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Real Purity Paba Sunscreen SPF 15

Name: Paba Sunscreen SPF 15
Brand: Real Purity

A sunscreen with 4 ingredients.

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Overview

What it is

Sunscreen with 4 ingredients

Cool Features

It is vegan, cruelty-free, and reef safe

Suited For

It has ingredients that are good for dry skin

Free From

It doesn't contain any harsh alcohols, common allergens, fragrances, parabens, silicones or sulfates

Fun facts

Real Purity is from United States.

We independently verify ingredients and our claims are backed by peer-reviewed research. Does this product need an update? Let us know.

Warning: Incomplete INCI list

This happens when the brand does not publicly disclose the full list of ingredients.

If you've found the full list, please suggest an edit.

Ingredients List

Water

Skin Conditioning

Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride

Masking

Carthamus Tinctorius Seed Oil

Masking

0-2 / 0 Oil Icon

Paba

Water, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Carthamus Tinctorius Seed Oil, Paba

Key Ingredients

Benefits

Ingredients Explained

Water

Skin Conditioning, Solvent

Water. It's the most common cosmetic ingredient of all. You'll usually see it at the top of ingredient lists, meaning that it makes up the largest part of the product.

So why is it so popular? Water most often acts as a solvent - this means that it helps dissolve other ingredients into the formulation.

You'll also recognize water as that liquid we all need to stay alive. If you see this, drink a glass of water. Remember to stay hydrated!

Learn more about Water

Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride

Masking, Skin Conditioning

Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (aka MCT Oil) is a lightweight emollient, solvent, and texture enhancer. It is considered a skin-softener by helping to prevent moisture loss.

Though it behaves like an oil, it is not technically one due to its chemical composition. One perk of this ingredient is that it is very stable, resistant to oxidation, and unlikely to go rancid.

In practice, that translates to a long shelf life and a consistently elegant skin feel.

While there is an assumption Caprylic Triglyceride can clog pores due to it being derived from coconut oil, there is no research supporting this. Just patch test if you have concerns.

Fractionated coconut oil and MCT Oil are both listed as Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride according to INCI. This is because INCI names are based on the ingredient’s final chemical composition and not its marketing name or source.

This ingredient is treated as the gold standard fungal acne safe oil. Even though it is coconut derived, the problematic lauric acid is stripped out.

This leaves just caprylic (C8) and capric (C10) acid. These chain lengths actually trend antifungal; a 2020 study found caprylic acid was enough to disrupt Malassezia furfur cell membrane, with a caprylic acid derivative damaging membrane structures at concentrations as low as 0.2%.

Learn more about Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride

Carthamus Tinctorius Seed Oil

Masking, Skin Conditioning

Carthamus Tinctorius Seed Oil comes from the seeds of the safflower plant. It is a skin conditioning agent that helps soften skin and keep it hydrated.

This seed oil has an unusual fatty acid profile: it is one of the highest linoleic acid plant oils out there (~55-77%). It also has low amounts of oleic acid, and this high-linoleic/low-oleic ratio gets people excited.

Linoleic acid helps maintain skin barrier integrity and is a building block for the ceramides in your stratum corneum. Notably, people with acne tend to have lower linoleic acid in their skin lipids as well (and this gets worse as acne gets more severe).

Overall, it's a lightweight, fast-absorbing oil that has a long safety track record. Lab testing has found it to be non-irritating for skin or eyes.

The Malassezia yeast can metabolize the fatty acids in this oil to grow; therefore this ingredient may not be fungal acne safe.

Learn more about Carthamus Tinctorius Seed Oil

Paba

PABA, or para-aminobenzoic acid, is a UV-B absorber. When it is exposed to UV, it converts the energy to infrared heat.

This ingredient was one of the earliest to be used in sunscreen, being first patented in 1943. Due to studies in the following decades, this ingredient fell out of popularity in sunscreens.

Derivatives of this ingredient can be found in sunscreen, such as Ethylhexyl Dimethyl Paba.

PABA can be found in the human body, beef, and eggs.

Learn more about Paba