Beyond UV Filters: The ingredients shaping the next generation of sun care

Here comes the sun! Listening to the legendary Beatles song makes us think of summery days of leisure, sipping cool drinks and indulging in the sweet smell of our favourite suncare.

Speaking of which: Choosing a favourite sunscreen is no longer just a matter of SPF value. Users expect a product that feels like caressing skincare. Lightweight, pleasant to wear and effortless to apply every day. Inspired by elegant, sensorial K-Beauty and J-Beauty, modern suncare combines high-performance UV protection with elegant textures and a superior skin feel. At the same time, formulators face growing complexity.

Organic and mineral UV filters each present different challenges, while regulatory developments such as the recent U.S. approval of bemotrizinol (BEMT) continue to expand formulation possibilities. Whatever the filter system, however, one thing remains constant: the formulation base determines how a sunscreen feels, performs and lasts.

IOI Oleo’s emulsifier IMWITOR® 600, for example, enables light, non-sticky water-in-oil emulsions that combine excellent stability with a soft, silky skin feel. Its pigment-wetting properties also promote homogeneous formulations – particularly valuable for mineral sunscreens.

The choice of emollient is equally important. Against this backdrop, MIGLYOL® T-C7 offers excellent dissolving power for organic UV filters, including the newly approved BEMT, while delivering a smooth, lightweight sensory profile. For mineral formulations, MIGLYOL® Coco 810 improves pigment wetting and dispersion through its fast-spreading properties, contributing to greater formulation stability and a dry, delicate finish.

To maintain texture and stability throughout a product’s lifetime, MIGLYOL® Gel ISD provides efficient rheology control. The oleogel’s unique honeycomb-like structure helps suspend pigments and mineral UV filters while creating silky textures and improving thermostability. All those benefits are combined in an easy-to-use, cold-processable system.

Now, consumers love to indulge in the silky feel and pleasant fragrance of their sun protection. End of story? Far from it. After all, sunscreen performs only as well as the protective film it forms on the skin. A continuous, uniform film keeps UV filters evenly distributed, enhances water resistance and supports long-lasting protection. However, many conventional film-formers leave behind an unwanted sticky or heavy after-feel.

IOI Oleo’s SOFTISAN® 650 overcomes this compromise. The naturally derived* film-former creates a lightweight, virtually imperceptible protective film while improving formulation performance. External testing done by a certified third-party laboratory showed an improvement of long-lasting properties compared with a placebo formulation, without increasing glossiness.

Beyond protection, SOFTISAN® 650 also supports the skin barrier by helping reduce transepidermal water loss, making it an ideal solution for today’s hybrid skincare-inspired sunscreens that combine effective UV protection with everyday skin care.

Sunscreen has become an essential part of daily skincare routines. Therefore, it’s only logical that great sun care which consumers love to wear is about so much more than UV filters alone. By combining high-performance emulsifiers, emollients, rheology modifiers and advanced film-forming technologies such as IOI Oleo’s SOFTISAN® 650, formulators can create sunscreens that deliver stability, sensory excellence and long-lasting protection in every application.

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*Natural Origin Index: 1.0 according to ISO 16128