What you can expect from SPF testing:
COLIPA Method / ISO: 24444 Method – International:
- 10 healthy male and female subjects with Fitzpatrick skin number 1-3 used to investigate the skin’s Minimal Erythema Dose (MED) time period for pre and post-product treatment to calculate the sample’s SPF.
Active Phase:
- We generate a pre-treatment MED which is the minimal amount of UV light to elicit barely perceptible erythema. The product is then applied to the site and post-treatment MEDs area. The product SPF is the ratio of pre-treatment MEDs to post-treatment MEDs.
FDA Approved Method – USA / Canada:
- Similar to COLIPA method but uses different active phase MED assessments via the use of 7 time points instead of 5 as in the international methods.
Australian / New Zealand Approved Method:
- Similar to COLIPA method but uses a slightly different wavelength of UV to elicit MED.
Claims Substantiated:
- On-pack SPF rating.
Further Endorsements Also Available:
- Water Resistant
- Sweat Resistant
- Sand Resistant
Instrumentation Information:
- Instrumentation for SPF testing uses 2 Solar Light Company multi-port solar simulators, 8 single port solar simulators, a SPEX SKINSKAN spectrofluorometer, LabSphere and Helias spectrophotometer and an Optronic Laboritories OL754 spectroradiometer system with a NIST traceable calibration system.