Skincare brand Naked Sundays pulls sunscreen from shelves over SPF concerns

Skincare brand Naked Sundays has pulled one of its sunscreen products from the Australian market, including from cosmetics giant MECCA, amid industry-wide questions about whether sunscreen products are meeting their sun protection claims.

The announcement follows the decision by fellow Australian brand Ultra Violette last week that it was removing one of its products from shelves after testing revealed it could not guarantee its SPF50+ label claim.

The now-removed Naked Sundays product, SPF50+ Collagen Glow Mineral Sunscreen, was launched in 2021 and was available in MECCA cosmetics stores across the country as well as on the Naked Sundays website.

The ABC had seen messages sent by MECCA over the weekend informing customers that, as a precaution, it was "working to remove this product from across our full store network and online as quickly as possible".

ABC has contacted MECCA for comment.

In a statement, Naked Sundays said it had "paused" sales on its Collagen Glow Mineral Sunscreen in Australia pending further testing of the product.

The brand said the US version of the product had already been retested and met the advertised SPF50+ label claim.

The statement said they intended to sell that version on the Australian market.

"Till then we've paused the mineral [sunscreen] from sale in Australia out of precaution, while we await new, complete independent SPF results," it said.

It noted that the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) was undertaking an investigation into SPF testing and it was awaiting further guidance from the regulator.

Naked Sundays said the "pause" only related to this one product made by an Australian manufacturer.

The ABC has contacted Naked Sundays to ask who the manufacturer of its "paused" product was.

The recall of another Australian sunscreen product last Friday by Ultra Violette came after testing by consumer group Choice earlier this year found that 16 out of 20 popular sunscreens did not meet their SPF label claims.

The worst-performing product was Ultra Violette's Lean Screen SPF Mattifying Zinc Sunscreen, which came back with an SPF of 4.

The brand announced on Friday it would recall the Australian sunscreen and the US version Velvet Screen after new testing revealed it could not guarantee the SPF50+ on the label.

The ABC confirmed that Wild Child was the manufacturer of the Ultra Violette product.

ABC asked Wild Child if it also manufactured the Naked Sundays sunscreen product.

Tom Currow, chief executive of Wild Child, told the ABC in an email: "We have confidentiality arrangements in place with the brands we manufacture product for, and we are therefore not in a position to provide any comments on customer branded products."