Is your sunscreen reef safe? Paste the label to check
“Reef safe” isn’t a legal term, but the ingredient bans behind it are. Paste the Drug Facts or ingredient list from any sunscreen. We’ll find every regulated ingredient, under any of its label names, and tell you where that product is allowed.
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By location
| Location | Verdict | Why |
|---|
Or look up your brand
Every product we track, checked against every law:
Blue Lizard · Neutrogena · Hawaiian Tropic · Vacation · Sun Bum · Banana Boat · Supergoop! · Coppertone · CeraVe · COOLA · Native · La Roche-Posay · Alba Botanica · All Good · Attitude · Australian Gold · Aveeno · Babo Botanicals · Babyganics · Badger · Bare Republic · Black Girl Sunscreen · EltaMD · Equate · Goddess Garden · Hello Bello · ISDIN · Kinfield · Kōkua Sun Care · Little Hands Hawaii · Mama Kuleana · Manda · Ocean Potion · Panama Jack · Raw Elements · Salt & Stone · Stream2Sea · Suntribe · Thinksport / Think · Thrive Natural Care · Trader Joe's · up&up
Sunscreen ingredients that aren’t reef safe, by place
These are the rules the checker applies. Named-ingredient bans apply to actives and inactives; mineral-only rules allow no active except zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.
| Place | Rule | Not allowed (or advised against) | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii (statewide) | Named-ingredient ban | Oxybenzone, Octinoxate | January 1, 2021 |
| Maui County (Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi) | Mineral actives only | Any active other than zinc oxide or titanium dioxide | October 1, 2022 |
| Hawaiʻi County (Big Island) | Mineral actives only | Any active other than zinc oxide or titanium dioxide | December 1, 2022 |
| U.S. Virgin Islands | Named-ingredient ban | Oxybenzone, Octinoxate, Octocrylene | March 30, 2020 |
| Palau | Mineral actives only | Any active other than zinc oxide or titanium dioxide; also Triclosan, Triclocarban, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Butylparaben, Benzylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Isopropylparaben | January 1, 2020 |
| Aruba | Named-ingredient ban | Oxybenzone | July 1, 2020 |
| Guam | Named-ingredient ban | Oxybenzone, Octinoxate, Octocrylene | October 9, 2025 |
| Mexico: federal marine protected areas (e.g., Isla Mujeres, Punta Cancún & Punta Nizuc) | Advisory | Advised against: any active other than zinc oxide or titanium dioxide | August 2, 2016 |
| Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) | Named-ingredient ban | Oxybenzone, Octinoxate | July 1, 2021 |
| Thailand (all national parks) | Named-ingredient ban | Oxybenzone, Octinoxate, 4-Methylbenzylidene Camphor (Enzacamene), Butylparaben | August 4, 2021 |
| Bonaire (Bonaire National Marine Park) | Advisory | Advised against: Oxybenzone, Octinoxate | — |
| U.S. National Parks with coral reefs (NPS guidance) | Advisory | Advised against: any active other than zinc oxide or titanium dioxide | — |
How to tell if a sunscreen is reef safe
- Find the Drug Facts panel. In the US every sunscreen has one. Ignore “reef safe”, “reef friendly” or “biodegradable” on the front; no agency checks those claims.
- Read the active ingredients. If the only actives are zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide, the sunscreen meets every active-ingredient rule we track, including Maui’s and the Big Island’s.
- Read the inactive ingredients. They matter for Palau and a few other places, which also ban preservatives like parabens and phenoxyethanol.
The catch is that labels use different names for the same chemical. These are the filters banned in more than one place, and the names to look for:
| Ingredient | Also listed as | Banned in |
|---|---|---|
| Oxybenzone | benzophenone-3, bp-3, 2-hydroxy-4-methoxybenzophenone | Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands, Palau, Aruba, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Thailand |
| Octinoxate | ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, octyl methoxycinnamate, 2-ethylhexyl 4-methoxycinnamate, omc, ehmc | Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands, Palau, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Thailand |
| Octocrylene | 2-ethylhexyl 2-cyano-3,3-diphenylacrylate, octocrilene | U.S. Virgin Islands, Palau, Guam |
| 4-Methylbenzylidene Camphor (Enzacamene) | 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, enzacamene, 4-mbc, methylbenzylidene camphor | Palau, Thailand |
| Butylparaben | Palau, Thailand |
Or skip the reading and paste the label into the checker above. For every filter and additive, see the full list of sunscreen ingredients to avoid.
Common questions
What sunscreen is not allowed in Hawaii?
Statewide, any sunscreen containing oxybenzone and octinoxate can’t be sold (since January 1, 2021). Maui County (since October 1, 2022) and Hawaii County, the Big Island (since December 1, 2022), go further: only sunscreens whose actives are zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide are allowed. So a chemical sunscreen without oxybenzone can be legal in Honolulu but not on Maui.
What are the two ingredients to avoid in sunscreen for reefs?
Oxybenzone and octinoxate. They are the two filters banned in the most places we track (Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands, Palau, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and Thailand). Octocrylene is next, banned in U.S. Virgin Islands, Palau and Guam.
Why does a mineral sunscreen fail the check for Palau?
Palau is the only place we track that also bans preservatives and other inactive ingredients: triclosan, triclocarban, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, benzylparaben, isobutylparaben and isopropylparaben. Many zinc oxide sunscreens use phenoxyethanol or a paraben, so they pass in Hawaii but not in Palau.
How the checker works
We compare your text with 41 indexed ingredients and more than 135 label names — for example, oxybenzone also appears as benzophenone-3, and octinoxate as ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate. Then we apply each location’s rule: named-ingredient bans check actives and inactives; mineral-only rules check that every active is zinc oxide or titanium dioxide.
If your text includes the “Active ingredients” and “Inactive ingredients” headings we treat those sections separately. Without headings, we assume any UV filter we find is an active — the stricter reading.
This is a reference tool, not legal advice. Read the methodology.