Ask the gurus about sunscreen and you get one of the more spirited conversations in skincare. The broad consensus leans positive, but it is not the tidy, unanimous thumbs-up you might expect. There is genuine disagreement here, and the experts who pushed back did so with some force.
The consensus
Across the positive takes, the point that keeps coming up is SPF 50 as the sensible minimum, with the experts noting that price and brand matter far less than simply reaching that number and using the product every day. Several gurus also flag that tinted formulas do more than protect, since a layer of sunscreen can visually smooth texture, soften the look of redness, and cover uneven tone in a way that makes daily compliance feel like less of a chore. Mineral options get a particular nod from some experts for being anti-inflammatory, which means those dealing with sensitivity or active breakouts may find them especially worth seeking out. Practically speaking, the gurus who reviewed it say the best sunscreen is whichever one someone will actually reach for every morning, because consistency is what the protection depends on.
In their words
"Sunscreen should be SPF 50 for plus ideal or at least 3 plus, it doesn't matter the cost, the price doesn't matter, the brand doesn't matter"
"There's a new sunscreen stick that's come out in stick form. It's very convenient, so you can apply it over makeup or over products, and they can reapply it."
"if you really want something that's going to give you a BB cream look get a BB cream or get a sunscreen that's tinted that acts like a BB cream. It'll give you a glow, it'll make you look good and the sunscreen could actually help to smooth out the look of scars and cover redness from blemishes and uneven skin tone. When you put a layer on the skin like sunscreen, which we should be using every day, it literally helps to block out those pores, those textures and even those little discoloration areas."
"And you want to use your mineral SPF 50 because don't forget mineral SPF 50 is anti-inflammatory."
"If you want simple and effective I would say stick with the big three so in my skincare routine the big three are sunscreen, tretinoin and vitamin C. Sunscreen should be simple to use but it's so hard to find one that you really love. Really the sunscreen to use is the one that you'll use every day, the one that you like putting on, the one that you like how it lays under your makeup so you have to find that one."
Where they disagree
This is where things get interesting. A handful of experts push back on the category fairly hard. One raises concerns about the ingredient bases found in many chemical sunscreens, pointing to seed oils high in linoleic acid and to studies suggesting certain sunscreen components are absorbed systemically and detected in the body, with some flagged as potentially harmful. That is a serious claim, and it sits in genuine tension with the more broadly positive takes. Another critical voice takes aim at spray formulas specifically, arguing that much of the product never reaches the skin at all. There is also a note about viral social media tests, where sunscreen is spread on toast to gauge SPF quality; the experts are clear that this tests moisture content, not sun protection, and that a standard moisturiser would produce the same result. So while more gurus than not approve of sunscreen as a daily staple, the dissenting voices are not fringe; they are raising ingredient and delivery questions the broader expert community has not fully resolved.
"Things like spreading sunscreen on toast and then using that to tell whether or not the sunscreen is good, this goes really viral and a lot of people seem to believe it's a good test, but what it's really testing is how wet the sunscreen is, because water is amazing at absorbing heat. If you have like a moisturizer, it's going to do exactly the same thing."
"My major problem with sunscreen is it has a base of seed oils with very high linoleic acid oils and many of them have very nasty components. There's been a recent expose about this, and many of the components in sunscreens do appear in the poop and the pee, meaning that you're absorbing through your whole body and many of them are known carcinogens. Most sunscreen is absolute garbage and it's making you unhealthy."
"Spray sunscreens are not my favorite for two different reasons the first being I'm not a huge fan of spray products for the face the reason being is that most of the time they can be pretty expensive and when you're spraying the product a lot of the product doesn't actually end up on your face it just kind of dissipates into the universe"
The bottom line
The gurus who weigh in positively treat daily sunscreen as one of the few non-negotiable steps in any routine, sitting alongside tretinoin and vitamin C in the shortlist of what actually moves the needle. However, the experts raising concerns about chemical filter absorption and formulation quality suggest that anyone who wants to be cautious may want to lean toward mineral SPF 50 options, which carry a cleaner safety profile in the current literature and come with that anti-inflammatory benefit some gurus mention. Spray formulas are worth approaching with some scepticism given what the critical takes say about delivery efficiency. There is clear respect for the category in the collective expert view, but also an honest signal that not all sunscreens are created equal, and that paying attention to what is actually in the formula is reasonable advice.
The gurus who weighed in
This guide reflects what 12 skincare experts said about Sunscreen across their videos, aggregated by The Guru Index. The approval rating is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it. It is general information, not medical advice.