Best SPF 50+ Sunscreen Sticks for Tattoos: Our Top 5 Picks
- KTREW
- Aug 4
- 15 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
The recent wave of heat waves (!) has given us a perfect opportunity to put some tattoo sun protection to the test. Sunscreen sticks are a well-known handy way to target extra sun protection for your tattoos. With hundreds of SPF sticks now available, choosing one can be surprisingly difficult. We tested five SPF 50+ sunscreen sticks on our own tattoos during UK summer conditions, comparing protection, water resistance, durability, everyday wear and value. Here's what we found.
This article contains some affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase — at no extra cost to you. We only recommend products we genuinely think are worth considering and have tried and tested ourselves.
Jump to our detailed reviews for the full lowdown on each product.
Results
Our SPF 50+ Tattoo Protection Sun Stick Winner
Boots Soltan Active 8 Hour Protect Suncare Stick - The holiday, day out, festival or long hike essential.
Notable Mentions
Best Value 
Best for Sports & Adventure 
Best for Beauty Routine
Best Water Resistance 
Best for Sensitive Skin 
Best Durability
Why do tattoos need extra sun protection?
If you’re new to sunscreen sticks, they are the perfect spot application to keep your tattoos fresh and to provide broad-spectrum protection against both UVA and UVB rays breaking down and ageing your tattoos. Tattoos are susceptible to degradation from UV radiation so if you want to keep your ink looking fresh, and help stop your tattoo ageing, you need to have effective tattoo sunscreen. When UV rays penetrate the skin, they break down the chemical bonds in the tattoo ink, causing it to fade over time. UV radiation can also cause the skin to age prematurely, which can distort the appearance of tattoos. Protecting your tattoos from the sun is essential to preserving their appearance.
How to apply SPF 50+ Sunscreen Stick
Sunscreen sticks are best applied as an additional layer - once you’ve applied your usual sun protection for your face & body, use the sunscreen stick to rub over the top of your tattoos for extra targeted protection to create a sunblock effect.
Always apply to clean skin before you leave the house. This minimises bacteria building up on the product, and gives the sun protection time to soak in and be most effective. Goes without saying probably but...wherever we tried a product on face & body, we used it on the face first and then once we used it on the body we didn't use it on the face again!
An oil-based cleanser or cleansing balm is the most effective choice for breaking down water-resistant SPF, so you may find that you need to adapt your cleansing routine when using these products, to reduce breakouts.
Our Shortlist Criteria
Suitable for All Budget Friendly SPF 50+ Cruelty Free Water Resistant
There's a huge array of sunscreen stick products to choose from out there. Some are make-up focused and marketed for facial use, and some are marketed for overall use, or for sports and active outdoor lifestyles. To narrow the selection, we started with a shortlist criteria.
Suitable for All - we wanted to test clear products or products that don't leave a white residue when rubbed in, ensuring all our picks are suitable for all skin tones.
Affordability - We only looked at products up to a £15 limit - see our table below for a price per gram drill down on value! We have based our prices on looking for the best deals and also using introductory offers where available.
SPF 50+ - All products we tested offer SPF50+ protection and block both UVA and UVB rays. We recommend looking for products listed as "broad-spectrum SPF 50+" or SPF 50+ PA++++ for Korean products, in order to get strong and complete protection. We wouldn't consider anything below SPF 50+ for effective tattoo sun protection.
Cruelty Free - All the products on our shortlist are cruelty free. Our research also found no evidence of any of these companies selling in markets requiring animal testing either, which is good to know.
Water Resistant - All products offer some level of water resistance which we cover further in our review.
In an ideal world we would also have liked to narrow it down to UK based companies, and completely plastic free packaging. But unfortunately there are currently no affordable, cruelty free, SPF 50+, clear, UK made, water resistant, non-plastic options! No products were able to hit all of our dream criteria.
How we tested
Every sunscreen stick featured here was tested on healed tattoos during real summer use in the UK. We deliberately tested them in different situations including:
swimming
cycling
city walks
gardening
reading outdoors
hiking
wearing under makeup
reapplication during the day
We've focused on how each product felt and performed during everyday use. We also tried out all the products on face and body tattoos regardless of the suggested or marketed use.
Meet our SPF 50+ Sun Stick Shortlist
Rather than review a bunch of products that we ultimately wouldn't recommend, we've used our criteria to bring you five recommendations for products that we feel are all good value, reliable products for looking after your tattoos. They each have different strengths, but our shortlist criteria ensures that all of them are worth a try - we hope our reviews below will help you narrow down which one is the best for you and your tattoos.
