of irritation combination draize irritation scale 6 hours after patch removal test sites were also ranked in order of severity at that time the most severe site was given rank 1 followed by the milder formulation in order of increasing ranks 2 3 4 etc if the irritation at a site exceeds a cumulative score of 2 the sites were not patched again analysis of the mildness was done using the sum of the cumulative ranks a higher score is indicative of a milder formulation as well as based on the number of panelists discontinued the data are presented in table 3 the above results clearly demonstrate that the cosmetic base composition according to the invention example a is milder than the corresponding vanishing cream base formulation comparative example 4 it is known that sunscreen stability particularly that of octylmethoxycinnamate and uncoated zinc oxide is adversely affected in high stearic acid containing formulations to assess the impact of compositions according to the invention in improving the stability and related efficacy of the sunscreens both in vitro and in vivo studies were carried out spf measurement in vitro sun protection factor spf was measured 21 days after manufacture product films were drawn on quartz plates using a 37 micron metal coating draw down tool and allowed to dry in the dark for 30 mins the absorbance of the film on a specific spot on the plate was read from a wavelength of 290 nm to 400 nm using a spf.