The use of sunscreen products dates back to ancient times. In ancient Egypt and China, light skin tone was considered to be more beautiful than dark skin. It can be related to the fact that those working outdoors, i.e., the working class, had tanned skin due to unavoidable sun exposure.

In contrast, the higher class was able to avoid the sun's rays and maintain fine white skin. Light skin became part of the social status and was, therefore, more desired.

In the early ages, clothing was an important way of sun protection. Umbrellas were also used to provide sun protection in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, and India. Even in Victorian times, elegance and fashion dictated that skin should be white and that brown skin was indicative of hard labor and poverty. Many forms of physical protection have been used, including oils, tars, herbs, and plant extracts, which were probably used for other cosmetic reasons but also served as sunscreens.

Until the 19th century, it was widely believed that sunburn was caused by heat damage.

• In 1801, Johann Ritter discovered UV light. He postulated, correctly, that UV radiation was causing skin cells to become inflamed, and that it was radiation, not heat, that caused sunburn.
• In 1820, Everard Home discovered that melanin protects the skin from sunlight and stated that darker skin is better protected than the skin of white people. 
• In the late 1920s, Karl Eilham Hausser, and Wilhelm Vahle reported that sunburn is caused by specific wavelengths of the UV spectrum, and realized that the skin could be protected by filtering out those wavelengths.
• This led to the introduction of sunscreen in 1928 in the US, blending benzyl salicylate and benzyl cinnamate. The first commercially available sunscreen product was introduced by Eugene Schueller in France in the 1930s, the founder of L'Oreal.
• Franz Greiter in Austria created a product called Glacier Cream in the late 1930s to protect against the sun while climbing.
• In the US, the first sunscreen product was invented in Florida in the 1940s by Benjamin Green, the future Coppertone founder. It was a red jelly-like substance, which was known as the "red vet pet", a veterinary petroleum-based product. It was widely used during the Second World War; however, it had some disadvantages, such as stained fabrics, and it was sticky. Later, he developed a more consumer-friendly product.
• The concept of SPF was introduced in the 1960s by Franz Greiter. The system has become a worldwide standard for measuring the effectiveness of sunscreens.
• In 1972, the FDA reclassified sunscreens from cosmetics to OTC drugs, and labeling requirements became stricter.

However, many consumers continued to use suntan lotions, i.e., products with low SPF, which provided only minimal protection against UV radiation. 

In the 1980s, consumers started to learn more about the negative effects of sunlight, and suntan lotions and similar products began to disappear. In recent decades, several improvements were implemented, new dosage forms were formulated, and formulations are more and more appealing, in addition to being functional. Today, many personal care products including lipsticks, facial creams, and hand creams, contain UV filters.