Price & Value
These prices were accurate as of June 2026, and you can double check the latest price by clicking the product links below. We noticed prices reduced as the summer went on. We also recommend looking out for introductory online offers which can help bring the cost down.
Brand | Product Focus | Grams per stick | Price Per Stick | Price per gram | Best For |
Face & Body | 18 grams | £14.40 | 80p per gram | ||
Face & Body | 18 grams | £13.95 | 77p per gram | Everyday beauty | |
Face & Body | 25 grams | £7.50 | 30p per gram | Best overall/value | |
Face | 18 grams | £15.00 | 83p per gram | ||
Face and Lips | 20 grams | £14.40 | 80p per gram | Sport/sensitive skin |
*For online retailers we only use or recommend those that have a 4 star and above rating on Trustpilot. We were gifted the Lifejacket Mineral Sun Stick and used Boots.com to purchase the others.
Our Reviews
If you'd like to see what each stick looks like when applied to tattooed skin, head over to our @ktrewtattoo Instagram page here where we've included a reel showing application of each one.
Water resistance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Durability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
All-round value: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Daily beauty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Strengths: Highly effective, with an instant cooling effect. Functional dependable coverage which is surprisingly adaptable for daily beauty use under make-up.
The only mineral sunscreen from our five, making it an option worth considering for sensitive skin.
Although this stick is marketed for use on your face and lips, I felt confident to throw it in at the deep end (pun intended), and try it out not only on my face tattoos, but applied to my foot tattoos for a hot day's trek around the city.
If you’re a millennial tattoo collector, chances are you have that one tattoo that reacts badly to the sun. My feet tattoos (over 20 years) old actually start to bubble and blister, becoming very itchy and swollen in the sun. (This can sometimes be a reaction due to the ink that was used at the time - red ink and green ink in particular seem to do this, and sometimes down to scarring of the skin).
On a very hot July day, I applied the stick to my foot tattoos and left them fully exposed for a 4 hour trip around my local park and nature centre. Conditions were sweaty and dusty to say the least!
The Lifejacket sun stick is the most visible product upon application. Undoubtedly, with the intended sports & outdoor use for this product, effectiveness and durability is the focus here - not aesthetics. The product does leave a faint white cast initially when applied, and you can either leave as is, or rub it in. Once you do rub it in, it very quickly becomes clear. I noticed as my swelling trotters made their way though a dusty park and visitor centre, that I was not gathering dirt! The product texture is really nice, not sticky or greasy at all.
This sun stick had THE best cooling effect across all five I tested which I loved. Although not advertised as a cooling product (whereas others were), I immediately noticed an instant cooling effect on my feet, and I felt super confident in the protection it was offering. I didn’t need feel I needed to re-apply, although for a full day or outdoor activities I definitely would. It’s labelled as fragrance free, but does have a faint slightly chalky/barrier cream scent to it.
I also used it to protect my tattooed facial freckles. Rather than applying over the top of make-up like some of the other products are designed, I’d recommend using this before make-up application. I started with my usual SPF 50+ base moisturiser all over, and then added the sun stick over the top on easily burnt areas and my freckle tattoos. This allowed me to easily blend the product in and add make-up on top. I found that it didn’t make my skin feel clogged after a few hours of use. I’m sure this product was not designed for someone with a full face of make-up in mind. So I was pleasantly surprised that it felt equally suited to daily pedestrian use, as it would for a triathlon where you could layer and not care!
The packaging is plastic, and includes a plastic cap on the stick which becomes immediately disposable when you open it. The cap is necessary due to this being a hot-pour product manufactured in a liquid form. The cap keeps the product in place after pouring whilst it cools. So although it's a necessary part of the production process it does increase the amount of plastic the product has compared to the other products.
Marketed as weather resistant and designed to "stay put when you sweat." this product is also water resistant for outdoor activities. The only reason I didn't give a full 5 stars for water resistance and durability was that I couldn't find a quantified wear-time claim on the product pages, whereas other brands included more specific tested time limits on water resistance and durability.
However this is durable and highly effective no doubt - your go to for adventure and sports when you need reliable quick application and effectiveness over aesthetics.
Water resistance: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Durability: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
All-round value: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Daily beauty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Strengths: Glides on for super easy application and smells amazing. Great protection and versatile for face and body. The carefully chosen ingredients contribute to your skincare routine to reduce redness and leaving you glowing. User friendly and sleek, and a cute addition to your summer stash.
As with all our top 5 picks, this stick is water resistant, but its emphasis is on cooling, soothing, and lightweight wear rather than prolonged sport performance. There's a very moreish quality to the beautiful scent, and smooth gliding texture to this stick. It's fun to use and contains ingredients we're used to seeing in facial skin care products such as Hyaluronic Acid, and Cica which calms red or irritated skin, helps heal blemishes, and repairs your skin barrier.
