (5%) to offer broad spectrum protection.

I’m happy to recommend this sunscreen as it’s not purely chemical and contains zinc oxide, the most effective sunscreen active ingredient. However, I will mention that octinoxate and octisalate are on the worse end of the toxicity scale as chemical ingredients go. It’s not as bad as oxybenzone, but if you have sensitive skin, I’d probably give this one a miss.

The Dry Zinc formula cuts down on the greasy feeling of similar products, goes on dry, and absorbs into the skin well compared to its purely physical counterparts. This sunscreen is oil-free and reef-friendly which gives ocean swimmers peace of mind.

Originally designed for use by athletes in the ocean, SolRX Waterblock SPF 44’s formulation will not sting your eyes.

SolRX Waterblock sunscreens are marketed as 80-minute water resistant. Before the new rules came in these products were marketed as offering 8-hour protection and the company still makes the claim that their sunscreens retain 97% of their SPF after the industry standard 6-hour immersion test. This is why SolRX Waterblock is so highly regarded by swimmers.

This sunscreen is very reasonably priced for its quality. That’s a huge bonus for swimmers as you’ll go through it quickly!

2. Badger SPF 35 Sport Sunscreen

Last update on 2023-10-04 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Badger SPF 35 Sport Sunscreen is a physical sunscreen that uses a particularly high concentration of zinc oxide (22.5%) to offer broad spectrum protection. With only five ingredients that are certified as 100% natural and 98% organic, this sunscreen has the simplest formula on this list.

It consists only of zinc oxide, sunflower oil, beeswax, jojoba oil, and sunflower vitamin E, making it great for people with sensitive skin. Unless you have an issue with one of those five natural ingredients, it’s unlikely this sunscreen will cause any irritation. It is listed as being unscented, but the antioxidant-rich sunflower oil base has a mild fragrance (smells like oatmeal) that won’t cause any issues.

Badger Sport is water-resistant for up to 80 minutes, the maximum guarantee available to users who want to test the limits of this sunscreen by combining serious exercise and water. The natural ingredients are a bonus for ocean swimmers as this product is biodegradable, non-nano, and safe for coral reefs – so no harm will come to the environment from its use.

The zinc oxide provides fantastic, balanced UV protection. As with most physical sunscreens it does take some time to rub in properly and it will also leave a white cast on all but the lightest of skin tones. Just be careful you don’t rub against anything after application as it has a reputation for coming off on other surfaces.

The negative feedback on this product is that is feels greasy and is hard to get off. As far as I’m concerned that’s an advertisement to swimmers – this sunscreen does it’s job and won’t come off! If you want great protection when swimming for an extended period, this is a hard sunscreen to say no to.

Badger Sport is recommended by SimplySunSafe as the best beach sunscreen and one of the best lifeguard sunscreens, so you know it’s a product we love and trust.

3. BurnOut Ocean Tested Physical SPF 30+

Last update on 2023-10-03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

BurnOut Ocean Tested Physical SPF 30+ is a physical, water-resistant sunscreen suitable for use in ocean waters (it’s all in the name really). It uses a high (20%) concentration of zinc oxide to provide effective and balanced UV protection.

BurnOut is a great sunscreen company with many amazing sunscreens. They have a focus on user and environmental safety that comes through in every single product. Ocean Tested Physical is chemicals, parabens, petroleum, and PABA-free. It’s also biodegradable, ocean-safe, cruelty-free, and vegan. Products don’t come much cleaner and greener than those produced by BurnOut.

This mineral sunscreen has a smooth texture that’s better than most other physicals and makes it easy to apply. It’s jammed full of natural ingredients which is great for people with sensitive skin and is enriched with hemp seed oil, aloe vera, and antioxidant vitamins to soothe and rejuvenate already damaged skin. It doesn’t have any added fragrance and instead has a mild smell similar to most natural sunscreens. This shouldn’t worry you unless you’re particularly sensitive to fragrances.

Ocean Tested Physical offers the highest level of marketable water resistance (80 minutes) and was originally designed for water-based athletes. It takes a bit to rub in properly and will leave a white cast on most people, but that’s the price you pay for the amazing sun protection you get. You can rest assured that this stuff isn’t going anywhere once it’s on.

The majority of negative reviews for Ocean Tested Physical are about a formula change from a few years ago where BurnOut added some ingredients that weren’t fully understood from a toxicity standpoint at the time. BurnOut acted on this and corrected the formula based on the feedback they received. This product now has the highest possible EWG rating.

