What it does
The EU's CosIng database describes octocrylene as a substituted acrylate, gives its international non-proprietary name as octocrilene, and lists three functions: UV filter, UV absorber and light stabiliser.1 A UV filter protects the skin or hair against certain UV radiation; a UV absorber and a light stabiliser protect the product itself from light.2 So it can be in a product that makes no sun protection claim, though any use must still keep to its EU conditions (Article 14(1)(e)).3
It is one of the organic, or "chemical", filters, as opposed to the mineral Zinc Oxide and Titanium Dioxide. Mineral vs chemical sunscreen filters explains the difference and covers its status in the US, where sunscreens are drugs.
The EU limits: Annex VI, entry 10
| Product type | Maximum in the ready-for-use product |
|---|---|
| Propellant spray products | 9% |
| Other products | 10% |
A footnote adds that benzophenone, as an impurity or degradation product of octocrylene, must be kept at trace level.3 Until 2022 the entry had a single limit of 10% for every product.46 The current wording comes from Regulation (EU) 2022/1176, and products that met the earlier rules could be placed on the market until 28 January 2023 and made available until 28 July 2023.53
What the EU's scientific committee concluded
Concerns about possible endocrine-disrupting properties of octocrylene and benzophenone-3 led the Commission to call for data in 2019 and to ask the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) to assess both.5 In its final opinion of March 2021, the SCCS concluded that octocrylene is safe as a UV filter at up to 10% when used individually, and also in combined use of sunscreen cream or lotion, pump spray, face cream, hand cream and lipstick at up to 10%. For sunscreen propellant sprays in that combined use, it did not consider 10% or above safe, and considered up to 9% safe when used together with face cream, hand cream and lipstick containing 10%.6
On hormones, the committee wrote that some in vivo studies indicate octocrylene may have endocrine effects, but that the evidence was not conclusive enough to derive an endocrine-related point of departure for its safety assessment. It noted that octocrylene can generate benzophenone, which had also been detected in the manufactured ingredient, and called it a hazardous impurity to be monitored and kept at trace levels. Contact sensitisation has been reported, though cases appear negligible given how widely octocrylene is used, and photoallergy to it is strongly related to an earlier photoallergy to the topical medicine ketoprofen. The opinion did not cover effects on the environment, which are outside the committee's mandate.6
How it appears on a label
As Octocrylene, the name in its EU entry; the chemical name there is 2-cyano-3,3-diphenyl acrylic acid, 2-ethylhexyl ester.3 An EU label lists it among the other ingredients without a percentage, so it cannot show whether a spray is within 9%. The sunscreen ingredient list guide shows how EU and US sunscreen labels differ, and the skincare ingredient checker picks out every UV filter on a list you paste.