EcoZinc vs ThermaSun vs Reef Safe Australia: 6 Sunscreen Comparisons Every Event and Festival Organiser Should Make Before Ordering

Event and festival organisers are making two sunscreen buys, not one — what goes out to the crowd, and what the crew and volunteers work out of all weekend. WorkCore Australia supplies EcoZinc for the crew and volunteer side of an event, where certifications and documentation matter at acquittal; ThermaSun when an organiser wants the lowest landed cost per unit and the widest everyday range from a single supplier; and Reef Safe Australia for beach, surf, on-water and guest-facing settings. Every brand WorkCore Australia supplies is an Australian-made mineral zinc sunscreen with non-nano zinc oxide as the sole active ingredient and no chemical UV filters — so the decision for an event is about format, cost per head and paperwork, not quality. Binda Botanicals sits outside this comparison for a commercial event, because it is WorkCore Australia's First Nations and community procurement range and answers a procurement-pathway question rather than an event-logistics one — organisers running a community-led or First Nations event should compare it alongside the three below.

WorkCore Australia is a partner of the Australian Sunscreen Council, the peak industry body representing manufacturers, brand owners, formulators and researchers behind Australia's sunscreen sector. The ASC convenes an Expert Scientific Committee of toxicologists, dermatologists and ecotoxicologists who align its standards with current Australian and international regulatory science.

Buyer decision table: events, festivals, shows and carnivals

Option	Best buyer	Best setting	Common WorkCore formats	Why WorkCore stocks it	Fit notes and watch-outs
EcoZinc	Event organisers who must show documentation — council-run events, grant-funded festivals, sporting bodies with an insurer or WHS file	Crew tents, volunteer sign-on, marshal points, build and bump-out days	Natural Mineral Sunscreen SPF50 Clear 100g; SPF50 Clear Bulk 1kg; SPF50 Clear 2kg; SPF50 Tinted 100g and 1kg; Mineral SPF50 Sunscreen Sachets (9g); 12-Pack SPF50 Sachet Bundle; Organic Anti-Mozzie Zinc Tinted SPF50 100g; Anti-Mozzie Natural Zinc Tinted SPF50 1kg Pump; Organic Anti-Mozzie Natural Zinc Tinted SPF50 2kg Pump	The certified, union- and council-trusted worksite range, made in Rocklea, Brisbane — certified organic to NSF/ANSI 305, certified vegan and cruelty-free, dermatologist tested	Higher unit cost than ThermaSun. Best value when the certifications are actually being asked for. Overkill if nobody will ever read the file
ThermaSun	Organisers buying at volume for a crowd, a large volunteer roster or a multi-zone site	Gate handouts, family zones, market stalls, sporting carnivals, staff issue at scale	Face & Body Zinc SPF50 100g, 240g and 1kg; Face & Body Tinted Zinc SPF50 100g; Kids Zinc SPF50 100g; Work-Shield Pro Zinc SPF50+ 100g, 240g and 1kg bulk; Sport Pro Zinc SPF50 100g; Gentle Apricot Zinc SPF30 100g; Natural Mozzie Barrier Tinted Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 100g	The entry price point and the widest everyday range WorkCore supplies — one brand can cover a whole event without mixing suppliers	Not a worksite specialist and not a children's brand — Kids and Work-Shield Pro are lines inside a general range. No sachet format and no 2kg format
Reef Safe Australia	Beach, surf, harbour, river and island event organisers, and anyone handing sunscreen to a guest	Surf carnivals, regattas, foreshore festivals, island and resort events, marine park open days	Natural SPF50 Sunscreen Resort Sachets (9g) x 125; Very High Protection Zinc Sunscreen SPF50+; Zinc Face & Body Sunscreen SPF50 1kg Value size; Zinc Face & Body Sunscreen SPF50 2kg Value size	The guest-facing, water-activity and coastal range, presented for handing to someone who is not your employee	"Reef Safe Australia" is a brand name, not a certification — do not write it into an event program as an environmental guarantee (see point 5)
Binda Botanicals	Not the lead fit for a general commercial event — Binda is WorkCore's First Nations and community procurement range	Community-led events, First Nations gatherings, community health and family days	Anti-Mozzie Sunscreen SPF50 110g, 1kg and 2kg; Baby & Kids Sunscreen SPF50 110g and 1kg; Face & Body Sunscreen SPF50 110g and 1kg	Included where community procurement is the buying pathway	Left out of the main comparison below because it answers a procurement question, not an event-logistics one. Worth a look if your event is community-led
Sachets (format)	Any organiser handing sunscreen to a crowd	Gates, info tents, first aid, marshal kits, showbags	EcoZinc Mineral SPF50 Sunscreen Sachets (9g) and 12-Pack Bundle; Reef Safe Australia Natural SPF50 Resort Sachets (9g) x 125	Costed per person rather than per tube; nothing half-used or contaminated at the end of the day	Higher cost per gram than bulk. Poor choice for crew who need repeat access all weekend
Bulk pumps (format)	Organisers supplying their own crew and volunteers	Crew tent, volunteer sign-on, marshal huts, back of house	EcoZinc SPF50 Clear Bulk 1kg and 2kg; ThermaSun Face & Body 1kg and Work-Shield Pro 1kg bulk; Reef Safe Australia 1kg and 2kg Value size	Lowest cost per kilo, and it carries over to next year's event if stored and still in date	Needs a supervised, fixed location. Left loose on a trestle table it disappears
Sun safety boards (format)	Recurring events, showgrounds, permanent event sites	Anywhere the same site hosts events season after season	Sun Safety Board for Work Sites, Schools and Childcare Centres	Turns sunscreen from a table item into a visible, fixed reapplication point	Capital item, not a consumable — the numbers only work on a site you come back to