4. Watermans SPF 50+ Aqua Armor Lotion

Last update on 2023-10-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Watermans SPF 50+ Aqua Armor Lotion is a physical-chemical hybrid sunscreen that uses zinc oxide (20%), homosalate (13%), and octocrylene (5%) as its active ingredients. This is the highest level of zinc oxide I’ve seen in a physical-chemical sunscreen and that concentration alone is enough for most physical sunscreens. It was specifically designed for the rigors of ocean use (sun, wind, and saltwater) and offers very good broad spectrum protection.

Chemical ingredients like homosalate and octocrylene have some issues with toxicity. They’re nowhere near as bad for you as oxybenzone as they get a fair rating from the EWG, but this is still something to consider. I’m comfortable with it appearing in this list as it is very highly regarded in the ocean-swim and surfing communities and it still uses a very high concentration of zinc oxide for physical protection.

These ingredients also aren’t great if you’ve got sensitive skin. I’d probably recommend one of the pure physicals for you instead.

Watermans Aqua Armor goes on thick and is likely to leave a white cast which is to be expected with such a high concentration of zinc oxide. It has the 80-minute water resistance level you should be looking for in a swimming sunscreen and the feedback it gets is a testament to its long-lasting ability to stay put during use. It doesn’t run or sweat off so your eyes are safe with this product.

The packaging of this product is one of its unique features. It comes in an environmentally friendly, easy-to-squeeze pouch. Its flexibility allows it to fit just about anywhere and also comes with a carabiner (metal clip) so it can be accessible during your adventures.

This is the most expensive sunscreen featured on this list. If you have a budget to stick to you might want to look at one of the other more affordable options higher on this list as they are better sunscreens and therefore better value for money.

5. Headhunter SPF 50 Clear Sunscreen

Last update on 2023-10-01 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Headhunter SPF 50 Clear Sunscreen is a hybrid physical and chemical sunscreen that uses zinc oxide (12%), octinoxate (7.5%), octocrylene (7%), and octisalate (5%) to provide broad spectrum protection. This sunscreen is recommended by long distance swimmers and was specifically designed to be effective when used in the ocean.

As mentioned earlier, chemical ingredients like octinoxate, octocrylene, and octisalate aren’t the best ingredients in terms of toxicity. However, they aren’t not the worst (oxybenzone) and still get a fair to limited-use rating from the EWG. I’m comfortable with it appearing in this list as it is very highly regarded in the swimming community and it still uses physical protection in the form of zinc oxide.

Headhunter Clear is fragrance and PABA-free, and doesn’t feel greasy on the skin. It’s not the most suitable sunscreen recommended here for sensitive skin, though it is classified as hypoallergenic. Although it’s good as staying put on your skin, if it does get in your eyes it shouldn’t sting.

It has the best level of water resistance marketable (80 minutes) and its users rave about its ability to provide lasting protection despite sweat and swell. It goes on thick and will leave you looking a little white, but that just helps you know when to reapply.

Marathon swimmer alternatives

Research for this guide led me to some interesting home remedies for swimmers who will be in the water for hours and hours at a time. Most importantly a lot of experienced swimmers recommend you apply sunscreen at least twice before getting in water, letting the first coat dry before adding the second. They also recommend a couple of products that aren’t sunscreens in the traditional sense.

The first is Desitin (the diaper rash cream). This product contains zinc oxide and although not SPF-rated or marketed as water resistant, it blocks the sun’s rays and is almost impossible for water alone to remove. It won’t look pretty, but they say it gets the job done!

The second is straight zinc oxide. This comes in both ointment (similar to Desitin) and powder form. This is the best active ingredient a sunscreen can have, so it’s ultimately not that different from the other recommendations made here. Just make sure you know how to apply it, otherwise you should be good to go.

If you’re interested in these products, I’d recommended looking into their application as sunscreen alternatives.

Wrap Up on Best Sunscreen for Swimming

This guide to the best sunscreens for swimmers has hopefully helped you choose a sunscreen to suit your swimming needs. On top of this, it should have armed you with the knowledge to choose a great sunscreen with all of the necessary features to protect you.

SolRX Waterblock SPF 44 Dry Zinc Sunscreen stood out as the best sunscreen for swimming. With that said, all 5 products featured here do a great job protecting you in the water. If you’re not convinced about SolRX Waterblock Dry Zinc, choose the next best that sound like it suits your needs. Remember you can always come back an experiment with other sunscreens if your first choice doesn’t work out. Just keep trying until you find the one that best suits your skin and needs.

If you’re a dedicated swimmer who already has a product you swear by, let me know in the comments. I’ll do some research on it and consider adding it to my recommendations.

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