Once upon a time, picking the right bottle of sunscreen was more
like a guessing game than an informed consumer choice. Did you
need an SPF of 100+, or would SPF 15 suffice? Generic or brand
name? Would a $5 product cut it, or did you have to spend five
times that much? And just what were those unpronounceable
ingredients? New FDA-mandated labels are required on almost all
sunscreens by Monday. "The packages will be more about test
results and less about marketing," said an enthusiastic Dr.
Theresa Pacheco, associate professor of dermatology at the
University of Colorado. Here’s Good Housekeeping’s guide to
what’s new. Sensible protection: The Sun Protection Factor (SPF)
indicates a product’s effectiveness against sunburn-causing UVB
rays. If a bare-skinned, fair person reddens in four minutes, an
SPF 30 ups that time to 120 minutes (the simple math, 4 x 30 =
120). The ratings have been around for decades, but in recent
years, there’s been a lot of action on the high end, with an SPF
of 70 hitting the market