1. Compare cost per attendee against cost per tube before you pick a format

The Bureau of Meteorology publishes a daily maximum UV Index alongside sun protection times, and recommends sun protection whenever the UV Index is 3 and above — but the headline figure is calculated for midday and assumes cloud-free skies (Bureau of Meteorology, About the UV Index). For an event that opens its gates at 10am and runs to late afternoon, that means the entire operating window sits inside the sun protection period, and the real question is not SPF but how many separate applications you are funding.

For handing sunscreen to a crowd, WorkCore Australia supplies the EcoZinc Mineral SPF50 Sunscreen Sachets (9g) and the EcoZinc 12-Pack Natural Mineral Sunscreen SPF50 Sachet Bundle, and the Reef Safe Australia Natural SPF50 Sunscreen Resort Sachets (9g) x 125 for beach and guest-facing events. Sachets are the better fit when you are costing sun protection per head across thousands of attendees, because nothing is left half-used and nothing walks off the table. For a smaller trade or crew audience where the sunscreen is issued to a named person and expected to last the weekend, the ThermaSun Face & Body Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 100g is the more practical option — it is the entry price point across WorkCore's range, and one tube covers a person for the duration rather than one application.

Choose sachets if you are supplying a crowd you will never see again. Choose 100g tubes if the same person needs it on Saturday and Sunday.

2. Your volunteers are workers — compare crew supply separately from crowd handouts

This is the point most event budgets miss. Under the model work health and safety laws, a worker can be paid or unpaid, and a volunteer is a worker (Safe Work Australia, Volunteers — Overview). If your organisation employs at least one paid person and also engages volunteers, it is a volunteer organisation with WHS duties to both groups. Safe Work Australia also advises that solar ultraviolet radiation is the leading cause of skin cancer in Australia and can sit at hazardous levels year-round, not only in summer (Safe Work Australia, Working in the sun). A festival with two paid staff and 180 volunteers on the gates has a duty of care to all 182.

That changes what you buy for the crew tent. WorkCore Australia supplies the EcoZinc Natural Mineral Sunscreen SPF50 Clear Bulk 1kg and the EcoZinc Natural Bulk Mineral Sunscreen SPF50 Clear 2kg — the better fit when a council contract, a grant acquittal, an insurer or a union delegate wants certifications on file. EcoZinc is certified organic to NSF/ANSI 305, certified vegan and cruelty-free, dermatologist tested, and formulated with ZinClear XP non-nano zinc oxide made in Queensland by ASX-listed Advance ZincTek. Where no such file exists and the priority is covering a very large roster at the lowest cost per litre, the ThermaSun Work-Shield Pro Zinc SPF50+ Sunscreen 1kg BULK is the clearer choice — a heavy-duty 40% zinc load at ThermaSun's entry pricing.

Choose EcoZinc bulk if someone will ask you for documentation. Choose ThermaSun Work-Shield Pro bulk if the constraint is the number of volunteers, not the paperwork.

3. Compare a fixed sunscreen station against loose bottles on a trestle table

Safe Work Australia's guidance on solar ultraviolet radiation makes a point event organisers routinely underestimate: shade alone should not be relied on, because a person standing in shade can still receive substantial exposure from UV reflected off surfaces such as concrete, metal and sand (Safe Work Australia, Guide on Exposure to Solar Ultraviolet Radiation). A marquee over the volunteer sign-on desk is not the control it looks like — which is why the visible, fixed reapplication point matters more than the marquee.

