Is this an oversight that Skin Biology is recommending this mixed organic and inorganic sunscreen? One of the active ingredients is Padimate O which is a chemical UVB absorber. Moreover, I believe it's a fairly well known problematic sunscreen ingredient.

As many “natural” cosmetics companies do, Aubrey Organics is misleading and suggesting this PABA ester is a natural sunblock agent when there are experimental animal data suggesting it to be a problematic organic compound targeting four organs: the testes, epididymis, spleen, and liver. It also has been shown to be potentially phototoxic to human keratinocytes (but suppressible) in inhibiting cell growth and DNA synthesis at low concentrations and possibly photomutagenic under simulated sunlight producing DNA strand breaks and lesions. Although no toxicity data is available for fish, invertebrate, or algal toxicity currently, parameters taken from a modeling program (probably computational) also suggest adverse effects on aquatic species should be considered. While human data is limited, the mutagenicity of Padimate O in sunlight is reproducible in various labs. Thus, although a sunscreen containing this approved UVB absorber can prevent sunburn, the results of several published studies suggest it can also contribute to sunlight-related cancers and possibly have adverse effects on the environment.

You are correct. Padimate O is not natural and damages DNA. We will remove it. My thinking was that less of it should enter the skin and body than other types of sunscreen oils.

Padimate O is an organic compound that is an ingredient in some sunscreens. It is a derivative of PABA, an ester formed by the condensation of 2-ethylhexanol and dimethylaminobenzoic acid. It is a yellowish oily liquid that is insoluble in water. It absorbs ultraviolet rays, protecting the skin from sun damage.

Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) was one of the first chemical sunscreens to be widely available. Several problems limited its use. It required an alcoholic vehicle, it stained clothing, and it was associated with a number of adverse reactions. Ester derivatives, mainly padimate O or octyl dimethyl PABA, became more popular, with greater compatibility in a variety of cosmetic vehicles and a lower potential for staining and adverse reactions. Because of problems with PABA formulations, manufacturers emphasized the PABA-free claim, and now both PABA and padimate O are less frequently used. Padimate O is the most potent UV-B absorber. The decline in its use, along with the demand for higher SPF products, has led to the incorporation of multiple active ingredients into a single product to achieve the desired SPF, replacing single PABA esters.

Photochem Photobiol. 1997 Aug;66(2):276-81.Links
Characterization of DNA damage inflicted by free radicals from a mutagenic sunscreen ingredient and its location using an in vitro genetic reversion assay.
McHugh PJ, Knowland J.

Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, UK.

We describe an in vitro approach to assessing the potential genotoxicity of illuminated sunscreens. The photomutagenic sunscreen Padimate-O attacks DNA on illumination with simulated sunlight, producing strand breaks and lesions that are labile to N,N'-dimethylethylenediamine but few, if any, cyclobutane dimers or other direct photoproducts. The damage can be completely suppressed by the free radical quenchers Tris, ethanol, mannitol and dimethylsulfoxide, which is commonly used as a solvent in conventional photomutagenicity assays. Using a genetic reversion assay that depends on regenerating beta-galactosidase activity in photodamaged plasmids we find that GC base pairs are particularly susceptible to attack by Padimate-O.