In the present study, rapid, robust and reproducible reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method has been developed and validated for simultaneous determination of avobenzone and octocrylene in bulk and sunscreen formulation. The separation was done at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min on a Symmetry C18 (4.6 × 250 mm, 5 μm) column at 5% water and 95% methanol as mobile phase and at the detection wavelength of 256 nm. Under the optimal chromatographic conditions, octocrylene and avobenzone were eluted at 4.0 and 6.6 min, respectively, with good peak symmetry and resolution. The developed method was validated as per the criteria mentioned in ICH Q2 (R1) such as System suitability, Specificity, Linearity, Precision, Accuracy, Sensitivity, Robustness, Ruggedness and Solution stability. The method showed a good linear range of 10–50 μg/mL with correlation coefficient of 0.9979 for octocrylene and 0.9976 for avobenzone. The %RSD for the precision studies were < 2%, which represents good intermediate and repeatability precision. The percentage recoveries were within the acceptable limits of the analysis and acceptable accuracy was achieved in the recovery studies. An equivalent method was also proved to be robust for intentional changes of the chromatograph conditions. Furthermore, the validated method could be used with nanosponge-loaded sunscreen lotion formulations and there was no interference of the excipients. The proposed RP-HPLC method is easy, economical, sensitive and can be applied in the routine quality control analysis of avobenzone and octocrylene in pharmaceutical and cosmetic formulations.