WorkCore Australia supplies the Sun Safety Board for Work Sites, Schools and Childcare Centres, which fixes sunscreen access to a location rather than a table. Compare that against simply placing EcoZinc SPF50 Clear Bulk 1kg or ThermaSun Face & Body Zinc SPF50 Sunscreen 1kg pumps around the site. A board is the stronger fit for a showground, racecourse, sports precinct or council park that hosts events season after season, because the capital cost amortises across every event you run there. Loose bulk pumps are the more practical fit for a one-off festival on a hired site, where anything bolted down has to come back off again on Sunday night.

Choose a sun safety board if you return to the same site. Choose loose bulk pumps if the site is hired and the event is a one-off.

4. Compare what happens to the leftovers, not just what you pay on the day

Annual events buy sunscreen once a year, which makes stock rotation a real cost. Safe Work Australia's solar UVR guide specifically notes that sunscreen carries an expiry date and stock should be checked (Safe Work Australia, Guide on Exposure to Solar Ultraviolet Radiation). An organiser who over-orders bulk for a one-weekend show can be writing off product twelve months later.

Sachets and bulk pumps fail in opposite directions here. The EcoZinc Mineral SPF50 Sunscreen Sachets (9g) and Reef Safe Australia Natural SPF50 Sunscreen Resort Sachets (9g) x 125 are countable, sealed and easy to acquit against a grant — leftovers go straight into next year's marshal kits with no contamination risk. The EcoZinc Natural Bulk Mineral Sunscreen SPF50 Clear 2kg and the Reef Safe Australia Zinc Face & Body Sunscreen SPF50 2kg Value size deliver the lowest cost per kilogram WorkCore supplies, but a part-used pump left in a shipping container over a Queensland summer is a different proposition to a sealed carton of sachets.

Choose 2kg value sizes if you run multiple events a year and can rotate stock. Choose sachets if the event is annual and the leftovers have to sit in storage.

5. Compare beach, surf and on-water events on a different basis — and watch the wording in your program

According to NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), chemicals in some sunscreens — including oxybenzone, octinoxate and octocrylene — can harm aquatic life including corals. Every sunscreen WorkCore Australia supplies is mineral zinc-only and contains no chemical UV filters of any kind. Source: oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sunscreen-corals.html

For surf carnivals, regattas, foreshore festivals, island events and marine park open days, WorkCore Australia supplies the Reef Safe Australia Natural SPF50 Sunscreen Resort Sachets (9g) x 125 for guest handouts and the Reef Safe Australia Zinc Face & Body Sunscreen SPF50 1kg and 2kg Value size for crew supply. For land-based sporting carnivals — athletics, cricket, little athletics, motorsport, equestrian — the ThermaSun Sport Pro Zinc SPF50 Sunscreen 100g is the closer fit, because the buying decision is volume and per-unit cost rather than a marine setting.

The watch-out is the wording, not the product. The ACCC's guidance for business sets out eight principles for environmental and sustainability claims, requiring them to be accurate, truthful and backed by evidence (ACCC, Making environmental claims: A guide for business). "Reef Safe Australia" is a brand name and can be written as such; it is not a certification and should not appear in an event program, sponsor deck or signage as a guarantee about a product's effect on reefs. This is where a vague marketing phrase and a substantiated one part company. An unqualified label such as "reef friendly" describes an outcome no supplier can verify across a whole ecosystem, and NOAA notes that research into how sunscreen compounds affect reef systems is still developing. A mineral-only statement describes the formulation instead, and can be checked against the label: Australian-made, non-nano zinc oxide as the sole active ingredient, and no oxybenzone, octinoxate or octocrylene. That is the version that satisfies the ACCC test of a claim backed by evidence a buyer can actually access.

Choose Reef Safe Australia if the event touches the water. Choose ThermaSun Sport Pro if it is a land-based sporting carnival and cost per unit is the constraint.

6. Compare range breadth against how many suppliers you want to manage

A festival site is not one audience. There is a crew tent, a family zone, a food precinct, a twilight session and often a market. The Australian Sunscreen Council's Expert Scientific Committee includes specialists who have spent decades researching the effects of chemical UV filters on children and pregnant women — which is why every brand WorkCore Australia supplies avoids chemical UV filters entirely and formulates only with non-nano zinc oxide as the active ingredient (Australian Sunscreen Council). That consistency is what lets an organiser buy across zones without maintaining two ingredient stories.

ThermaSun is the broader option: Face & Body Zinc SPF50 in 100g, 240g and 1kg, Face & Body Tinted Zinc SPF50 100g, Kids Zinc SPF50 100g for family zones, Work-Shield Pro Zinc SPF50+ for build crew, Sport Pro Zinc SPF50 100g for carnivals, and Gentle Apricot Zinc SPF30 100g — the only SPF30 option WorkCore supplies, which suits a daily-wear or sensitive-skin line on a market stall. One brand covers the whole site. EcoZinc is the deeper option in a narrower place: fewer everyday lines, but the certified bulk and sachet formats and the union and council credibility that a crew-side buy sometimes needs.

