The First New US Sunscreens Are Here: What to Buy Now That Bemotrizinol Launched

I’ve been watching the bemotrizinol situation in the US like a hawk for two years. Two years of “it’s coming soon,” two years of importing the La Roche-Posay UVMune from Canada in my carry-on, two years of answering “why is our sunscreen so far behind Europe?” in my DMs. And then, finally — June 2026, the FDA officially added BEMT (bemotrizinol’s technical name) to the OTC sunscreen monograph. Brands could start using it in August. The first products hit shelves this fall.

We’re actually here.

If you want the deep science on what makes bemotrizinol different — why it covers UVA more completely than avobenzone, why photostability matters, why this is genuinely a big deal — read our full bemotrizinol explainer. This piece is about one thing: what to actually buy right now.

How We Chose These Products

A few ground rules before we get into the list. BEMT is brand new on US labels, so the product landscape is still evolving. We focused on brands that were transparent about their updated formulas, disclosed BEMT (bemotrizinol) clearly on the ingredient list, and had products available to test before publication. We looked at texture, finish, ease of daily wear, and whether the formula made genuine use of the filter upgrade — not just added BEMT as a marketing bullet point while keeping an otherwise mediocre base.

SPF number matters, but it’s not everything. How a sunscreen wears over a full day, whether it survives sweat, and whether you’ll actually put it on every morning matters more. A perfect SPF 50 sitting untouched on your bathroom shelf does nothing.

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#1 Best Overall: Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen SPF 50 with BEMT

Look, Unseen was already one of the most-worn daily sunscreens in North America before this reformulation. The texture is legitimately unreal — it goes on clear, grips makeup like a primer, and vanishes into skin in a way that makes you forget you’re wearing SPF. The original formula used a mix of chemical filters that worked fine, but avobenzone-based UVA protection degrades in sunlight over time. The switch to BEMT changes that. Bemotrizinol is photostable, meaning it doesn’t break down the way avobenzone can, and it covers a wider range of UVA wavelengths. The formula feels essentially identical to the original. The protection is meaningfully better.

If you’re looking for the one-sentence pitch: it’s still the easiest sunscreen to wear every day, and now it actually covers your skin the way it should.

Worth noting — it’s not a great pick if you’re acne-prone and silicone-sensitive. That smooth, gripping finish comes from cyclomethicone and other silicones, which can cause congestion for some people. If that’s you, keep reading.

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#2 Best for Sensitive and Acne-Prone Skin: EltaMD UV Clear with Bemotrizinol

EltaMD UV Clear has been dermatologists’ most-reached-for recommendation for sensitive and acne-prone skin for years. It’s fragrance-free, it has niacinamide (good for redness and texture), and the base formula is clean enough that even reactive skin tolerates it well. We’ve covered it in depth in our EltaMD UV Clear review.

The BEMT update takes it from “really solid SPF 46” to “really solid SPF 46 with genuinely excellent UVA protection.” That’s a meaningful distinction for people dealing with hyperpigmentation, melasma, or just anyone who cares about aging — UVA is the main driver of both. If you’re already in the EltaMD ecosystem and you’ve been using UV Clear, the reformulation is a straightforward upgrade. Grab the new version next time you run out.

For a deeper look at UVA protection and why next-gen filters matter for concerns like dark spots, our hyperpigmentation treatment guide covers the UV connection well.

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#3 Best Protection Overall: La Roche-Posay Anthelios UVMune 400 SPF 50+

Here’s the one I’ve been waiting to type. La Roche-Posay’s UVMune formula — with Mexoryl 400, which covers the ultra-long UVA wavelengths that no other filter currently addresses — has been available in Europe and Canada for years. Americans who knew about it were either importing it or resigned to missing out.

It’s here now. And it uses BEMT alongside Mexoryl 400, meaning this formula offers the most comprehensive UV coverage of anything on this list. The combination of Mexoryl 400 (ultra-long UVA) plus BEMT (broad UVA-UVB) plus the rest of the Anthelios filter system is genuinely unprecedented for a US-market sunscreen. The texture is a lightweight fluid that wears well under makeup. It doesn’t pill. It doesn’t leave a white cast.

The only catch is availability — it’s new to US distribution and some retailers are still receiving stock inconsistently. Check La Roche-Posay’s website directly. It’s worth the hunt.

If you want to understand why the UVA range matters this much, our piece on next-gen UV filters and reapplication goes deep on the science.

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#4 Best Budget Pick: Cetaphil Sheer Mineral SPF 50 with BEMT

Eighteen dollars. That’s it. Cetaphil adding BEMT to a fragrance-free, widely available formula is exactly what this filter upgrade needed to mean something for everyday people who aren’t spending $40 on sunscreen. Drugstore accessibility matters.

Is it as cosmetically elegant as Unseen or UVMune? No. The finish is a little more utilitarian — a flat matte-dewy situation rather than that lit-from-within look some of the premium options pull off. But it absorbs cleanly, it doesn’t leave a cast on medium to light skin tones, and it’s at every Walgreens and Target in the country. For the person who wants next-gen UV protection without next-gen pricing, this is the answer.

Sensitive skin note: Cetaphil’s formula philosophy has always been gentle-first. This holds up — no fragrance, no essential oils, nothing that should cause a reaction on reactive skin.

