You Should Be Wearing Sunscreen on Your Face Every Day

Since our original publication of this blog in April 2018, we’ve written a full guide to face sunscreens.

Of all the skincare potions you can buy, sunscreen is the best. It’s both a health product and a cosmetic, helping to guard against skin cancer and wrinkles alike. And it doesn’t even have to be all that spendy.

I first wrote Wirecutter’s guide to sunscreen three years ago. Since then, I’ve covered everything from bidets to cat litter to treadmills. The most profound thing I’ve learned in all that time researching all those products: You should use sunscreen on your face and neck, every day.

Yes, every day, “unless you are a spelunker,” dermatologist Rachel Herschenfeld of Dermatology Partners told me in 2015. Even if it’s cloudy out, even if you spend a fair amount of time indoors, you’ll still see some sun exposure.

The best, most pleasant, way to establish the habit of applying sunscreen to your face daily is to buy a sunscreen specifically for that purpose—something different from what you slather on at the beach.

There’s nothing wrong with using a body sunscreen on your face. Sunscreens sold for facial use aren’t necessarily different from those you apply elsewhere, as cosmetic chemist Perry Romanowski told us. Like body sunscreens, face sunscreens are available in chemical, physical, and combination formulations.

For any sunscreen to work, you need to apply it liberally and often. A weekend at the beach should handily drain a bottle of our sunscreen pick. That’s in part why, for whole-body application, we think it makes most sense for most people to use inexpensive chemical sunscreens that protect skin with avobenzone and oxybenzone.

Some ingredients in physical sunscreens—such as mineral blockers like zinc oxide—make for pricier lotions that can be a bit hard to rub in. In exchange, they last longer, don’t stain white clothes, and don’t smell as strongly as some “unscented” chemical sunscreens. Anecdotally, physical sunscreens are also less likely to irritate your skin.

Occupying the middle ground are combination sunscreens, which typically contain some zinc instead of avobenzone. Compared with purely chemical sunscreens, combination sunscreens are longer lasting and better smelling, and they won’t stain your clothes.

When you’re choosing a sunscreen for daily use on your face (a small patch of skin compared with the rest of your body, and right next to your nose) and other areas of skin that get regular exposure, it makes sense to pay a bit more and get a mineral or combination formula that’s as pleasant to wear as it is protective. Over the years I’ve been reporting on sunscreen, I’ve learned that if all I have in the house is a large bottle of the chemical stuff, I won’t end up applying it to my face on a daily basis, even though I know very well that I should.

One favorite formula among the Wirecutter staff is CeraVe’s AM Facial Moisturizing Lotion with Sunscreen. This lotion meets our basic requirements for any sunscreen: It offers broad-spectrum, SPF 30 coverage. A combination sunscreen, CeraVe's formula contains both zinc and chemical blockers. It doesn’t smell like much at all. (Maybe glue, if I had to pick something.) It absorbs into skin quickly, much faster than a purely physical blocker. And because it lacks avobenzone, it won’t stain white clothes.

The bottle has a pump and is small enough to sit on a sink or a vanity, or even to fly with. “It's always in my bag,” said senior editor Christine Cyr Clisset, who has been using the CeraVe lotion for several months and applies it an admirable three times a day. She adds that it’s more moisturizing than her former go-to, Olay Complete All Day SPF 30 Facial Moisturizer.

The CeraVe lotion feels more like a moisturizer than a sunscreen, according to Michael Zhao, Wirecutter's new-formats editor: It “doesn’t smell like sunscreen and rubs in more readily.”

We’re not the only ones who like this face sunscreen: Allure praises how it goes on without a white cast, Refinery29 recommends it as a drugstore alternative to pricey moisturizers, and New York Magazine’s The Strategist cites one of its many stellar Amazon reviews.

At about $13.50 for a small bottle, or $4.50 per ounce, the CeraVe lotion is pricier than anything we’d put on our whole bodies—our sunscreen pick is about $1 an ounce—but it should last about a month when you use it on just your face. Estimating a generous quarter-teaspoon (seven pumps) per application, you’ll get 70 applications per bottle. You might be able to cover your chin and neck with that amount too, depending on how big your face is, but when in doubt, go with what feels like a bit much. (You should be protecting all exposed skin parts regularly—if you’re leaving the house in a tank top, put some of the less-pricey body sunscreen on your arms.)

If you’re outside all day, you should be reapplying sunscreen every two hours at least; otherwise, at the start of the day and before you head outdoors for a bit should be fine. Your skin will thank you forever.