Beauty Tips For Body Care
TLDR at bottom of post.Hey SCA, I feel a little weird about writing such a long post, but I’ve been grateful to read other peoples’ stories and reviews and I hope some future readers will find this helpful too :) This is Part I of my sunscreen odyssey, reviews of chemical/combo sunscreens. Background: through Skincareaddiction, I found out that the low-SPF facial lotion I was using was not good enough. I’ve always been the laziest of splash-with-water types, but when I started trying more intensive sunscreens, I needed to up my cleansing game. The whole thing kind of escalated, and while I'm pretty happy with the rest of my routine, finding the perfect sunscreen has become my white whale. Skin type: dry, sensitive, not especially acne-prone. A lot of products make my skin burn, although that has improved since going low-pH and moisturizing. I have thin/red/irritated skin around my nose and in my nasolabial folds, which I’m too lazy to accurately diagnose since it doesn’t affect me much. Don’t know my MAC shade officially, but I’d guess around a NC15ish - my skin is generally yellow, with a lot of redness in my face. I work crazy hours, and am often rushing out the door, so I never wear makeup - my morning routine needs to be 1) splash with water 2) sunscreen and that’s it. I live in the desert, so I need strong sun protection. Routine (in case people want to see if they have a similar routine/skin type as me)AMSplash with waterPut on sunscreen PMMineral oil OCMMiracle Rose Cleansing Stick (this is my only real “splurge” product - I could probably get away with Cerave hydrating, but this stuff is the highlight of my day)+/- AHA/BHA+/- rose hip oilCerave pm or Vanicream lite+/- Cerave in the tub/Albolene/Vaseline (honestly nothing compares to the way Vaseline makes my skin feel, I just hate having to deal with the pillowcases/towels) Reviews of Chemical/Combo SunscreensBiore Watery Essence/Watery Gel: because I’ve never had particular problems with breakouts, I just dove in and started with the most highly recommended sunscreen on the sub. I assumed that since my skin had always been low maintenance, that would be it - right? Wrong. Something about the Essence and the Gel just felt bizarrely harsh on my skin - I don’t know how to explain it but it was hard to not cringe as I put it on my face. Maybe it was the smell, or the alcohol? I agree with the lack of white cast, the absorption, all the things people love about it - I just couldn’t do it. I was shocked that I had to start putting more work into this. Biore Perfect Milk: this was the sunscreen that made me have to start thinking about skin tones, which became a perpetual scourge. I’ve never worn foundation, aside from occasionally some loose powder for shine, so I’ve never thought about my skin tone; I’m Eurasian, so I have mixed tones/undertones/whatever. I figured that since I was pale, I wouldn’t have to worry about white cast, and most people don’t seem to find the Perfect Milk too white...wrong again. I’ve come to think that there are different types of white cast, and whatever it was about the Perfect Milk, I looked like a mime taken ill. I was grey. I could tell objectively that it didn’t have that strong of a white cast, but it somehow looked worse than other sunscreens, even if the other ones had more actual whiteness. Another subreddit favorite down the drain... Shiseido Senka Mineral Water: I thought that maybe the issue with Biore was that it was too “drying,” and it sounded from Ratzillacosme like this one might be more moisturizing, so I gave it a shot. It also was more water-resistant than the Watery Essence, which sounded good. At first, it seemed like it fit the bill - it didn’t have the “harsh” feel of the Biore, and was somewhat moisturizing. It became my go-to for mornings when I was running late; however, I was still testing other sunscreens, so I never wore it for more than a day or two at a time...until I took it on vacation. We were going to my home coast, so I figured it would be a week of R&R for my dry desert skin. I wanted to travel light, so I only took the Senka.Big mistake.After a few days, I started to get massive cystic acne on my jawline. I have never had cystic acne before, so I knew something was off, but I didn’t have any topicals or BHAs with me. We were only there for 7 days, but by the end of the week, I had a ring of hugely swollen cysts all around my jaw and lower cheeks, where I don't generally break out. Everything else in my routine was the same - it had to be the Senka. Tragedy 1. I freaked out and spent the next 2 months doing damage control (and overexfoliating in the process...sigh). Not wanting to try anything new, I retreated to the other sunscreen I had been trialing, the Bioderma Photoderm. Bioderma Photoderm Max: I had been testing this on and off for months, and I knew it wouldn’t kill my skin, so I went back to it while I tried to recover from the horror of the Senka. This