Why order matters
A sun protection pack is designed to be seen rather than read, and the visual hierarchy is the reverse of the informational one. The largest element is a two digit number that describes one property under laboratory conditions. The smallest elements include the conditions, the responsible party, the durability and the ingredients.
Reading in a deliberate order corrects for that. What follows is the sequence, with what each step actually tells you and what it does not.
1. The function statement
Somewhere on the pack, usually near the product name, is a statement of what the product is. Under the cosmetics regime the function must be indicated where it is not clear from the presentation, which is why packs state that they are a sun protection product rather than leaving it to inference.
This step matters more than it sounds, because it is the first place a distinction shows up between a sun protection product and a product with sun protection in it. That distinction is examined in a sunscreen versus a product with an SPF in it.
2. The factor and its category word
The numeral, and next to it one of four category words: low, medium, high or very high protection. The word is the more useful of the two, because it is the only element on the pack that means the same thing on every pack and requires no interpretation.
The numeral is a ratio measured against reddening under laboratory conditions, rounded down to a permitted labelling figure. It is not a percentage, not a duration and not a description of performance in use. The full account is in what SPF is a measure of.
3. The circled UVA mark
The letters UVA in a circle. It records that the product meets a recommended threshold: ultraviolet A protection of at least a third of the labelled factor, with a critical wavelength criterion.
It is a pass mark rather than a level. Its bar rises with the factor, so the same mark on a high factor product represents more absolute protection than on a low factor one. Its absence does not mean poor performance, only that the claim has not been made. A star rating, where present, is a separate voluntary system describing a ratio rather than a level.
4. Water resistance wording, and its conditions
If the pack says water resistant, look for what is attached to it. A tested immersion condition, a duration, or a direction to reapply after swimming and towel drying all tell you where the claim ends.
If the pack says waterproof or sweatproof, that is a claim of a character guidance says should not be made, and it is worth noticing as a signal about the care taken with the rest of the label.
| Element | What it records | What it does not |
|---|---|---|
| Function statement | That the product is for sun protection | How it compares with anything else |
| Factor and category | A tested ratio, rounded down, and its band | A percentage, a duration or performance in use |
| Circled UVA mark | A threshold relative to the labelled factor | A level or a margin |
| Water resistance wording | That immersion testing supports a resistance claim | That water has no effect, or how long it lasts |
| Directions | How the product is intended to be used | Anything, unless they are read |
| Responsible person | Who carries the legal obligations | Who manufactured it |
| Durability marking | A date, or a duration after opening | How the product was stored |
| Ingredient list | Which filters are present, in order of weight | Their concentrations |
Framework of this publication. It describes how published rules and guidance fit together and is not a measurement, a survey or a study.
5. The directions
Usually the least prominent text on the pack and often the most useful. It tells you to apply generously, to apply before exposure, and to reapply frequently, particularly after swimming, towelling, perspiring or rubbing.
Read that against the front of the pack. If the front carries a claim implying a whole day of protection or a single application, the two are in conflict, and the directions are the operative statement. That conflict is examined in all day protection and once a day claims.
6. The responsible person
A name and an address, in small type. It identifies the party carrying the legal obligations for the product in this market. It is the single most legally significant piece of text on the pack and almost nobody reads it.
Its practical value to a reader is as a signal. A pack sold in Great Britain should carry the name and address of a responsible person established here. A pack without one, particularly bought through a marketplace, has probably not been placed on the market through the ordinary route.
7. Durability or period after opening
Either a date of minimum durability, introduced by wording such as best before end and often accompanied by an hourglass symbol, or an open jar symbol with a number of months, which is the period after opening.
Which one appears depends on the product's minimum durability, and the two record different things: one is a date, the other is a duration that starts when you open it. The distinction is set out in period after opening and expiry dates.
8. The ingredient list
Introduced by the word Ingredients and written in a standardised international nomenclature, in descending order of weight at the time they were added, with those at or below one per cent in any order after the rest.
For a sun protection product this is the only place a reader can see which ultraviolet filters are doing the work. Every filter present must appear on the permitted list in the annex to the regulation, so the list is also the most rigorously controlled information on the pack.
It is written in a nomenclature designed for regulators and formulators rather than for readers, which is a real limitation, and it remains the most substantive technical content the label carries.
Why the split between front and back is not accidental
The division of a pack into a front that sells and a back that informs is a commercial convention rather than a regulatory one, and it is worth seeing clearly because it determines what most people read.
Nothing in the rules says the protection factor must be the largest element, or that the directions must be among the smallest. The mandatory particulars have to be present, legible and indelible, and beyond that the hierarchy is a design decision. A pack could give the directions the prominence of the numeral. None does, because the numeral is what a shopper compares on and prominence follows comparison.
The consequence is that the qualifying information is reliably in the place people do not look. A reader who turns a pack over has already done something unusual, and everything this publication describes as a condition on the headline figure lives on the side they have to turn to.
This is one of the few structural features of a sun protection label that could be changed without changing any rule, any test or any formulation. It has not been, and it will not be, because the incentive runs the other way.
What is deliberately not there
The application quantity the factor assumes. The panel size. The confidence interval. The laboratory. The absolute ultraviolet A protection factor. The critical wavelength value. The date of the test. None of it appears, none of it is required to, and all of it would change how the numeral is read.
That absence is not a scandal, and it is the reason a publication like this exists: the conditions attached to the most prominent claim on the pack are not on the pack.
Formats that change what the label can carry
The sequence above assumes a pack with room for it. Several common formats do not have that room, and the compromises are worth recognising.
A small stick or a travel size tube may carry the particulars on a peelable label, on a carton or on enclosed information, signalled by the hand and book symbol. A pressurised spray carries additional safety wording that competes for the same space. A multipack may place the ingredient list once on an outer rather than on each container.
In each case the information exists and the reading order still works. What changes is where you look for each step, and how likely it is that the step has been discarded with the outer packaging before the product is used.
What to take from this
Function, factor and category, the circled mark, the water resistance wording and its conditions, the directions, the responsible person, the durability marking, the ingredients. Read in that order, the pack becomes a document rather than a poster, and the qualifications arrive before the conclusion.