Actives glossary
Titanium dioxide
The second mineral filter, usually a supporting act to zinc oxide in a tinted or sheer formula.
- INCI name
- Titanium Dioxide
- Also called
- TiO2, mineral filter
- Family
- UV filter
- Range seen on labels
- 1% to 10% in United States sunscreens
- Sits well with
- zinc-oxide
- Needs care with
- No common conflict note
Titanium dioxide covers UVB and the shorter UVA wavelengths, with less reach into long UVA than zinc oxide. In practice it appears alongside zinc rather than instead of it, and it contributes much of the whitening in a mineral formula.
Reading a combined filter load
Two sunscreens can both say “mineral” and carry very different totals. In our sunscreen set the combined mineral load runs from 10% in one product to 21% in another, and the split between the two filters differs even where the totals are close. Both figures are on the Drug Facts panel, which makes this the one category where a reader can do this comparison unaided.
The tint question
Iron oxides are frequently added to mineral sunscreens to offset the cast titanium dioxide leaves. They also add visible light protection, which is relevant to pigmentation. That is a formulation benefit that no SPF number describes.
References
- US FDA. Sunscreen drug products for over-the-counter human use, 21 CFR 352Accessed 2026-08-08