Beauty Tips For Body Care
Imgur albumA couple of words about my skin to help to understand my perspective (and hopefully translate how the sunscreens would behave on you): I have oily, sensitive skin that is very prone to closed comedones (I use BHA daily). My skin and eyes are sensitive and both burn if I use a wrong kind of sunscreen (cough LRP Anthelios Ultra Light Fluid chemical cough). My skin colour is around NW15 – NW20.In this review, I am focusing on cosmetic performance as I do nothave means or knowledge to adequately compare the effectiveness and formulations of the sunscreens. La Roche-Posay Anthelios Clear Skin SPF 60 Dry TouchNotes: water resistant (up to 80 minutes), supposed to be good for acne-prone skinActive ingredients: avobenzone 3% • homosalate 15% • octisalate 5% • octocrylene 7%Full ingredient list: official LRP website (US)Thoughts: It’s awful. It has a very thick, pasty consistency that leaves a hell of a white cast even on fairest skin tones. Instead of absorbing, it dries down to a very matte, unnatural finish and starts to ball up immediately after application. If I understand this correctly, balling is usually caused by incompatibility of water- and silicon- based products, but oddly enough this sunscreen does it even on naked skin. On top of all that, this sunscreen clings to facial hair (eyebrows, peach fuzz, beards probably as well) in the most ugly way. Because of that, I doubt that even people with very pale and oily skin would enjoy using it. If for whatever reason you are still interested in it, I highly suggest you trying it out in store first (I bought mine online and couldn’t).Bottom-line: looks and feels like Halloween makeup. EltaMD UV Clear Broad-Spectrum SPF 46 (untinted version)Notes: contains 5% “high-purity” niacinamide (vitamin B3), supposed to be good for acne-prone skinActive ingredients: zinc oxide 9.0% • octinoxate 7.5%Full ingredient list: official EltaMD websiteThoughts: This sunscreen leaves minimal to no white cast on me which is pretty impressive considering the 9% zinc oxide. It has a white gel texture that goes clear upon application, leaving a shiny (but not greasy!) finish. Applying a translucent powder takes away the shininess completely. The problem with this sunscreen is that it balls up a lot (but much less than LRP Dry Touch). I find that if I apply it on small areas (e.g. quarter of a cheek) at a time and blend it right away before it sets, I can reduce the balling considerably. However, if you let it set and then try to rub it, it will ball up and cause the parts around to start balling up too (domino effect). Because of this, if you scratch your face throughout the day, this would probably not work for you. I would also imagine this wouldn’t work if you wear liquid or cream makeup. I have heard that using EltaMD’s moisturizer prior to this sunscreen helps to reduce the balling but I have not tried using the combination.Bottom-line: if you can get it to not ball up, this would be perfect. Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk Whitening SPF 50 PA+++ (white cap version)Notes: In Asian cosmetic terms, “whitening” means that it is supposed to fade hyperpigmentation (e.g. acne scars, sun spots – in the case of this sunscreen, with ascorbyl glucoside (vitamin C)). It does NOT contain skin bleaching agents and is safe to use by people with dark skin.Active ingredients: (not official) ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate • zinc oxide • titanium dioxideFull ingredient list: (not official) CosDNAThoughts: This sunscreen leaves no detectable white cast on me which is, once again, impressive considering the active ingredients. It absorbs quickly and leaves a dewy finish that can be obscured by using a transparent powder. This sunscreen is quite moisturizing and I find that I get oily with it throughout the day. Personally, I am willing to put up with it, but if your skin is very oily and you blot your face with absorbing sheets, be careful as they would probably remove the sunscreen, too. Over all, this is my favourite alcohol- and fragrance- free sunscreen. It is not perfect and, like many other cosmetically elegant Asian sunscreens, has meh protection but it is very wearable, which means I can apply a lot of it and get consistent coverage.Bottom-line: cosmetically elegant, but not the best UV protection. Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV SPF50 PA++++Notes: claims to contain “85% beautifying ingredients” and promises to make you feel “as fresh as a mermaid princess” (no joke, this is from the official website)Active ingredients: (not official) ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate • diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate • zinc oxide • titanium dioxide • bisEthylhexyloxyphenol methoxyphenyl triazineFull ingredient list: (not official) CosDNAThoughts: This looks and feels so lovely on the skin! Absolutely no white cast, doesn’t cling to facial hair, absorbs in no time to an invisible, demi-matte finish. Good, right? Too good, IMO.I saw this sunscreen mentioned a lot on /r/AsianBeauty and decided to give it a try, ordering it from Amazon. Upon the first application, I was surprised by how not-susnsreeny it felt and looked. I don’t think it is a good thing, though – I do not believe it is effective. There have been many reports of people burning and tanning when relying on light-textured AB sunscreens. While they are very cosmetically elegant, they don’t simply provide the best UV protection. Some manufacturers most definitely manipulate their data to claim higher SPF and PPD ratings (like in the case of Jelly Sunscreen SPF50 PA+++ that in reality offers close to no UV protection).I suspect this is exactly the case when it comes to Mermaid Gel. I wanted to email the manufacturer to ask about the ingredient percentage but the Contact Us link on their website is not working. Manually typing the URL leads to “page not found” (in Japanese) error message. I also tried contacting the Amazon seller but they don’t have ingredient information. This leaves me with:a sunscreen that doesn’t feel or look how I would expect based on its ingredientsfishy, cheesy claims about making you feel like a “mermaid princess” with the “85% beautifying ingredients”a website with broken links that looks like it was made in the 2000sThis is, of course, my personal opinion, but I don’t think this sunscreen is effective and the brand – trustworthy.I also want to add that this sunscreen has a distinct coconut scent despite (according to CosDNA) not containing any coconut derivatives or fragrance. There is a chance that the ingredient list is not accurate or something else causes the scent.Bottom-line: looks and feels like you are not wearing sunscreen at all – probably because you aren’t… Extra infoI think the most important thing when it comes to choosing a sunscreen is to be realistic. If you want high, reliable protection, go with LRP or Neutrogena (particularly if you can get the version with ecamsule (mexoryl)), but be prepared to look like the guy from the Little Baby's Ice Cream commercial.If you don’t want white cast and greasiness, go with Asian sunscreens but be aware that you probably aren’t getting the full SPF and PPD ratings on the packaging (heck, even everyone’s favourite Biore is known for occasionally leaving people burned!).If you can’t or choose not to wear sunscreen with alcohol, be prepared that your options will be limited and you will never find something as matte and lightweight as alcohol-based.I hope this was helpful! If you have tried any other alcohol- and fragrance-free sunscreens, please let us know how they performed! Personally, I am very curious about Dermalogica Oil Free Matte SPF 30 and might order it once I go through what I currently have.Edit: I was meaning to link this but ended up forgetting. Here is an excellent comparison of good of alcohol- and -fragrance free sunscreens by /u/Peter_789. Thank you for commenting, Peter!
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by ultrakawaii
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