This Generic Sunscreen Gets Top Marks From Consumer Reports

Preventing the sun from damaging your skin doesn’t mean having to buy fancy sunscreen. In fact, one affordable generic offers great protection, Consumer Reports says.

The magazine gave high marks to the Equate Sport Lotion SPF 50 Sunscreen. Walmart makes that brand.

We recently saw the 8-ounce size of the Equate sunscreen selling at Walmart for around $4, or 50 cents per ounce, a price that is tough to beat. The 32-ounce value size comes in at about 37 cents per ounce.

When testing sunscreens, Consumer Reports employs a protocol that mimics the same approach the federal Food and Drug Administration requires sunscreen manufacturers to use.

CR then applies its own methodology to reveal performance differences among the sunscreens. In CR’s testing, the Equate sunscreen held its own with much more expensive rivals.

This isn’t the first year that Equate has excelled in CR’s testing, and its continued success over time raises a question: Does it ever make sense to spend extra cash to find quality sunscreen?

Money Talks News’ founder Stacy Johnson tackled this very question last year. Find out his take by reading “Is Cheap Sunscreen Good Enough?”

Also, remember that no matter which sunscreen you buy, there are mistakes you can make that will reduce its effectiveness, such as not using enough. As we have reported:

“As for the quantity of sunscreen, the American Academy of Dermatology recommends using 1 ounce of lotion — enough to fill a shot glass — to cover all of the exposed areas of the body. You can adjust that amount depending on your body size.”

For more, check out “3 Mistakes That Can Make Your Sun Protection Worthless.”

Finally, if you try Equate and like it, you can add the sunscreen to a long list of products that are just as good in their generic formulation as what you’ll find in a brand-name alternative. For more on such items, check out “32 Products You Should Always Buy Generic.”