The words you may not use
Updated
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The three
- Sunblock. Nothing blocks; products reduce. The word overstates what any sunscreen does.
- Sweatproof. There is no such performance and no test that would support it.
- Waterproof. Replaced entirely by the water resistance statement with a time.
Why they are prohibited rather than discouraged
Each implies a completeness the product does not have, and a user who believes a product blocks the sun or survives swimming indefinitely reapplies less and burns. The words change behavior, which is why they are treated as misleading rather than merely loose.
What to say instead
The tested facts: the SPF, broad spectrum if it qualifies, and Water Resistant with 40 or 80 minutes if it was tested for it. Those are specific and defensible, and they are more informative than the banned words were.
It applies beyond the label
A website, an advertisement and a social post describing a product as waterproof carry the same problem as a label that does. The prohibited word is prohibited because of what it conveys, not because of where it is printed.
Watch inherited copy
Older packaging, a distributor’s listing, a retailer’s product page or a description written years ago can all still carry these words. If you sell through others, what they write about your product is worth auditing.
Similar overstatement without the exact word
All-day protection, total protection and the like make the same claim in other words. The regulation names three terms and the principle behind it reaches further than the three.
Retailers reproduce your copy
Listings on marketplaces and shop websites are often written from your own description, so a prohibited word in your copy propagates to places you do not control. Supplying approved copy is easier than correcting it later.
Replace them with the tested facts
SPF, broad spectrum, and Water Resistant with 40 or 80 minutes say more to an informed buyer than the banned words ever did, and every one of them is defensible because a test produced it.