A March 2013 study from Consumer Reports has ranked sunscreens and found that you don’t have to pay a high price to protect your skin from harsh UV rays.
Here’s what is so funny: The highest-rated sunscreen turned out to be the cheapest one per ounce they tested.
NO-AD with Aloe and Vitamin E SPF 45 got a score of 88 from Consumer Reports and costs only 59 cents an ounce. (In fairness, many of the sunscreens tested got ratings in the 80s, which means many of them are doing a good job protecting you. So the real question truly is cost.)
To give you comparison, a high-end, name-brand sunscreen called La Roche Posey (Anthelios 40 with Mexoryl SX SPF 40) is $20.59 an ounce and scored much lower for effectiveness.
For those who prefer sprays to lotions, the highest-rated spray was Walgreens Continuous Spray Sport SPF 50.
I was talking with a dermatologist last week and she said the real problem is too many people apply sunscreen too sparsely. You need to put gobs of it on your kids. My kids are conditioned to know that it’s a five-minute ordeal while we slather them up before they can go out into the sun. It’s a necessary precaution. But don’t forget yourself either.
If you’re like me and grew up in the generation when nobody wore sunscreen, we’re a ticking time bomb for skin cancer and melanoma. In many cases, early skin cancer detected is just a little aggravation that’s easily treated. But undetected, it can grow into melanoma and cost you your life.
Whatever sunscreen you get, be sure it says “broad spectrum” on the label for maximum protection.
Consumer expert Clark Howard's column appears here each Thursday in conjunction with Deal Spotter, a weekly print section in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Find more answers to your consumer questions at Clark's website. And get more savings tips from Clark's previous blog posts.
-- Clark Howard -- Save More, Spend Less, Avoid Rip-offs -- for the Atlanta Bargain Hunter blog
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