La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Wet Skin Sunscreen SPF 50+.

Sunscreen

About this product

A water-resistant, high-protection SPF 50+ sunscreen from La Roche-Posay's Anthelios range, designed to be applied to wet or dry skin for daily sun protection.

Full ingredients

Aqua/Water, Homosalate, Drometrizole Trisiloxane, Ethylhexyl Salicylate, Bis-Ethylhexyloxyphenol Methoxyphenyl Triazine, Ethylhexyl Triazone, Glycerin, Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane, Isohexadecane, Alcohol Denat, Propanediol, Dicaprylyl Ether, Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer, Dimethicone, Acrylates/Dimethicone Copolymer, P-Anisic Acid, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Carbomer, Disodium EDTA, Glyceryl Oleate, Hydrogenated Palm Glycerides Citrate, Lecithin, Nylon-12, PEG-8 Laurate, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopherol, Triethanolamine

Guru Score

74%

Mixed

4 experts · Moderate agreement

What the gurus are saying

Hard to rinse off is the point: this gel dries fast, holds through sweat and swimming, and tested at a reported SPF of 72. It may take a couple of soaks in the shower to break down, which fans take as proof it's working. One dissent found a thick white cream with a strong cast, though others saw none or only a mild one.

Synthesized from 4 expert reviews · most recent take June 2025

What they liked

Excellent water resistance, holds up in swimming
Fast-drying formula
Strong UV protection tested at SPF 72

What they flagged

Very difficult to remove, even in the shower

Best for

Dry skin

Type

SunscreenSpray & mist

Key actives

Vitamin CVitamin ESPF

Formula notes

Fragrance-freeContains drying alcohol

Where to buy

Ulta → Amazon → Google →

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Scan it in the shopFree iPhone app. Scores in the aisle.

What the experts use it for.

The concerns the experts tie this product to, in their own words. Paid and founder takes don't count.

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

All takes Yay takes Nay takes Mixed takes Hide sponsored

No BS Beauty

89k subs

~Yay

"La Roche-Posay Wet Skin Sunscreen SPF 50 passed with a reported SPF of 72, which is amazing."

Kelly Driscoll

91k subs

~Yay

"This is my go-to body sunscreen when I need something high protection water resistant hardworking for high UV hot days. [...] This is also one of the few sunscreens that I feel very protected if I were to go swimming with. I used this when I was in Greece when I would swim in the sea, this is what I would choose to protect my skin with. Really really good one, 10 out of 10."

All 4 takes from Kelly Driscoll

Ranking My Skincare Empties with Emojis! Summer '23 Edition

"The reason I go out of my way to find this is really the texture is amazing. This is not that creamy heavy really rich type of texture that makes your skin feel really greasy and like you have to jump in the shower immediately because you're just like coated in like thick plasticky creamy greasiness. This is a gel texture, a true gel texture, so it's a really thin elegant layer that absorbs and dries so quickly on the skin."

Sweaty Sunscreen 🥵 | High Protection for Swimming, Sweating and Enjoying the Sun!

"You might need to soak a couple times to really break it down. That's why I'm saying I really trust this sunscreen to live up to just some sweating or even swimming because it's really hard to break down in the shower. No white cast whatsoever. A really pleasant texture that dries really quickly. That's important for body sunscreen [...] because you don't want to be standing around waiting for your sunscreen to dry before you can do anything else."

Ranking Summer Skincare Empties! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

June Faves (+Fails) | By Wishtrend, Cosrx, Versed, Avene, LRP, GR

"I absolutely love this. It's chemical sunscreen, it actually uses a mixture of new generation and older generation chemical filters. I'm not even bothered by it because this is so stinking sweat and water resistant, oh my God, like I can hardly remove this in the shower, and that might be a headache for some people, but like that just proves to me how well this is protecting my skin when I am sweating from head to toe. This is actually the kids version, the dermal Pediatrics."

HotandFlashy

1.23M subs

~Nay

"This is a very thick white cream much like diaper paste. Not shockingly it goes on white, it doesn't blend well, and it leaves a strong white cast."

Dr Dray

2.69M subs

~Yay

"I also like the mineral one. The cast on this is pretty mild for an SPF 50 mineral sunscreen and it's water resistant."

What the evidence says.

Independent of what the gurus think, this is what the published research supports about the main active ingredients here.

Vitamin C

Topical vitamin C is an antioxidant with reasonable evidence for dullness and uneven tone. It breaks down in light and air, so how a product is formulated and packaged matters as much as the percentage on the front.

Source: DermNet

Sunscreen filters

Sun protection is the best evidenced way to slow visible ageing, and the filters are what does the work. Mineral and chemical filters both protect when a product is applied thickly enough and often enough, which is where most people fall short rather than on the choice of filter.

Source: DermNet

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is an antioxidant, and it is often in a formula to keep the other ingredients stable rather than as the active itself. It pairs well with vitamin C, though on its own the evidence for visible change is limited.

Source: NIH, National Library of Medicine

Frequently asked.

What is La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Wet Skin Sunscreen SPF 50+?

A water-resistant, high-protection SPF 50+ sunscreen from La Roche-Posay's Anthelios range, designed to be applied to wet or dry skin for daily sun protection.

Is La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Wet Skin Sunscreen SPF 50+ worth it?

The gurus mostly approve it, but with enough reservations to keep it in the middle at a Guru Score of 74%.

What is La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Wet Skin Sunscreen SPF 50+'s Guru Score?

La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL Wet Skin Sunscreen SPF 50+ holds a Guru Score of 74%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 4 expert reviewers we have collected.