Sunscreen company Ultra Violette says it will immediately withdraw its Lean Screen Skinscreen product from the market after new tests found a “pattern of inconsistency” in its SPF results.
The company’s co-founders, Ava Chandler-Matthews and Bec Jefferd, on Friday published the test results in a statement in which they apologised to customers, offered them refunds and instructed them to stop using the product.
Ultra Violette ordered the additional testing after the consumer advocacy group Choice in June published an investigation into the SPF claims of several popular sunscreen brands, including Ultra Violette.
In Choice’s test, the Ultra Violette Lean Screen SPF 50-plus Mattifying Zinc Skin Screen, a higher-end product that retails for upwards of $50, returned an SPF result of just 4 in Choice’s test. A second test returned a result of 5, Choice said.
Ultra Violette had publicly disputed Choice’s findings. But on Friday Chandler-Matthews and Jefferd said the results of their own additional tests had demonstrated “significant” and “atypical” variability.
In a statement posted on Ultra Violette’s website and Instagram, Chandler-Matthews and Jefferd said they had commissioned eight different tests from multiple, independent laboratories.
“Lean Screen has now returned SPF data of 4, 10, 21, 26, 33, 60, 61, and 64,” they said. “That wasn’t good enough for us, and it isn’t good enough for you.”
Chandler-Matthews and Jefferd emphasised that their announcement “only concerns the performance of Lean Screen”. They said tests of Ultra Violette’s other products had “reinforced our confidence in the rest of our line”.
The Choice chief executive, Ashley de Silva, said it had released its sunscreen testing results in June in the interest of the public.
“Today’s announcement from Ultra Violette confirms there is a clear problem with how sunscreen is regulated and tested in Australia,” De Silva said.
“Without Choice’s investigation, Ultra Violette’s Lean Screen would still be on shelves, despite the fact that it does not provide anywhere near the amount of sun protection it claims to.”
De Silva urged the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to provide an update on the investigation into sunscreen testing it began after Choice released its results, saying other brands could also be affected.
The TGA on Thursday published a statement on its website saying its investigation was ongoing.
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“Given the complexity and scale of the material involved, this process will take time,” the regulator said.
“Variability in sun protection factor testing results … is a known issue,” it said.
“The TGA is currently reviewing existing SPF testing requirements. In doing so, the TGA is exploring alternative test methods that may be more reliable, including in vitro test methods.”
