You’re an SPF 30 kind of person — cautious, but not meek; edgy, but not reckless, like those SPF 15 hedonists.
But this summer your identity may grow a bit more complicated.
Thanks to new rules by the Food and Drug Administration, manufacturers no longer can emblazon their bottles and squeeze-tubes with SPF-related marketing jargon (Waterproof! All-Day Protection!) and be done with it. Instead, the labels also must declare the product has passed “broad spectrum” tests that measure the lotion’s ability to protect against two key kinds of ultraviolet rays — UVB rays (the ones that SPF refers to) and now also UVA rays, the light that sinks deeper into the skin and, like UVB rays, contributes to cancer and signs of aging.
In addition, that old-school label that called your SPF 30 “waterproof” will be a no-no in months.