Altruist

Altruist is a British sunscreen and skincare brand founded in 2015 by Dr Andrew Birnie, a consultant dermatologist and skin cancer specialist [10]. Marie Claire UK records a second founder, the economist David Westerbeek van Eerten [8], though the brand's own site credits only Dr Birnie publicly. The company sells dermatologist-formulated sun protection at deliberately low prices and, since launch, has run on a not-for-profit footing built around a single conviction: that affordable, high-quality SPF should be within reach of everyone.

The brand is best known for a no-frills model that strips out the usual costs of a beauty company. By its own account it spends nothing on fancy packaging, marketing campaigns or a PR team, passing the savings to the customer [8]. That positioning has earned it repeated, prominent coverage in the UK beauty press, and a charitable programme that donates sunscreen to children with albinism in Africa.

The idea for Altruist came directly from Dr Birnie's clinical work. Treating skin cancer patients, he concluded that the products best suited to daily use — easily absorbed and non-sticky — were also the most expensive, so people tended to ration them and apply too little. "We created our own lotion, with low risk of allergy, which has been extensively tested, and most importantly is at a low cost to the user," he explained in an early account of the brand's development [9]. Dr Birnie has practised at One Ashford Hospital in Kent [9].

The brand frames its founding as a "people before profit" venture launched in 2015 [10]. Its products were developed in collaboration with European scientists and the chemical company BASF [9].

Altruist's stated mission is "to reduce the incidence of skin cancer through the increased use of quality sunscreen together with better education and awareness." The company argues that cost is itself a barrier to sun safety: because people use too little sunscreen when it is expensive, it keeps prices as low as possible [10]. Alongside the products, the brand publishes educational material on skin cancer types, UV protection and risk factors, citing bodies such as the British Association of Dermatologists and Melanoma Focus.

The range is positioned at the affordable, drugstore end of the market rather than as a premium line, and the company describes its sunscreens as hypoallergenic and suitable for sensitive and acne-prone skin.

Altruist's core range is sun protection, sold in SPF30 and SPF50 grades across several formats including creams, sprays, face fluids and a kids' roller. The line has expanded into broader skincare — among them a dry-skin repair cream with 10% urea, a cleansing foam with 2% salicylic acid, a body lotion and a moisturising fluid with hyaluronic acid — and into hybrid products such as anti-redness and pigmentation formulas and primers that also carry SPF50.

The brand says its sunscreens offer broad-spectrum UVA and UVB protection with a five-star UVA rating, the maximum under the European standard, and describes them as fragrance-free, microplastic-free and free of oxybenzone and octinoxate. Formulation, according to the company, is overseen by Dr Birnie, who selects the ingredients.

Altruist has been recommended repeatedly by UK beauty journalists, a notable pattern for a brand that does no marketing. In The Guardian, Sali Hughes described the one-litre SPF50 dispenser as "some of the best value high-quality, broad spectrum sunscreen on the market" [11]. Writing in Marie Claire UK, beauty editor Tori Crowther called Altruist "my most recommended (and raved about) brand—ever" [8]. The brand's reputation rests on this press advocacy rather than industry awards, in keeping with its no-PR stance.

A donation model is built into the business: the company gives 10p worth of sunscreen for every product sold to children with albinism in Africa, a group at very high risk of skin cancer [10]. It reports having donated more than £1.4 million in sunscreen since 2015, including over £300,000 in 2025 alone [3]. The programme is run with partners including Under The Same Sun, Standing Voice and Stichting Afrikaanse Albino's, with Tanzania — described by the brand as the epicentre of albinism — as its primary focus.

The brand sells through its own online store and a wide range of other retailers in the UK and internationally. In April 2023 it launched into the beauty aisles of 261 larger Sainsbury's stores across the UK [10]. It operates in both the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and ships more widely, including to Nordic markets.

Altruist is an active brand. Its most recent visible milestones include the 2025 Guardian feature and its 2025 charitable donations, and it marked ten years in business in 2025 [3].