Tower 28, the US beauty brand, has apologised to customers over claims around its newly released mineral sunscreen.
The SOS FaceGuard SPF 30 Mineral Sunscreen purports to offer a “universal tint” with no white cast.
First launched on May 19, the brand was swiftly called out on social media over the claims after being tested out by those with darker skin tones.
“Marketing this as no white cast in 2025 is so disappointing and just makes me feel so undervalued as a consumer,” said cosmetics chemist Dr Julian Sass.
In a video posted on TikTok where he tries out the product which was sent to him by the brand, Dr Sass is left with an obvious white cast after using the recommended half a teaspoon which is needed to get full SPF protection.
“It makes me feel like these brands are saying, we would rather lie than either put forth the effort to make different tints, different shades, that might work better on deeper skin tones, than just say this product might not work if you have a deeper skin tone, we apologies for that.
“If they would rather lie, than just be honest about the performance of the products, [it] is just really, really frustrating to me.”
Beauty influencer Tionne Henderson, who goes by @faceoftionne on social media, also called it a “sunscreen fail” after being sent the product to test.
In a video applying the product, she is left with a white cast.
“No fragrance, no oily or greasy feeling on my skin which I appreciate but it is a pass for me,” she said in the caption.
Tower 28 posted an apology to its Instagram account on Friday from founder and CEO Amy Liu.
It read: “I wanted to reach out personally and thank you for the feedback we’ve received around the new SOS FaceGuard SPF 30.
“I have read your messages and seen your posts – especially from those with deeper skin tones who’ve shared that the formula left a white cast.
“I appreciate you more than you know for being honest and holding us to a higher standard.
“Despite our best efforts in testing, the truth is, we missed the mark.
“We described it inaccurately – saying it had ‘no white cast’ and called it a ‘universal tint’ – which was misleading.
“That was a mistake, and I take full responsibility. I am sorry.”
She continued to say that the brand will remove the “no white cast” and “universal tint” claims from its marketing materials.
Tower 28 will also work on a second version of the products, “designed to better serve deeper skin tone”.
The brand will also update testing by “enhancing our testing approach to standardise use across participants”
It will “continue collaborating with beauty experts and cosmetic scientists to make sure our future products truly reflect the diverse community we serve”, it said.
Cosmetics Busines has contacted Tower 28 for comment.