PUBLIC RESPONSE TO WHICH? BEST BUYS

At Tropic, the safety of our customers is always our number one priority. As such, we vehemently dispute Which?’s sun cream review, initially published in June 2022, and three independent labs confirm Skin Shade’s SPF30 rating and directly contradict claims made by the magazine. We strongly believe that Which?’s findings are inaccurate.   

Two years have now passed and our questions still haven’t been answered, so, we are no closer to knowing how our formula was assessed and at which lab, nor the testing methodology that led to the failure of every single mineral sun cream in Which?’s report. Our inquiries have been repeatedly refused and still don’t know how our formula was assessed and at which lab.   

We pride ourselves on the efficacy of each Tropic formulation, so our Skin Shade Sun Cream always undergoes rigorous internal and external testing before being shared with customers. As part of our commitment to frequent periodic testing, Skin Shade was tested multiple times, achieving an SPF rating of 32.5.  

However, in light of Which?’s findings, and with full confidence in our formulation, we voluntarily submitted Skin Shade for further rounds of diligent testing at independent accredited labs. These meticulous tests gave Skin Shade an SPF of 32.3 and 31. On top of this, Skin Shade passed its UVA claims in both labs, confirming its broad-spectrum protective qualities.  

These additional tests were performed at a huge expense to Tropic – demonstrating not only our commitment in ensuring the integrity of our formulas, but also the high cost of SPF testing due to the complexity of its methodology, and the investment we are willing to make to protect our reputation. We are confident that these results are conclusive and correct and there has been zero error in our formulation, manufacturing and testing processes.   

It's important to note that the Which? test report refers only to our Skin Shade SPF30, and does not apply to any of our sunscreen products, including our chemical sunscreens – our Great Barrier range, Sun Stick and Lip Shade, as well as any of our makeup that contains SPF.  

As it stands, there is nothing more that we could have possibly done to ensure the safety of our sunscreens. Each has been tested and manufactured in accordance to the strictest GMP and ISO accredited standards. Not only have our sunscreens now been validated by three external independent labs, but they have also been verified by our team of internal scientists who have over 100 years of experience between them.  

For a through outline of the comprehensive testing measures we implemented, please see below:   

We revisited all our GMP and ISO accredited internal records to recheck the methodology of manufacturing of the batch in question. We also re-measured the viscosity, specific gravity, pH, transparency and centrifuge stability of various samples across the batch. 
 
2. We submitted dozens of samples from our packing shelf of the same batch to check for the mineral zinc oxide content (we expect this to be at least 20%) – which would help us determine the SPF value.   
  
3. We sent off the raw material sunscreen ingredient for testing to check the zinc oxide content too – we needed to verify this to ensure there was nothing wrong with our sunscreen ingredient, and that the correct amount of zinc oxide was in it.   
  
4. We sent this batch off to two other large independent labs (different from the original lab we used), as well as all our other sunscreens for re-testing, to determine definitively the SPF result.   
  
5. As we awaited test results, we’d pulled our Skin Shade and all formulations that use the same mineral sunscreen ingredient off the market. Our customer’s health is our priority and these measures were taken as an extra precaution despite our utmost confidence in our product.   
  
We are extremely pleased to say that we received the following results for our Skin Shade SPF30 batch:   
  
1. All manufacturing methods validated and all parameters were within specifications.   
  
2. All zinc oxide levels across various samples in the batch in question are confirmed to have more than 20% present – this is exactly in line with what it should be in our formula, and this high concentration of zinc oxide should yield an SPF 30 result. (This was tested externally by an independent lab).   
  
3. The raw material sunscreen ingredient – which is an ingredient called Xperse from Everzinc is a non-nano zinc oxide powder dispersion in a coconut emollient. The correct concentration of zinc oxide across various batches of this ingredient was also confirmed. This was validated both by an external independent lab as well as the manufacturer, Everzinc.   
  
4. Finally and most importantly, preliminary results from two global leaders in sunscreen testing show SPF 32.3 (Advance Science Labs) and SPF 31 (Princeton Consumer Research) – exactly in line with our claim.   

All test reports can be read here.  

As always, we’re so appreciative for the continued support of our customers and Ambassadors and welcome anyone to get in touch should they have any further questions. Thank you.