Mineral vs chemical sunscreen, honestly
We sell some of what is named here
Routinae sells some of the products written about here, so read this the way you would read any shop’s opinion of its own shelves. Where we think a cheaper product does the same job we say so, and where the evidence is thin we say that too. Our buying standard is published so you can check the argument against it.
Sunscreen filters come in two families. Chemical (organic) filters absorb UV; they are what make modern Korean sunscreens feel like nothing — the elegant, invisible textures our whole sunscreen shelf is built on. Mineral filters — zinc oxide, titanium dioxide — sit on the skin and absorb and scatter UV; they carry the reputations, deserved and not.
What is not true. Mineral is not "safer" or "cleaner" — EU-approved chemical filters are among the most scrutinised ingredients in cosmetics, and the modern generation is well studied (we wrote about the EU filter rules here). Chemical is not "stronger" — protection at the labelled level depends on using enough, which matters far more than the filter family.
What is true. Some skin is genuinely unhappy with certain chemical filters — stinging, watering eyes, a reaction that arrives with the sunscreen and leaves with it. That is not imagination and not failure; it is a real requirement, and mineral filters answer it. The trade has always been texture: zinc reads as a white cast, especially on deeper skin tones, which is why the mineral formulas worth buying are the ones engineered to disappear.
The honest decision tree: if chemical sunscreens suit you — and for most people they do — use them, at the full amount, and spend the saved money on nothing. If sunscreen itself seems to be what your skin objects to, try a mineral-only formula before concluding you "can't wear SPF". That specific case is one of the four reasons our Beyond Korea shelf exists: Korea's genius is the elegant chemical filter, and it barely makes mineral-only ones at all.
Either way, the family matters less than the habit. A mediocre sunscreen worn daily at a teaspoon beats an ideal one abandoned in a drawer — and the routine that makes the habit stick is three steps, not ten.