Zinc oxide compositions and methods for applying anti-reflective coating on oxide particles for sunscreen applications are provided herein. A composition includes multiple zinc oxide particles suspended within a medium forming sunscreen composition, and two or more coating materials applied to each of the multiple zinc oxide particles in distinct layers via a gradation based on refractive index, wherein each of the coating materials has a refractive index that is between the refractive index of air and the refractive index of zinc oxide, and wherein the two or more coating materials comprise zinc sulfide and titanium dioxide.