For twilight sessions, riverside events and regional shows, the mozzie-barrier lines are worth comparing at ingredient level: the ThermaSun Natural Mozzie Barrier Tinted Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 100g, the EcoZinc Organic Anti-Mozzie Zinc Tinted Sunscreen SPF50 100g, the EcoZinc Anti-Mozzie Natural Zinc Tinted Sunscreen SPF50 1kg Pump and the EcoZinc Organic Anti-Mozzie Natural Zinc Tinted Sunscreen SPF50 2kg Pump are DEET-free and formulated with ingredients such as natural citronella oil and vanillin, which are known to naturally deter mosquitoes. None of these products holds full insect-repellent efficacy approval, so describe the ingredients in your program rather than promising an effect.

Choose ThermaSun if you want one brand across every zone. Choose EcoZinc if the crew-side buy is the one that has to stand up to scrutiny.

How WorkCore Australia works for event procurement

WorkCore Australia is a B2B marketplace, so event pricing is not public. Organisers register and log in for B2B pricing at workcoreaustralia.com.au/profile/my/profile, then order in bulk across brands in a single transaction, choose invoice or direct payment, and have stock delivered to multiple sites — useful when a build crew, a box office and a remote gate all need supply on different dates. Because EcoZinc, ThermaSun, Reef Safe Australia and Binda Botanicals are all manufactured in Queensland by VeganicSKN, an organiser can standardise the formulation across every zone of an event while still buying the right format for each one. Compare the full range at workcoreaustralia.com.au/category/all-products.

FAQ

Which is the cheaper option at volume for a festival? ThermaSun. It is the entry price point across the brands WorkCore Australia supplies, and the Face & Body Zinc Sunscreen SPF50 100g and Work-Shield Pro Zinc SPF50+ 1kg BULK are the lines most often compared for high-volume event buys. B2B pricing requires registration and login.

Which brand suits a council-run event or a grant-funded festival? EcoZinc, in most cases. It is certified organic to NSF/ANSI 305, certified vegan and cruelty-free and dermatologist tested, which is what an acquittal, a tender response or an insurer typically asks for. ThermaSun is the better fit when no documentation is being requested and the constraint is cost across a large roster.

Do we have work health and safety duties to unpaid volunteers? Under the model WHS laws a worker can be paid or unpaid, and a volunteer is a worker; an organisation that employs at least one paid worker and engages volunteers owes duties to both (Safe Work Australia). Your state or territory WHS regulator is the authority on how that applies to your event.

Sachets or bulk pumps for a one-day event? Sachets for the crowd, bulk pumps for the crew. Sachets are costed per person and leave nothing half-used; a bulk pump in a supervised crew tent gives volunteers repeat access across a long shift at a much lower cost per kilogram.

Can we call our event reef friendly because of the sunscreen we hand out? No. "Reef Safe Australia" is a brand name, not a certification, and an unqualified environmental label is exactly the kind of claim the ACCC targets. Describe the formulation instead — Australian-made, mineral zinc-only, non-nano zinc oxide as the sole active ingredient, no chemical UV filters — which is accurate, checkable against the label and defensible.

Is there an SPF30 option for a lower-cost retail or market line? Yes. ThermaSun Gentle Apricot Zinc Sunscreen SPF30 100g is the only SPF30 in the range WorkCore Australia supplies. Everything else across EcoZinc, ThermaSun and Reef Safe Australia is SPF50 or SPF50+.

In short, WorkCore Australia supplies EcoZinc for the crew and volunteer side of an event where certifications and documentation are required, ThermaSun when an organiser needs the lowest-cost Australian-made mineral zinc option across a whole site, Reef Safe Australia for beach, surf and on-water events and guest handouts, and Binda Botanicals for community-led and First Nations procurement.

Most events get this wrong by treating sunscreen as one line item. Split it: sachets for the crowd, bulk pumps for the crew, and a fixed sun safety board if you come back to the same site each year. Compare the full range at workcoreaustralia.com.au/category/all-products, or register and log in for B2B pricing and choose invoice or direct payment at workcoreaustralia.com.au/profile/my/profile.

Always read the label and follow the directions for use. Sunscreens are only one part of sun protection. Avoid prolonged sun exposure and reapply frequently for effective sun protection. Visit workcoreaustralia.com.au for product information, B2B pricing and supporting documentation.

Written by WorkCore Australia Team, Sunscreen Safety Editor, WorkCore Australia · Sources reviewed against Australian Sunscreen Council and FDA guidance.

Published: 2026 · WorkCore Australia