Mineral Sunscreens Are Hard to Formulate—But We're Finally Entering a New Era of White Cast-Free Options

I’ve been wearing mineral sunscreen for over 20 years, and spent roughly the first 18 of those years defending the choice. Or, perhaps more accurately, explaining it: When inquiring minds would ask how I, a woman of color, could subject myself to such greasepaint every day, I would point out how the formulations were less likely to break me out—and how I’d top said sunscreen with an equally opaque layer of foundation anyway. Yet I could never exactly fight against the claims leveled against the category. Because yeah, mineral sunscreens kind of felt, and looked, like you spackled yourself with a layer of white plaster.

But in the 2020s, there’s been a noticeable and remarkable shift within the category. While I can’t pinpoint exactly when I started to see the difference, I distinctly remember applying Kinship’s Self-Reflect Zinc Oxide Sunscreen for the first time and the blurred, glowy finish feeling downright revelatory; ditto Supergoop!’s Mineral Mattescreen. In the years since, the advancements have come at a rapid clip—and in 2026, it feels as though we can’t go a week without a buzzy new suncare label dropping a near-transparent mineral sunscreen, or a storied brand releasing a silky new, cast-free SPF serum loaded with zinc and titanium dioxide.

Which begs the question: How did we get here, and why did it take so long for mineral sunscreens to finally get good?

Why Does Mineral Sunscreens Look and Feel Like That?

The dreaded white cast associated with mineral sunscreen “isn’t just a bad formulation choice—it’s a byproduct of physics,” explains Shuting Hu, PhD, a cosmetic chemist, skin biologist, and the founder of Acaderma. “Mineral filters like zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are large, inorganic particles that function as semiconductors.” While chemical filters — think avobenzone, homosalate, or octisalate—primarily absorb the rays and convert them into heat, mineral filters work, in part, by absorbing and then scattering and reflecting those rays. “These minerals have a high refractive index, meaning they are exceptionally good at bending and reflecting light,” says Hu. “Unfortunately, they don't just reflect invisible UV rays. They reflect visible light, too, which our eyes perceive as white or ‘ashy.’” (To note: Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are the only mineral SPF filters approved in the U.S.)

Unsurprisingly, the more protection a mineral sunscreen offers, the more likely it is to leave you with that famous ghostly pallor. “To achieve a high SPF, like 50+, a formulator often needs a high ‘pigment load,’ sometimes 20 percent or more,” says Hu. “At these concentrations, the particles are so densely packed that they inevitably create a visible film.”

The large size of the particles—and the amount needed for adequate protection—is also why so many mineral formulations tend not to just look like masks, but feel like them, too. “These ingredients are white powders, and you can't dissolve them in anything,” explains cosmetic scientist Julian Sass, PhD. “You have to basically suspend them in the formula. And when you are suspending these ingredients in the formula, it tends to be very thick and quite matte.” This makes it “difficult, [but] not impossible, to make pleasant-feeling mineral sunscreen,” he says.

So, Why Have Mineral Sunscreens Suddenly Gotten So Much Better?

One needs only to take a glance at 2025’s impressive lineup of SPF rookies— which included mineral offerings by the likes of Ultra Violette, Peach Lily, Beauty of Joseon, and Good Weather Skin—to see that today’s mineral sunscreens have undergone a major glow-up. “Historically, mineral formulas were thicker and left a white cast, but that has changed significantly,” says board-certified dermatologist Sonia Badreshia-Bansal, MD. “Newer formulations are far more elegant, blendable, and wearable, which has helped close the gap between protection and cosmetic acceptability.”

So what took them so long? “It’s cost and market innovation at the end of the day,” says Sass. “Yes, we have all this science that’s happening behind the scenes, but if people aren’t buying it—when it comes from the brands, from the product developers, from the manufacturers—then it just kind of exists in a vacuum.”

On the science front, “we are currently in a ‘Golden Age’ of mineral innovation,” says Hu. For example, “some 2026 formulations now use ‘evaporative switching,’ she explains. “When the sunscreen is in the bottle, the particles are clustered. Once applied, a specific volatile component evaporates, triggering the particles to ‘un-clump’ and spread into a perfectly uniform, transparent film.”

Working with smaller particles is also a game-changer. Sass compares it to a familiar pantry staple: Peanut butter. While a crunchy PB will be tougher to spread across your bread, the creamy option will glide right off your butter knife in an even layer. With smaller particle sizes, “we’re basically working with creamy peanut butter instead of crunchy peanut butter,” he says. “You’re able to get… a nice, even spread” and thus significantly less white cast.

There have also been innovations in surface treatment. “We are now coating mineral particles with sophisticated ‘shells,’ like alkyl silanes or polyhydroxystearic acid,” says Hu. “These coatings make the minerals ‘hydrophobic (water-repellent) and ‘lipophilic’ (oil-loving), allowing them to glide over the skin like a premium serum rather than a heavy paste.”

Additionally, “modern mineral sunscreens often double as skincare,” says Badreshia-Bansa, with added ingredients that could have come straight out of your medicine cabinet; think niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and antioxidants such as vitamin E or green tea.

Advancements like these have found a captive audience willing to pay for them. “I think that over the last several years, as sunscreen has become more like a skincare product—versus just something that you pick up at Walgreens or CVS before you go to the beach—people care about cosmetic elegance,” says Sass. Badreshia-Bansal concurs: Because today’s mineral sunscreens can “feel like an extension of skincare,” daily use has become “far more realistic across different skin types and tones.”

Okay, But Is There Really a Mineral Sunscreen For Every Skin Tone?

While the historic image of a mineral sunscreen wearer is a ruddy white guy with a swath of paint-like SPF on his nose during a family vacation, these more discerning customers span the complexion spectrum. Creating formulas that fit their needs, however, can be a complicated dance.

As Sass explains, to create a product that truly complements multiple skin tones, formulators have to utilize tints. “And when it comes to the tint, you’re trying to both counteract that white and also make it flesh-toned.” That objective is much easier to achieve for lighter skin tones: The darker the skin tone you’re trying to complement, the more pigments you have to use. And as you add pigment, “your formula feels a little bit thicker, and you have to kind of balance everything out.”

Unsurprisingly, the tinkering and tech required to achieve this balance brings us back to the almighty dollar—and why it’s still so hard, if not downright impossible, for those with the deepest skin tones to find a truly transparent mineral match. “Like, Olandria is not going to be using a mineral sunscreen; Golloria is not wearing a mineral sunscreen. Just point blank period,” says Sass. “The brands are not going to put in the money to make a shade that is that deep when the market, when it comes to the people who are actually buying this stuff, is not as high as the lighter skin tones. And that is the horrible reality of it. It’s just not a priority for a lot of brands.”

So, while mineral sunscreens have gotten much, much better, it’s important to note that they do still have a ways to go before they reach perfection. And until that day, chemical options—which have had their own glow-up due in part to the widespread availability of K-Beauty offerings—still might win out in the end. Ultimately, the best sunscreen of all is the one you like to wear. As Badreshia-Bansal says: “Consistency is far more important than the category itself.”

The Best New (And New-Ish) Mineral Sunscreens of 2026

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