Top 8 Best Sun cream for children of 2022

The spray bottle this sun cream comes in is cleverly designed so air can’t enter, which means the cream can’t turn rancid but stays fresh until it runs out. The spray is a bit wild and uncontrolled, but the mousse that comes out is fanatically easy to work with, is directly absorbed by the skin and is pretty much not sticky at all.

It’s easy to get an even layer over the whole of the child's body and to gradually portion out the cream. The sun cream remains as a protective layer despite wear or swimming, without producing a white film. According to the manufacturer, the protection should last for 6 hours and that may very well be true. Evy Sunscreen Mousse Kids is a high quality sun cream for children that’s also available in SPF50.

Avène Sunspray SPF 50+ For Children is – you guessed it – a spray-on sunscreen for kids. Avène is a strong and reliable brand in both sun protection and skincare. This sun spray is no exception.

This is not an aerosol spray. It’s a manual pump that you press for each spray. The nozzles on this type of spray tend to dose unevenly and scatter the spray a little too widely – which leads to unnecessary mess on any surrounding objects. We can happily report that this is not the case with Avène Sunspray, which distributes the spray in an even and non-messy way. If you want even greater control, you can always spray it in your hand first and then apply it to your child (or yourself). Remember to use the right amount of sunscreen. The risk with a spray is that you use too little, so be generous to ensure adequate protection.

A really clever feature of Avène Sunspray is that the nozzle can be twisted up or down. Twist it up when you use it and then twist it down for a mess-free journey to and from the beach.

The Avène sun spray is not only easy to dose but also easy to massage into the skin. It’s important that sunscreen for kids can be applied quickly to squirmy children. This sunscreen is absorbed quickly and leaves skin feeling soft and hydrated.

It’s really great sunscreen for kids – easy to spray, easy to apply and ingenious packaging.

Rudolph Care is a Danish organic skincare brand with production in Denmark. Rudolph Care Kids Sun Lotion not only carries the Nordic Swan Ecolabel but is also certified suitable for children with allergies. As befitting skincare for young children, Rudolph Care’s sun lotion is fragrance free, and offers broad-spectrum protection and SPF50.

This water-resistant sunscreen is luxuriously creamy, yet still easy to apply. Just before it’s absorbed into the skin, the white lotion is clearly visible, making it easier to apply without missing any areas. This is undeniably an advantage for sunscreen designed for children who are only willing to sit still for a few short seconds. It will be quite easy to spot any areas you may have missed, if you keep track while applying the lotion. But it doesn't leave any white film on the skin once the lotion has been absorbed, which some other sunscreens tend to do.

Children’s sunscreen that leaves skin soft

After application, the child’s skin feels soft and hydrated, but not sticky. This is good, because sticky arms and legs can really annoy those children with a low tolerance for this type of mess. The sun lotion comes in a handy tube with a snap-on lid, which is not only easy to use but also looks stylish on your bathroom shelf or in your beach bag. Not that the look of the sunscreen is that big a deal, but the test panel feels that this sets it apart from its rivals.

Our only objection is to the price. On the one hand, it’s an organic product that’s produced in the Nordic region. On the other hand, families tend to use a lot of sunscreen during the summer months, and the cost per application is quite high. But apart from the price tag, it’s a nice addition to the SPF collection.

Eco Cosmetics’ sun cream for children is really good for sun protection. The SPF is high, the cream is easily applied to the skin and seems to offer a good protective barrier. Organically certified, Eco Cosmetics Baby & Kids consists of physical filters that actually settle on top of the skin and reflect away the harmful rays from the sun. The sun cream works well on the beach, as it withstands very water well and so isn’t washed away immediately after a dip. The disadvantage of this product is that the cream is very sticky and adheres to everything, so not only will the kids be covered in it, but so will your clothes, phone, watch, your sunglasses and just about everything else you touch for at least half an hour after putting it on the children. If the sun protection hadn’t been so effective, the stickiness would be a big minus, but as it stands maybe it’s actually worth getting white patches on all your summer clothes.

Vichy Idéal Soleil Sun Lotion Children comes in a really large tube, which fits very well with the manufacturer's recommendation to cover your kids with plenty of sun cream. The texture of the sun cream is wonderful and easy to work into the skin yet doesn’t feel watery. Once it’s been rubbed in and allowed to dry, which takes less than a minute, it then protects the skin and isn’t at all sticky. The one small disadvantage is that you have to be quick to wash your own hands if you don’t want to get grease all over your phone or whatever else you want to hold shortly after use. Vichy Idéal Soleil Sun Lotion Children is perfume-free and contains no parabens, and just feels like a really good value sun cream.

Nivea's Sun Kids Protect & Sensitive Sun comes in two different forms – as a lotion and a spray. The spray bottle has a clever design with deeply ribbed sides. Once you’ve applied the sun cream to your children, and your hands are slippery, it’s those same grooves that enable you to keep a good one-handed grip on the bottle. The spray itself is good and with a good concentration – the sun cream ends up where you aim. The cream is easy to apply, but it should be done sometime before putting your child in a car or pushchair, because it takes some time for the cream to be absorbed and stop rubbing off. Once absorbed, the cream works well even whilst swimming, but a new layer must be applied after the child has been in the water. Nivea state that the cream is free of perfume, dyes and preservatives and is therefore suitable for sensitive skin. When we tested the cream on a child with moderately severe eczema, no reaction occurred on that particular child. Nivea Sun Kids Protect & Sensitive Sun Spray is a good value and, thanks to the bottle, easy-to-use sun cream.

Garnier Ambre Solaire Kids Sensitive Advanced comes in a robust spray bottle with a nozzle similar to a plant spray. This is far from being a precision tool and it’s best used either by first protecting floors and furniture around the application point or, better still, outdoors.

The nozzle distributes the spray over half the room, but at the same time (fortunately) also manages to hit the body. To ensure the correct amount is used, two applications with a period of drying time in between are recommended. So what initially appears to be an efficient way of applying sun cream actually takes a good bit more time than you might have expected.

Once done, however, the cream is quickly absorbed by the skin. But it does leave some white residue on dark clothes, and some yellowish stains on white clothes.

One plus is that the handle on the spray has a locking mechanism. If you fold out the small black lever, you won’t end up with a beach bag full of sun spray should the handle get knocked during the trip. This is very useful.

This is an effective sun spray, but really lacks a more precise spray function. The sun cream does its job well, once you get it on the skin.

Nivea Sun Kids Protect & Sensitive Sun Lotion has a highly effective UVA protection and is, according to Nivea, dermatologically tested to suit even sensitive skin. When we applied the lotion to a child with skin problems, no negative reaction occurred. The formula doesn’t contain perfume, preservatives or dyes. According to the manufacturer, their Sun Lotion should be extra water-resistant and our experience is that it can actually withstand a lot of dips. On a long day at the beach, you should still apply several times to ensure that the sun protection is intact. This is another sun cream that gets quite sticky. Until the lotion has been absorbed, it can leave white, greasy spots on everything the child touches. Although the drying time is a small minus, Nivea Sun Kids Protect & Sensitive Sun Lotion feels effective and well adapted for a child who will be playing or swimming.