THE ERA EDIT
on May 24, 2026
The Science | Estimated read: 7 minutes
You've seen the numbers. You've picked the highest one. But SPF alone only tells half the story and most sunscreens on Indian shelves don't tell the other half honestly.
Walk into any pharmacy and you'll find sunscreens with SPF 50, SPF 70, even SPF 100. The number keeps going up. But ask someone what SPF actually measures, and most people aren't sure. Ask them what PA++++ means, and even fewer know.
This isn't a gap in intelligence; it's a gap in how sunscreen has been marketed. The numbers are there, but the explanation rarely is. So here's what those labels actually mean, why both matter for Indian skin specifically, and what to look for before you buy.
SPF: the number everyone knows, but not what it measures
SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor. It measures how long you can stay in the sun before UVB rays cause your skin to redden — relative to wearing no sunscreen at all.
Here's the part most people misread: SPF is not a percentage of rays blocked. It's a time multiplier. SPF 50 means your skin takes 50 times longer to burn than it would unprotected, not that 50% of UV rays are stopped.
The jump from SPF 30 to SPF 50 is meaningful — about 1.3% more UVB blocked. The jump from SPF 50 to SPF 100, however, is marginal (from 98% to 99%). Which is why dermatologists rarely push for anything beyond SPF 50 for daily use, as long as you're actually reapplying.
UVB vs UVA — the part the SPF number ignores
SPF only measures protection against UVB rays — the rays that cause sunburn. But there's another type: UVA. UVA rays penetrate deeper into the skin. They don't cause the immediate redness that UVB does, so we don't feel them working. But they are responsible for photoaging, uneven skin tone, and significant DNA damage that accumulates over time
For Indian skin — which already produces more melanin as a natural response to sun exposure — UVA damage shows up as stubborn hyperpigmentation, patchy tone, and premature dullness. It's a slow accumulation, not a sudden burn. And because it's invisible, it's easy to dismiss.
A sunscreen with a high SPF but no UVA protection is giving you an incomplete shield. This is where the PA rating comes in.
PA: the rating most people skip past
TPA stands for Protection Grade of UVA. It's a system developed in Japan and widely used across Asia, including India. The plus signs indicate how much UVA protection a sunscreen provides, based on the Persistent Pigment Darkening (PPD) method.
PA++++ is the highest rating currently available. It indicates a PPD factor of 16 or above. PA+++ is high protection, with a PPD factor of 8 to 15. Both are meaningful. The right rating depends on what job the product is doing in your routine.
The reason many European or American sunscreens don't carry this rating isn't because they're inferior, it's because the PA system isn't their regulatory standard. But if you're buying in India or from an Asian market, the presence of a PA rating tells you something real about UVA coverage.
So why do most sunscreens still fall short?
The numbers can be correct and the experience can still be wrong. A sunscreen can carry SPF 50+ PA++++ on the label and still leave a white cast, feel heavy in 35-degree heat, or pill under makeup — making it something people quietly stop using after two days.
Protection that stays in the bottle because it's unpleasant to wear is not protection. The formulation has to earn daily use.
This is the problem we built our sun care range around. Not just hitting the right ratings, but making products people actually want to reach for — in the morning, and again mid afternoon when the sun hasn't let up.
One practical takeaway
If you're going to remember one thing from this: check for both ratings. SPF without a PA rating means you're only getting half the picture.
For your morning sunscreen, look for SPF 50+ with PA++++. For reapplication through the day — especially if you're going over makeup — a PA+++ mist is doing exactly what it's designed to do. The format and the protection rating are matched to the moment.
Apply more than you think you need. Reapply if you're outdoors for more than two hours. The rest is formulation preference — which is where we come in. — "If this helped you make sense of what's on the label, that's exactly why we started writing.”
— Muskaan & Shitanshu, founders