is the sunscreen that will forever live in my memory as the one that got away - I wanted it to be my HG soooo bad. Alcohol-free, moisturizing, crazy high PPD, affordable when you buy the big spray bottle (which I did), and I freaking love the smell. I still feel a twinge of regret when I think about it...but there were just a few too many dealbreakers.One of the problems was the issue of skin tone that I discussed above - despite the fact that I’m fair, the white cast from this when I used ¼ tsp was CRAZY. And it was weirdly proportion-dependent: I looked perfectly normal up to ⅙ of a tsp, and then as soon as I hit ¼, BAM! It was this thick white cakey layer. (I even calculated my face area to make sure I needed a full ¼ tsp, but I must have a really round face, because technically I need even more. Groan.)I tried so hard with the Bioderma, I really did. (Partly because I’m cheap and hate to get rid of something I had spent $40 on.) I tried mixing pigments, drops of colorfx, and even cocoa powder (until I found out from u/kindofstephen that’s a bad idea). I tried, for the first time in my life, to wear powder every day over it. I bought the tinted formulation and tried mixing, and then layering, the two together. The closest I got to solving the issue was putting a layer of the untinted Bioderma on, waiting 15 minutes, and then putting a mixture of the tinted + the regular over it. It sucked and was way more time than I wanted to spend, but I still would have made it work if the effects were ideal - but they weren’t. Even when I (finally) got the color right, it was still sitting on my face in this thick way; it would melt and slide around, and goop up around my nose, and make my pores super-visible by the end of the day. And it never felt really good, either - my skin always felt kind of itchy, which was bad because if I touched my face, the sunscreen would wipe off and leave a hole. I was looking into setting sprays, but finally decided to give up: this is not the droid I'm looking for. I can’t bring myself to throw it away until I find my HG, but...I know it’s not meant to be. Tragedy 2. Shiseido Anessa Perfect Essence: I had heard that this was super gentle, and again Ratzillacosme gave it rave reviews; but I was so paranoid after the Senka that I wouldn’t have tried it, except that I somehow bought it by accident. (I honestly don’t know how it happened - it was on my “to try” list and then showed up at my house, but I have no memory whatsoever of buying it. It wasn’t even very high on the list.) I tried it once - it had the same “harsh” feel and strong scent as Biore, so I didn’t bother testing it past that. Sunplay Super Block: sooo depressing. I thought this would be the non-irritating miracle cure to my HG hunt when I couldn't successfully wrangle the Bioderma. No alcohol, no harsh feel or smell, super moisturizing when I put it on, the white cast went away and kind of evened my skin tone, cheap, and the bottle is ~adorable~...but I started getting cystic acne again when I used it. I couldn’t believe it at first, so kept trying to use it, but by the end of the day would have those telltale painful swollen lumps. Unbelievable. This and the Senka both have Uvinul A, so maybe that’s the culprit? It could obviously be something else in the formulation, but I don’t have the strength of will to cross-reference every ingredient I’ve used. Tragedy 3. Supergoop Mineral: despite the name, this is a combo. I had it lying around and used to like it, until I learned how much you need to use. Womp womp. Previous use? No white cast. ¼ tsp? Ghostface. Plus, $$$. Shimmercy Sunscreen 2.0: I bought this as part of a promotion in exchange for an Amazon review, after learning it had a PPD of 15. Not a bad sunscreen, not much white cast, absorbed well. Made my skin feel like it had ants walking on it after a few hours. I was starting to get the picture that my skin miiiight not love chemical sunscreens, and I should start to...get physical. TL;DR:Skin type: dry, sensitive, redness, non-acne prone, NC15ishRejected Chemical/ComboBiore Watery Essence/Gel: cosmetically perfect; “harsh” feel; strong alcohol scentBiore Perfect Milk: strong alcohol scent; grey cast, ghostfaceSenka Mineral Water: great feel; cosmetically perfect; cystic acneBioderma Photoderm: great smell; moisturizing, thick; multiple cosmetic dealbreakers; made face kind of itchyShiseido Anessa: cosmetically elegant; “harsh” feel/smellSunplay Super Block: slight white cast; moisturizing; good feel; cystic acneSupergoop Mineral: great feel; white castShimmercy 2.0: cosmetically fine; no smell; texture fine; made skin itch Part II will cover the physical sunscreens I tried. Feel free to hit me up with any questions and I hope this has been helpful to others who are still in search of their HG sunscreen! Edit: formatting/words
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by killajoule_jewelkill
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