THE FIRST NEW SUNSCREEN INGREDIENT IN 25 YEARS IS FINALLY REACHING THE US

For the first time since 1999, the US Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve a genuinely new sunscreen active ingredient: bemotrizinol, branded by manufacturer DSM-Firmenich as Parsol Shield.

The news broke at the 20th annual Sunscreen Symposium, hosted by the Florida Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists, and if the approval process continues at its current pace, sunscreens containing the ingredient could reach US shelves in the second half of this year.

Bemotrizinol isn't new to sunscreen chemistry globally it's already used in sunscreens across Asia and Europe, including the original Japanese formulation of Bioré's popular UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence SPF 50, a cult favourite among skincare enthusiasts partly because of the lightweight, non-greasy finish its filter combination allows. DSM-Firmenich has been pursuing US approval for the ingredient for roughly two decades, a timeline that reflects how slowly America's sunscreen filter approval process has moved compared with regulatory bodies in Japan, South Korea and the EU, which have approved a considerably wider range of modern UV filters over the same period.

The symposium also flagged a parallel shift in sunscreen testing methodology: researchers are increasingly moving away from traditional tests that expose volunteers to UV light until skin visibly reddens - a method that's both ethically questionable and poorly suited to darker skin tones, where reddening is harder to detect, skewing most historical testing panels toward white participants. Newer UV spectroscopy-based methods, which measure how light interacts with a sunscreen's compounds directly rather than relying on visible skin reaction, promise more inclusive and precise testing going forward.

For American sunscreen users who've watched friends rave about lightweight Asian and European sun-care formulas for years, bemotrizinol's eventual approval represents one of the more concrete regulatory wins in sun care in a long time.