{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "NewsArticle", "@id": "https://badiyaa.com/bemotrizinol-new-us-sunscreen-filter/#article", "mainEntityOfPage": "https://badiyaa.com/bemotrizinol-new-us-sunscreen-filter/", "headline": "US gets its first new sunscreen filter since the 1990s as bemotrizinol reaches American shelves", "description": "The FDA cleared bemotrizinol at up to 6 percent, 21 years after the maker first applied. Ultra Violette is first to sell it in the US, with a second formula due in January 2027.", "datePublished": "2026-10-16T03:16:00+01:00", "dateModified": "2026-10-16T03:16:00+01:00", "author": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Badiyaa Editorial Desk", "url": "https://badiyaa.com/author/editorial-desk/" }, "publisher": { "@type": "NewsMediaOrganization", "@id": "https://badiyaa.com/#organization", "name": "Badiyaa", "url": "https://badiyaa.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://badiyaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/badiyaa-logo-color-600x60-1.png", "width": 600, "height": 60 }, "email": "badiyaavideo@gmail.com", "publishingPrinciples": "https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/", "correctionsPolicy": "https://badiyaa.com/corrections/", "actionableFeedbackPolicy": "https://badiyaa.com/contact/", "ownershipFundingInfo": "https://badiyaa.com/about/#ownership", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61595518283625" ], "parentOrganization": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Rezilient Digital", "url": "https://www.rezilientdigital.com/", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "Fl No 3, Nav Shyam Sadan, Plot No 38, Pestom Sagar, Chembur", "addressLocality": "Mumbai", "addressRegion": "Maharashtra", "postalCode": "400089", "addressCountry": "IN" }, "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/rezilientdigital" ] } }, "isAccessibleForFree": true, "inLanguage": "en-US", "wordCount": 865, "image": [ "https://badiyaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/bemotrizinol-new-us-sunscreen-filter.webp", "https://badiyaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/bemotrizinol-new-us-sunscreen-filter-1024x683.webp" ], "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "keywords": "beauty, bemotrizinol, FDA, skincare, sunscreen", "articleBody": "Sunscreen sold in the United States can now carry bemotrizinol, a UV filter that has been allowed in European Union sunscreens since 2000. It is the first active ingredient the Food and Drug Administration has added to its over-the-counter sunscreen list since the late 1990s, and the first American products built around it went on sale at the start of this autumn. For shoppers the change is less about a higher SPF number and more about feel. Bemotrizinol is an oil-soluble chemical filter, so it sits inside lotions and creams without the chalky white film that zinc oxide and titanium dioxide can leave behind. That is the main reason beauty brands abroad have leaned on it for years. What the agency actually signed off The FDA announced the decision on June 9, 2026, and a formal notice ran in the Federal Register the next day. The order amends the sunscreen monograph, which is the federal rulebook naming the active ingredients a sunscreen may use, how much of each and in which formats. Bemotrizinol is now permitted at up to 6 percent of a formula. The agency classed it as generally recognized as safe and effective, or GRASE in regulatory shorthand, for adults and for children 6 months and older. Its release says the filter covers both ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B rays and shows low absorption through the skin. Karen Murry, who directs the FDA’s Office of Nonprescription Drugs, said the updated framework lets regulators “work with companies to get innovative products to market in a more efficient manner than ever before.” The order is specific about format, too. Brands may put bemotrizinol into an oil, lotion, cream, gel, butter, paste, ointment, stick or spray. Sprays carry a condition: either no propellant at all, or a can design that keeps the propellant sealed away so it never touches the sunscreen itself. On the lab bench, the filter is notably stable. Published measurements cited in its reference entry show 98.4 percent of it still intact after a UV dose equal to 50 minimal erythemal doses, the amount that reddens untanned skin, and it slows the breakdown of avobenzone, a long-used American UVA filter that degrades in sunlight on its own. Why Europe and Asia got there first The gap is mostly a filing question. The European Union regulates sunscreen as a cosmetic. The United States regulates it as an over-the-counter drug, which means every new filter has to clear a drug-style review. The manufacturer, then called DSM Nutritional Products and now dsm-firmenich, first asked US regulators to accept bemotrizinol in 2005, and that request sat for years. The route that finally worked came from the 2020 CARES Act, the pandemic relief law, which let a company ask the FDA to change a monograph through an administrative order rather than a full federal rulemaking. Bemotrizinol is the first new ingredient added to any over-the-counter monograph that way. The long road, by date 2000: approved for sunscreens in the European Union. 2005: first US application filed. March 27, 2020: CARES Act creates the administrative order process. September 23, 2024: new request filed under that process. December 12, 2025: FDA publishes its proposed order; comments close January 26, 2026. June 9 to 10, 2026: final order announced and published, with no changes after comments. August 9, 2026: the order takes effect. September 2026: first products reach US stores. Counted from the first application in 2005 to the June 2026 order, American approval took 21 years, while the final CARES Act request took about 20 months from filing to decision. What is on shelves now, and what comes next Every early product traces back to one supplier. dsm-firmenich sells the ingredient to brands as Parsol Shield and holds exclusive US marketing rights for 18 months. The company says the clinical studies behind its filing enrolled nearly 500 participants chosen to reflect the diversity of the American population. Ultra Violette, the Australian skincare label founded in 2019 by Ava Matthews and Bec Jefferd and stocked at Sephora in the US, UK and Australia, says it was the first brand to sell a bemotrizinol sunscreen in America. Its opening product is Unblock Screen SPF 50 Breakout-Friendly Skinscreen, which pairs the filter with oil-control and hydrating ingredients in an airless pump jar. Jefferd said the brand has been formulating with bemotrizinol in its global range for close to 10 years, which let it move quickly once the US door opened. The wider monograph is still in motion. On September 10, 2026, the FDA removed two older filters, PABA and trolamine salicylate, from the permitted list, while saying it knew of no sunscreen sold in the US that still used either. The agency says it is still working through more than 15,000 public comments on labeling, dosage forms and maximum SPF levels, which it plans to settle in future orders. Ultra Violette’s second bemotrizinol product, Fave Screen SPF 50, a milky formula with 5 percent of the filter plus niacinamide and vitamins C and E, is scheduled for January 2027. Further reading FDA: FDA Expands Sunscreen Options for the First Time in 20 Years FDA: Questions and Answers on FDA's regulatory actions on over-the-counter sunscreen Federal Register: Amending OTC Monograph M020, Sunscreen Drug Products (June 10, 2026) Wikipedia: Bemotrizinol Image: Bill Branson (photographer), National Cancer Institute, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.", "markdown": "https://badiyaa.com/bemotrizinol-new-us-sunscreen-filter.md" }