Shady truth: Some suncreens fall flat

You diligently slather on the 30 SPF daily, but it turns out your sunscreen might not be protecting you as well as you thought.

The nonprofit, nonpartisan Environmental Working Group did an investigation of nearly 1,000 brand-name sunscreen products and found that four out of five have chemicals that could be hazardous to your health or don't protect skin from the sun.

Here's the worst part: The big names such as Coppertone, Banana Boat and Neutrogena weren't in the top 10. Or even the top 100.

The group says the best sunscreen it found was Keys Soap Solar Rx Therapeutic Sunblock, SPF 30. It's a far less known brand that's harder to find than the drugstore types (find it at www.keys-soap.com for $26.95.). But it protects with a key ingredient: zinc.

The No. 2 brand on the list was Trukid Sunny Days Facestick Mineral Sunscreen UVA/UVB Broad Spectrum, SPF 30+ with titanium and zinc. It's a hard brand to find, however.

The group also liked products by California Baby, which also have titanium, and Badger Sunscreen.

The more common brands recommended by the group include anything by Blue Lizard without oxybenzone, California Baby products with SPF of 30 or more, CVS sunscreens with zinc oxide, Kiss My Face paraben-free products and Neutrogena's Sensitive Skin Sunblocks.

To see the rest of the top sunscreens or to find out how your favorite sunscreen brands fared, go to www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens2008.