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#5 Best Skincare-SPF Hybrid: Kinship Supermello Hyaluronic Gel Cream SPF 40

Kinship has always sat in the clean beauty space that actually formulates well — they’re not just slapping “natural” on the label and calling it a day. Supermello was already a standout moisturizer-SPF before the filter upgrade, with a bouncy gel-cream texture and real hyaluronic acid hydration built in. Adding BEMT to that base makes it more than a cosmetic win — it’s a genuine two-in-one that now covers your UVA bases properly.

The SPF 40 rating is the one honest hesitation here. It’s not nothing, but if you’re someone who needs maximum protection — very fair skin, history of sun damage, melasma — you’ll probably want one of the SPF 50+ options above. For everyone else, a sunscreen you’ll actually use twice as much as the heavier options is always a net win. Application is covered in our how much sunscreen to apply guide if you want to double-check your habits.

The gel-cream format is especially nice in humid or warm weather. It doesn’t feel suffocating.

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#6 Best for Reapplication: Colorescience Sunforgettable SPF 50 Brush-On with BEMT

Let’s be real: the hardest part of sunscreen isn’t the morning application. It’s reapplying over makeup at noon when you’re at a coffee shop and you definitely didn’t pack anything useful. Colorescience’s brush-on powder format has always been the most elegant solution to that problem, and now that it includes BEMT, the protection behind the convenience is actually solid.

Quick clarification: powder sunscreen should not be your first and only layer of SPF. You cannot physically apply enough powder to hit the labeled SPF coverage from scratch. But as a top-up over a proper sunscreen base — after your morning liquid SPF is four or five hours old — this works well. Our powder sunscreen guide goes through the evidence in detail if you want to understand why the layering approach matters.

The tinted shades are good. Colorescience has been doing this long enough that their shade range isn’t an afterthought.

At $65, yes, it’s expensive for what is functionally a reapplication tool. But if you’re the kind of person who skips midday reapplication because you don’t know how to deal with it over foundation, this pays for itself in actual skin protection pretty fast. How to reapply sunscreen over makeup is something we’ve also covered step by step here.

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Quick Comparison

Product	Price	SPF	Key Filter	Best For	Finish
Supergoop! Unseen	$38	50	BEMT	Daily wear, primer fans	Invisible/satin
EltaMD UV Clear	$41	46	BEMT	Sensitive, acne-prone	Matte
LRP Anthelios UVMune 400	$36	50+	BEMT + Mexoryl 400	Maximum protection	Lightweight fluid
Cetaphil Sheer Mineral	$18	50	BEMT	Budget, drugstore shoppers	Matte-dewy
Kinship Supermello	$30	40	BEMT	Skincare-SPF hybrid	Gel-cream
Colorescience Brush-On	$65	50	BEMT	Reapplication over makeup	Powder/tinted

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A Quick Timeline Note

The FDA approved bemotrizinol for use in US sunscreens in June 2026. Brands were permitted to start formulating with it from August 2026. The products on this list represent the first wave — the brands that moved fast and had reformulated products on shelves by fall 2026. More will follow. By mid-2027, expect BEMT to show up in dozens of additional formulas across every price tier.

If you’re looking at a sunscreen label right now and don’t see bemotrizinol listed, that doesn’t mean the product is bad. Older chemical filters like avobenzone (especially stabilized avobenzone) and zinc oxide-based mineral formulas still offer real protection. The upgrade is meaningful, not mandatory. That said — if you’re due for a new sunscreen anyway, there’s no reason not to grab one with the better filter.

For context on where the US sunscreen filter situation has historically stood versus Europe and Asia, and why this approval took so long, the bemotrizinol explainer covers everything.

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What About Korean Sunscreens?

Fair question. Korean sunscreens have been running laps around US SPF formulas for years precisely because they had access to filters like tinosorb (bemotrizinol’s family) that the FDA hadn’t approved. Many of our best Korean sunscreens picks are still excellent and worth using. But the import markup and availability inconsistency have always been the catch.

Now that BEMT is available in US-market products, the practical gap narrows. You don’t have to shop gray market or wait for international shipping to get well-formulated broad-spectrum protection anymore. That’s genuinely new.

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Methodology

Products were selected based on the following criteria: confirmed bemotrizinol (BEMT) in the ingredient list on US-market versions, availability on US retail shelves by October 2026, brand transparency about the reformulation, and enough real-world wear time to assess texture, finish, and daily wearability. We wore each sunscreen as a primary SPF for a minimum of two weeks, through a mix of indoor and outdoor days. We did not test water resistance in controlled conditions. Ratings reflect our own assessment combined with aggregated user feedback from Sephora, Dermstore, and direct brand sites.

Affiliate relationships exist with some of the retailers linked above. Those relationships don’t influence rankings — if Cetaphil’s $18 drugstore option is the right answer for you, that’s what we say.

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Bottom Line

If you buy one thing from this list: the La Roche-Posay Anthelios UVMune 400 is the most protective sunscreen now available in the US. Full stop. If you want the most cosmetically elegant option, Supergoop! Unseen is still the standard. On a budget, Cetaphil’s BEMT formula gets you there for $18.

The era of “US sunscreens are embarrassingly behind” is over. Welcome to having good options.