A sunscreen brand's SPF50+ claim has ended up in the Federal Court, after independent lab tests returned results as low as SPF 2.9. Two of the brands it manufactured for are now suing, and the fallout says a lot about who is actually making the sunscreen in your bathroom cabinet.
The gap between the label and the lab
Wild Child Laboratories manufactured sunscreen formulas for a string of Australian beauty brands, including Ultra Violette's Lean Screen SPF50+. When independent testing was run on that formula, results came back at SPF 2.9, 3.0, 3.6, 4.1, 10.5, 21.5 and 25.18, nowhere near the SPF50+ on the label. Twenty sunscreens made with the same base formula were pulled from sale.
Who's suing who
Wild Child Laboratories went into voluntary liquidation in August 2026 and sold its assets to a new entity, Heliora. That hasn't stopped the legal fallout. Ultra Violette is pursuing the company for around $7 million in damages, and Advanced Skin Technology (owner of Aspect Skincare) for a further $2.5 million, both alleging misleading and deceptive conduct. Creditor claims against Wild Child now sit near $20 million, including $8.2 million owed to Naked Sundays.
Why this keeps happening
None of the brands caught up in this formulated their own sunscreen in-house, they outsourced it to a contract manufacturer and put their name on the label. That's a completely normal way to build a beauty brand. It also means the brand's SPF claim is only as good as a lab it doesn't control, and a formula it didn't test itself. When something goes wrong, the brand wears the reputational damage even though the mistake happened somewhere else in the supply chain.
Read the full report from ABC News, 10 September 2026.
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