Protection people will actually wear.
Mineral-first SPF, engineered for skin feel.
Sun care is an OTC drug category in the US, but the consumer still judges it like skincare: skin feel, texture, cast, wear, and whether they reach for it again. We lead with mineral-first SPF because the regulatory lane is the cleanest and the formulation challenge is the real one. Elegant dispersion, stability, and skin feel, without ever treating SPF as an afterthought.
What We Formulate
- Mineral-first SPF systems: zinc oxide and titanium dioxide systems built around dispersion, skin feel, stability, and prestige texture. They are the filters the FDA has long recognized as safe and effective for everyday use, which keeps the regulatory path clean.
- SPF stability and scale-up: the hard part is not getting the filter into the formula. It is keeping the system stable, manufacturable, and consistent as the product moves from bench to production.
- Skin-feel and wearability: mineral SPF succeeds or fails on consumer use: rub-in, finish, cast, pilling, compatibility with a skincare routine, and whether it feels good enough to wear every day.
- Chemical and hybrid SPF, scoped carefully: built on filters permitted under the US sunscreen framework, considered on a scoped engagement. That framework just changed for the first time in about 25 years: in June 2026 the FDA added bemotrizinol, a broad-spectrum UVA and UVB filter, to the OTC sunscreen monograph, available for use as of August 9, 2026. We are set up to formulate with it, and the chemistries behind it, as they clear the FDA and become available, rather than building on speculative or unapproved filters.
Why This Category Is Hard
Sunscreen is not just another skincare format. In the US it is regulated as an OTC drug, so the active filters, labeling, testing, claims, and manufacturing path all matter from the first formulation. At the same time, prestige consumers expect it to feel like high-end skincare: elegant, wearable, compatible, and pleasant enough for daily use.
Mineral-first formulation is a strong default because it keeps the regulatory path cleaner while putting the real challenge where it belongs: dispersion, texture, cast, stability, and whether people actually keep using it.
Claim & Testing Discipline
No SPF or broad-spectrum claim exists until the finished formula is tested. SPF, broad-spectrum, and water-resistance are not in-house marketing assertions. They are finished-formula testing questions, run to the prescribed methods at qualified third-party photobiology labs when those claims are part of the brief.
We compete on skin feel, photostability, mineral dispersion, stability discipline, and the independent proof behind the claims, not on claiming the broadest possible filter menu.
Regulatory Lane
Sunscreen work has to be scoped to the current US OTC framework. For US products, SPF is an OTC drug, formulated to the OTC sunscreen order and to drug cGMP, a framework the FDA is still finalizing and expanding, as the June 2026 addition of bemotrizinol shows.
Chemical and hybrid SPF work is available where the filter set and claim path fit that framework. Mineral-first remains our default because zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are recognized as safe and effective and give the cleanest starting point for most prestige sun-care briefs.
Proof & Rigor
The differentiator is not just the SPF active. It is the discipline around the finished formula, the test path, and the claim you intend to make.
We help map the claims worth pursuing, design the proof plan, and coordinate independent third-party testing where substantiation is needed. For sunscreen, that means SPF, broad-spectrum, and water-resistance testing routed through qualified third-party photobiology labs when those claims are part of the brief.
Under One Owned Roof
Formulation, stability work, scale-up, regulatory coordination, and production stay under one owned US roof, with direct access to the chemists developing your product. SPF is also where many cosmetic-only manufacturers stop, so cosmetic and OTC capability under one roof means a brand can add sun care without finding a second manufacturer.
Your formula and project data are not brokered through an offshore network. When a claim needs proof, it is mapped to your finished formula and routed through independent third-party labs.
Start with the filter set, the feel, and the claim path.
Bring a mineral SPF brief, a sun-care texture problem, a stability challenge, or a scoped chemical or hybrid SPF question. We will map the formulation path, the regulatory lane, the testing requirements, and what it would take to scale it properly.