The doctors' ultimate sunscreen guide: As brands FAIL protection tests - how to tell if yours will...

Wearing sunscreen can help keep you safe in the sun — it's a mantra that has been drummed into us for years — but how much can we really rely on it?

'Applying sunscreen regularly and generously is one of the most effective ways to protect your skin against damage from UV rays. Professor Young says the Which? results provoked 'a furore because it's quite rare for sunscreens to make claims that can't be backed up by independent tests. There's no doubt that good sunscreen used properly can protect your skin from the sun's UVA rays that primarily lead to premature ageing — and UVB that primarily lead to burning.

'The problem is that people use sunscreen as a permission slip to tan,' said Dr Ivan Litvinov, an assistant professor in the division of experimental medicine at McGill University in Montreal and co-author of two recent studies into the 'sunscreen paradox'. That's because a tan is due to a skin pigment called melanin, which helps protect the skin against UV rays . Dr Hextall adds that 'anything below SPF15 is classified as low protection and won't really do much to protect skin'.

And it isn't enough to just look at the SPF rating, it is really important it has broad-spectrum UV protection too, particularly as UVA damage can contribute to some skin cancers. Chemical sunscreens use ingredients such as avobenzone, oxybenzone and octinoxate to absorb UV rays. 'This reaction creates low-level heat, but it quickly dissipates so you won't feel hotter,' explains Dr Hextall.

'These hybrid sunscreens offer immediate sun protection and are also easy to apply in terms of texture, so they are generally a good choice,' says Dr Hextall.What about water? 'Sunscreens can be labelled as 'water-resistant', meaning that depending on the formulation, the sunscreen is effective for up to 40 minutes in water,' says Dr Matthew Sommerlad, a consultant histopathologist at University Hospital Southampton.

In Australia — a leading authority in sun protection — it is no longer permitted to label any sunscreen product as 'once a day'.

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