A YouTuber says 8 Daiso sunscreens missed their SPF. Daiso says its retests passed
In July the channel Skin Is Min Dong-seong said it paid about 30 million won (around $22,500) to test 10 Daiso Korea sunscreens, and that 8 came in under their label. It said testing on some products stopped because participants had skin reactions. No measured SPF numbers have been reported. Daiso says the data the channel released came from 2 or 3 people per product, while Korea's regulator and the international SPF standard (ISO 24444) require at least 10 valid people. The channel also hasn't named the lab, the lead researcher or the product lot numbers. In September the eight makers (Fruits Nara, Kim Jung Moon Aloe, The Lab by Blanc Doux, Dewytree, Bonsept, Beprove, Scinic and VT) retested at four Korean clinical labs with 10 or more people per test, and Daiso says all eight passed. Daiso has asked the channel to take the video down and apologize, and says it may take legal action. The channel's claims are unproven, and no regulator ruling has been reported.
Why it matters
SPF is measured on real people, and the number moves from person to person. That's why the standard asks for at least 10. A test on 2 or 3 people can raise a flag, but it can't tell you a sunscreen's SPF. The same goes for the brand side: a retest the makers paid for is worth reading closely, too.
The story so far
The channel posts its video saying 8 of 10 Daiso sunscreens missed their labeled SPF.
Daiso says the products passed Korea's required checks and that the channel's data doesn't meet the regulator's testing standard.
Daiso says retests by the eight makers at four clinical labs found all eight products met Korea's SPF standard.