This one ended up being tested with some serious bookworm activities in the garden and I found it was my go to for ease of use on days off at home, when I wasn't wearing any make-up. Out of all the products, this one really was a swipe and go - I didn't feel the need to touch my face after application or rub anything in, the product glides on a melts in. I felt confident in the protection after a good few hours reading in the sun.
The stick came in a tamper proof cardboard box, with the plastic applicator inside. I loved the packaging for this one it was so tactile and easy to use. You twist the whole base to push the stick up, which is somehow very fun and makes a satisfying snap when you do. It feels robust, and the design was a lot more sensible in terms of accumulating dirt and sand. Feeling like this would survive the depths of my mary poppins-like bag made this one the product I'd grab when leaving the house.
By far and away the nicest smelling out of the products I tried. It’s one of the few that isn't fragrance free, and it has a really pleasant light fresh scent. The product glides on like a dream. The stick is a light green colour, but on application it’s completely clear and doesn't require rubbing in. The texture is slightly more greasy than some of the other options. (On the face I'd say the e.l.f. SKIN Invisi-stick felt the greasiest, Tocobo CICA next feeling more matt, and Beauty of Joseon being the 'mattest').
My only bugbear with this product was that it leaves an almost imperceptible pearlescent green sheen on your skin. Under make-up you couldn't see this, or at least it read as a really nice glow effect. But as the day wore on and my make-up lost some coverage, the green sheen did start to show through more prominently, and look more green! I would say, not ideal for oily skin types if you're using this on face tattoos. The pearlescent sheen might not be to everyone's taste.
Water resistance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Durability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
All-round value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Daily beauty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Strengths: The toughest performer for sport, holidays, hiking and swimming with tested and quantified wear-times. Great non-greasy texture, and adaptable for face and body. Excellent value for the level of protection offered. Robust and long-lasting.
Not the most elegant or the coolest looking, but
when it comes to the all round qualities of this sun stick, I had to crown this one as my favourite. It's highly durable, more than half the
price compared to the other brands, and the product contains more sun stick per unit. The quantified and tested wear-times were very reassuring and if you're going on holiday, this has to be your pick as I just can't see this letting you down, running out or getting damaged.
I took this one on a day trip jaunt to London to the swimming ponds on Hampstead Heath during the first heatwave of the summer in the late May half-term week. I spent the day in and out of the pond, the showers and the sunbathing areas so knew I needed a lot of extra protection that day. Worn over the top of my usual SPF50+ sunscreen it was so easy just to swipe over my tattoos. Because the product has a bigger surface area, it had the quickest application out of all the products and I also wasn't double swiping worrying I'd missed a patch. It was a blisteringly hot day where many items in my bag did not survive the heat - RIP to my lunch that day. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it didn't melt, and stayed in shape despite the temperatures.
With this being a functional holiday-focused go to, I had images of sopping wet children being restrained from the pool momentarily while any or all sunscreen available would be thrown at them as fast as possible! With this in mind, I was expecting this product to be very reliable, but also expecting it to be claggy or greasy - and let me tell you it is not! I was so impressed at how adaptable this was for use on my facial tattoos - I actually found this product preferable to the e.l.f. SKIN product for facial application which really surprised me. It has an excellent matt texture that glides on. It went on, melted in and then seemed to hold, rather than continuing to melt and build oil so I thought this was a great result.
There's no arguing with the reliability of this protection. This sun stick has maximum 5 star UVA protection, with up to 8 hours sun protection, including 3 hours in the water from just one application. The product was one of only two from our top 5 picks to state tested water resistance and durability time frames as part of the product description (with the other being e.l.f.). The comparatively larger shape of the stick instantly gives you maximum coverage with one swoop and very effective application, and no noticeable scent. Robust and easy to grab with wet or sweaty hands, and versatile enough to be worn as part of your daily beauty routine. You can even apply this straight onto wet skin. The stick is 25g which is by far the largest volume of product, while the packaging still manages to feel small and handy. Value-wise the stick was less than half the price per gram the the others we tested which offers incredible value.
Packaging-wise it did come with a full clear plastic sleeve over the whole stick, which again I felt was a waste and could have been avoided with a tamper proof hygiene sticker between the base and the lid.
All round brilliant value and protection.
Water resistance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Durability: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
All-round value: ⭐⭐☆☆☆
Daily beauty: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Strengths: The handiest of hand-sized! Great protection, and cleverly made so that it can be applied and re-applied both underneath and over the top of your make-up without causing any disturbance, or pilling. Great durability and a tested 80 minutes of water resistance.
