I dunno if it’s true, but a friend who is a doctor in NZ (where they have silly strong sunlight because of thinning ozone layer) told me to always use a visible one not a see-through one, and put it on thick enough so you could see a white layer all over your skin, then just to wait ten minutes of so for it to absorb in. You use more, but I don’t often get sunburnt any more, even in full days out in the sun only remembering to do one application in the morning.
Except for yesterday, when I wore a too short top and biked for 5 hours, leading to a particularly annoying line of sunburn on my lower back where I’d never apply suncream (not blisters or anything though, it wasn’t that bad).