Insights / Perspectives
Beyond SPF: The Latest Sun Care Trends
Sun care is entering a new phase of growth as consumers increasingly view SPF as part of a broader, year-round skin health routine. In 2025, U.S. sun care retail value sales increased 6% to reach $4.2 billion, according to Euromonitor. That growth reflects a broader shift toward daily sun protection and a more proactive, science-led approach to skin health.
As sun care becomes an everyday essential, consumer expectations are evolving. Asian beauty philosophies continue to influence the category with an emphasis on lightweight textures, fast absorption, elegant sensorial experiences, and skin-first benefits. At the same time, consumers are looking for more inclusive products that work across skin tones without leaving a visible white cast. These shifts are creating new opportunities to reinforce convenience, premium quality, sensory appeal, and digital engagement—all while helping brands differentiate in an increasingly crowded market.
Convenience in Every Format
As sun protection becomes part of consumers’ daily routines, convenience is critical. People are looking for portable, easy-to-use formats that make application (and reapplication) more intuitive throughout the day. Dispensing systems are becoming an important part of the product experience. Sunscreen sticks are gaining momentum for their mess-free application and portability, while fine mists, powders, and sprays make quick application easier, including over makeup. Compact packaging allows consumers to apply SPF everywhere—from the beach to the office to the gym. Formats that make application fast, controlled, and intuitive can help turn sun protection from an occasional step into an everyday habit.
Premiumization Raises the Bar
The premiumization trend is reaching sun care. According to Euromonitor, U.S. premium sun care achieved 8% value growth, outperforming mass products. Consumers are showing a willingness to pay more for clinically proven ingredients, sophisticated textures, and products that combine sun protection with skincare benefits. Packaging has an important role to play in communicating this elevated positioning. Clean, clinical aesthetics—such as minimalist branding, refined typography, and white or neutral palettes—can signal efficacy and expertise. Distinctive structures, premium materials, finishes, and dispensing systems can further help emerging and established brands stand apart.
Designed for the Digital Shelf
Like all personal care categories, sun care is now competing not only on physical shelves but across social feeds and digital storefronts. Euromonitor identifies digitalization as a driving force in U.S. sun care, with brands intensifying their use of platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook to amplify sun-safety messaging. This creates new considerations for how brands approach packaging. Buzz-worthy aesthetics, distinctive structures, unexpected details, and memorable unboxing experiences can make products more visually engaging and shareable. For digitally savvy indie brands in particular, packaging needs to perform across multiple environments. How will the packaging look in photography and video, and how can it encourage engagement? Designing with these interactions in mind can help packaging become part of a brand's digital storytelling.
A More Multisensory Experience
Today's consumers increasingly expect products to deliver an experience—not simply a functional benefit. In sun care, innovations in formula technology and the influence of K-Beauty are shaping that expectation, which continues to set expectations for elegant, lightweight, sophisticated textures. Advanced dispersions, silicone dispersants, and elastomer gels are enabling high-SPF concepts with improved transparency and a silky, lightweight sensory profile. Packaging can complement these advances through formats designed for fine-mist delivery, controlled application, and easy spreading. The result is a more holistic product experience in which formula and package work together.
Looking Ahead
As sun protection becomes an everyday part of skin health, the category is moving beyond a simple SPF conversation. Consumers want products that fit seamlessly into their routines, feel premium, deliver an enjoyable experience, work across diverse skin tones, and engage them both physically and digitally. From convenient sticks and mists to premium structures and digitally engaging packaging, Berlin Packaging can help brands respond to these changing expectations while creating meaningful differentiation in a crowded market.
Ready to get started with your packaging?
The brands mentioned in this report are trademarks of their respective owners. Inclusion of these brands in this report is not meant to imply an association with or endorsement from the respective trademark owners.