Small but mighty with highly adaptable application with specialist beauty credentials. I loved that like the Soltan stick, this elf SKIN sun stick included information about how long it provides protection for. The stick is tested to provide 80 minutes of water resistance, which is a recognised regulatory standard. So although it's only marketed as for use on the face, it is adaptable for use on the body and good for everyday activity and swimming. Having information on water resistance times made feel sure of when re-application was needed after sweating away, and this transparency meant I could trust in the product to protect my skin and my tattoos.
I loved the no-fuss packaging and the size, but overall this product offered the smallest amount of grams per stick and was the highest price point per gram from the 5 picks at the time of purchase.
This stick was called into action for a day's gardening in the heat, and I also used the product under and over make-up for more day to day experiment on a hot and bothered errands/work day. The product is a clear almost jelly-like looking solid that glides on effortlessly and requires no rubbing in. The packaging is super handy and truly handbag sized for a day out. I did find that after a few hours this product did make my skin feel quite greasy. I could feel the familiar itch of it collecting little bits of dust and hair the longer it went on, and my glasses were sliding down my nose which was a good sign that it was not suited to my skin-type! Personally, I'd recommend this for dryer facial complexions (I think it would have a nice moisturising effect), or if you like glowy dewy skincare vibes. I actually preferred using this on my body to using it on my face and felt the robust coverage was more suited for that.
Easy to pack, smooth application, clear information about protection offered, and impressive application options for under or over the top of make-up makes this sun stick a solid choice.
Water resistance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Durability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
All-round value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Daily beauty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Strengths: Unbeatable matt texture, worth the hype. Full protection with added focused skincare ingredients that contribute to your overall skincare routine. Amazing for oily skin, with great staying power.
I just loved how this product felt on my skin. Out of all the five this one was the least noticeable when applied, and melted right away to a matt finish that felt light and nourishing.
Despite the beauty focus of this product I did do a bit more of a strenuous outdoor activity test on a very sweaty bike ride! Despite my perspiration, the product didn't melt with me or become sticky or greasy, and unlike some of the other products I was not really aware of it on my skin it was so light. It contains mugwort to help soothe reactive skin, green tea extract and hyaluronic acid among other carefully chosen ingredients.
This was my first time trying any of the much hyped Korean beauty products that we've seen appear on the UK market in recent years. The minimal packaging was not making me feel reassured, but once I tried it out, I was converted. I think we are used to assuming that if we don't see badges and bells and whistles on the packaging, then we need to question how serious the sun protection provided is. But don't let the minimal packaging design fool you - this sunscreen stick does offer broad spectrum SPF50+ sun protection. One tip I learnt while researching this blog is that UK and European Product Packaging talks about 'UVA/UVB protections' to convery broad spectrum coverage, while the Korean Beauty equivalent term is typically indicated by the term PA++++.
It's has clinically tested SPF and UVA protection giving me the confidence to use this on my body also to keep my tattoos protected. Although I was confident this product would offer good protection all over, in the end it just felt like a bit of a waste using this on my body and I decided to keep it just for my face tattoos.
Like the elf SKIN stick it is specifically designed it to glide smoothly over existing skincare or makeup or underneath is as part of your base. I used to use a skin-tone coloured Zinc Stick under make-up especially on my nose, but that has now been kicked to the curb in favour of this product. For me this was the product that you have in your make-up bag and use daily as a facial base regardless of what you have planned.
Considering the quality of the formulation, I thought this represented excellent value. Although it's not the cheapest stick in the comparison, it delivers a premium feel without a premium price tag. Of all the products I tested, this is the one that quietly worked its way into my daily routine. It went straight into my make-up bag and has been incorporated into my beauty regime. While this product isn't the most heavy-duty option for prolonged outdoor sport, it excels as an everyday facial sunscreen that's easy to reapply and comfortable to wear. This product became the sunscreen I reached for most often when simply leaving the house.
KTREW Tattoo is a queer-owned, independent micro-business riding the waves of these uncertain times. We care deeply about our customers, the space we’ve created for them, and the value of independent creative expression. Our practice is rooted in safe space, inclusivity, and informed consent.
We hope these blogs empower you to have a safer, more informed, and fun tattoo experience. If you’ve found them helpful or simply want to support our work, you can leave us a tip here: 👉 ko-fi.com/ktrewtattoo
For our latest work and studio life, follow us on Instagram: @ktrewtattoo @kirstietrew @pokeyhontastattoo
Thank you for reading — your support truly means the world to us.
Comments