{"id":887252,"date":"2026-09-10T19:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887252\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T19:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:36:19","slug":"meet-the-new-fda-approved-sunscreen-filter-bemotrizinol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887252\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the New FDA-Approved Sunscreen Filter Bemotrizinol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Any beauty lover knows there\u2019s one must-visit location when traveling overseas: the pharmacy. European, Australian, and Asian sunscreens<\/a> are known for their special formulations, sunscreen filters, and more. And for the longest time, US-regulated sunscreen has gotten a bad rap for being outdated and lackluster formula-wise compared to its international counterparts. That is, until now. Earlier this summer, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finally approved<\/a> a new sunscreen filter that could signal the start of better sunscreen innovation in the States: bemotrizinol (BEMT).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agency\u2019s action to add bemotrizinol as an active ingredient to the sunscreen OTC monograph marks the first time in 20 years that a new sunscreen active ingredient has become available to US consumers,\u201d a spokesperson for the FDA tells Vogue. \u201cIt also represents the first industry-initiated administrative order to be finalized under the landmark OTC monograph reform legislation enacted in 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process of approving new filters and ingredients for sun protection in the US can be complicated, as sunscreen is regulated as an OTC drug. But the FDA wants to assure consumers that it is not lagging on purpose, and that when a new ingredient is presented, the federal agency will do its due diligence to review it and get it to market as quickly as possible should it pass all the safety requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agency has not delayed the approval of new ingredients,\u201d says the FDA. \u201cThe delay comes because information has not been provided to us. It\u2019s important to clarify that there are no pending submissions to the agency for new sunscreen ingredients. The FDA is strongly committed to helping facilitate the entry of new sunscreen active ingredients and sunscreen drug products to the U.S. market that are safe and effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read on to see just how bemotrizinol changes the US sunscreen game.<\/p>\n

What is bemotrizinol?<\/p>\n

Bemotrizinol is a synthetic organic UV filter that, as cosmetic chemist and founder of KKT Innovation Labs Krupa Koestline<\/a> explains, absorbs both UVB and UVA rays at a wider range on the UV spectrum than other single-molecule filters. \u201cWhat\u2019s exciting about this filter is that it gives you really good broad-spectrum protection in one molecule,\u201d says Koestline. \u201cIt\u2019s particularly strong around 340 nanometers, which is an area where some of the filters we\u2019ve traditionally had access to in the US aren\u2019t necessarily the strongest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other chemical filters, she says it works by absorbing UV rays and releasing that energy as heat. And while it may be new in the US, BEMT has been widely used all over the world, particularly in Asia, Australia, and the EU, for decades.<\/p>\n

What makes bemotrizinol different?<\/p>\n

\u201cBEMT gives us something we\u2019ve been missing in the US,\u201d says Regine J. Mathieu, MD, FAAD, board-certified dermatologist, and Skin of Color Society member. \u201cStrong, stable UVA and UVB protection in a single filter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen He<\/a>, MD, director of lasers and cosmetic surgery and codirector of the Mount Sinai-Clinique Healthy Skin Dermatology Center, agrees and calls bemotrizinol a unique chemical sunscreen filter in that sense. She explains that most chemical or hybrid sunscreens in the States contain a selective combination of chemical filters and other ingredients to get that wide coverage across the UV spectrum. With BEMT, you get all of that with just one, and as a result, you get protection from both the UVB wavelengths that cause skin cancer and UVA radiation that causes skin aging and hyperpigmentation.<\/p>\n

The other benefits<\/p>\n

One of BEMT\u2019s main benefits is that it is photostable, which Koestline says means it won\u2019t break down as quickly when you\u2019re out in the sun. Dr. He adds that BEMT has a larger molecular weight than other chemical filters, and that it is likely too large and oil-soluble to penetrate the skin barrier to be absorbed into the blood stream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Any beauty lover knows there\u2019s one must-visit location when traveling overseas: the pharmacy. European, Australian, and Asian sunscreens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,5424,20198,105,9777,1672],"class_list":["post-887252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beauty","tag-skin","tag-technology","tag-textaboveleftsmall","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}