Tag: best sunscreen for sensitive skin

Supergoop! Unseen Sunscreen

thealtruisticface

The skin on my face does not like American-made sunscreens, chemical or physical, for some reason. I’ve had much greater success using Asian beauty branded sunscreens like Rohto and It’s Skin. So I was initially pretty pleased that I had received this in a sample-sized bottle only at first, because I was convinced I was going to intensely dislike this product the same as my other US made sunscreens. But it turns out… that… I’m in love… and that I’d happily buy a few full-sized containers to last the summer ❤

First off, the ingredient listing: love it. No drying alcohols, and nothing else that you don’t usually see in other sunscreens, except Diatomaceous Earth. Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen DE in any of my beauty products. Normally this ingredient is used in gardens as a pesticide! A couple Google searches informed me that this is apparently safe for human use, and actually helps to shed dead skin cells. Weird.

The product itself is a lightweight, odorless clear gel. And just as the name claims, this sunscreen really is unseen once you apply it. In fact, you can’t even really feel it after two minutes of drying time! There’s absolutely no whitecast on this, not even in areas where the product might spread unevenly, and pool up. That said, it’s ridiculously easy to smoothly apply, and a little goes a long way.

Quarantine has me in the habit of not wearing foundation, so I’ve only had a chance to try layering makeup over this product once or twice. But I had no issue applying makeup over this as long as I had waited the fully time to let the sunscreen dry down. By the end of the day, there was a little bit of increased pilling, but it’s nothing that’s unmanageable, and won’t cause any patchiness as a result of fusing with your makeup.

This sunscreen is phenomenal for anyone with sensitive skin. I didn’t experience the avobenozene-burning-sensation or any subsequent redness after applying. And, this product has not caused any breakouts for me!

The only thing on my wishlist for this product is that the SPF was 50, and not 40. I can definitely see a little bit of redness if I’m outside for too long, and/or forget to reapply. Supergoop has a 50 spf sunscreen, but a few reviews are telling me it’s heavy and oily, which I’m not a huge fan of.

But I’m still really pleased with Unseen, and I plan to tote this around with me everywhere I go this summer. The full sized product is a bit pricy for $30 and only 1.7oz, but again, you don’t need very much product to cover your whole face. This sunscreen is a definite buy, for me! ~A

Perceived efficacy: 3.8/5

Longevity: 4/5

How much I actually like this product: 4.7/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes

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Canmake Mermaid Skin Gel UV SPF 50+ PA++++

thealtruisticface2 Comments

After trying an unsuccessful string of physical and chemical American sunscreens, I decided to start looking for sunscreens featured on the AsianBeauty subreddit, particularly those that did not contain benzoyl or isopropyl alcohol. It turns out, a ton of chemical sunscreens have those ingredients… but Canmake Mermaid’s Skin Gel did not, so I went ahead and made the $10 purchase to try it.

To start, 10/10 on the packaging, with the silvery blue beach decals scattered throughout and the pink label. So cute! The sunscreen itself is quite thin, and comes out of the bottle easily. So, despite the bottle’s small size, a little of this product goes a long way. The white coloration of the sunscreen will sink in pretty quickly. Despite the easy absorption, it does leave a little white cast, and might lighten your foundation shade half a step. This occurs even with the “clear” version, and the effect of this is intensified in the white version of Mermaid Gel. Fortunately, the product spreads consistently over the skin, so it’s easy to blend in with makeup.

Speaking of makeup, this plays very well with other products. For me, personally, this is imperative. The drawback to this product is that it does cause a little bit of skin irritation. It doesn’t make me itchy or break-out, necessarily, but any redness that may have been leftover from old acne scars will be noticeably more pronounced.

Besides the redness, there’s really no additional “side effects” with this sunscreens that many others tend to exhibit. This won’t dry out your skin over time, or have the whitecast become worse over the course over the day. The sunscreen is odorless. It also doesn’t pill. You can safely wear a layer of foundation over this for a full day with no issues. Oh, and, the important stuff: this has an extremely high SPF rating (50 spf, PA++++), so this is great to wear all year round.

If you are a sensitive skin user and you’ve been around the block with sunscreens, I would recommend you give Mermaid Gel a try (as well as Rohto Moisture Milk, which has relatively similar properties to this sunscreen). Finding a HG sunscreen is a difficult task for even clear skin users, since the sunscreen ingredients themselves, like zinc oxide, can be known irritants. But I think some trial and error for the sake of sun protection is worth it! ~A

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 5/5

How much I actually like this product: 3.75/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Maybe

INNISFREE Daily UV Protection Cream No Sebum SPF35 PA+++

thealtruisticface

Innisfree UV Protection Cream came up in my search for alcohol-free sunscreens on Reddit, so I thought I’d give it a try. It was… lackluster, though not awful.

You get a tiny bit more product in this sunscreen than you do with most Asian sunscreens at 50mL, at an equivalent price point of $10-12. It was tough for me to find a US seller for this one, so there was a bit of a wait for this to be shipped from Korea.

The product comes out of the tube pretty easily. It initially has this, kind of… beige-colored tint? But it immediately turns white once you apply it to your face. Smells a little like fruity chalk, too. Ok, let’s try a better descriptor than that: like Flintstones vitamins. And that smell never fades at any point through the day.

It applies fairly easy onto the skin, but the white-cast is somewhat noticeable and doesn’t fade easily. That said; it does play well with makeup and other products underneath it, but you might notice the sunscreen ends up being a tad bit of a white-mixer with your foundation.

This sunscreen started to make my skin feel a bit dry after the 4 hour mark — although it wasn’t affecting my makeup necessarily, it felt like my skin was cracking each time I smiled.

I guess longevity isn’t technically a “thing” with sunscreens, because you should be reapplying after 2 hours anyway, but wearing the Innisfree sunscreen for a week or two instead of my usual SPF 50 made me realize how much more effective the SPF 50 is at blocking out rays. I got substantially more color on my skin in those two weeks.

I was a little paranoid this would make me break out because it dried my skin out so quickly, but it didn’t. So that was cool. Other than that, I guess I wasn’t really blown away by anything, and I probably won’t rebuy it. The whitecast was kind of annoying, it made my skin feel too tight, and I could also see how the smell would be off-putting for some. But hey — any sunscreen that doesn’t break me out is a friend in my book! ~A

Perceived efficacy: 3.5/5

Longevity: 3/5

How much I actually like this product: 2.5/5

ROHTO SKIN AQUA Super Moisture Milk SPF50 PA++++

thealtruisticface3 Comments

I… I think I’m in love. Move aside, It’s Skin 2pm, I think I found a new holy grail of sunscreens. This little bottle is totally worth the month long wait to ship from Japan. Why do I love it so much? Let me count the ways …

1- No drying alcohols. Which leads me to my next point:

2- Has never broken me out.

3- Dries clear. There’s absolutely NO whitecast.

4- Odorless. Well, there is the faint sunscreen-y smell, but nothing noticeable or overwhelming, and goes away after a minute or two.

5- No pilling. Easily spreadable. Just give it a couple of minutes to dry, then go ahead and dump your foundation, powders, other moisturizers, literally whatever, on top of it. It won’t roll up.

6- Dries quickly. Kind of the same as #5, but I wanted to mention more of the texture. The sunscreen is a watery white gel that absorbs extremely rapidly — and clear. You’ll still feel a bit of a “film” on your skin, but it’s not heavy or bothersome.

7- A little goes a long way. Don’t be scared of the tiny 40ml bottle – you really only need two or three drops of this to spread across your face. Which reminds me…

8- No burning on application.

9- Waterproof. You can still “feel” the film of this on your face even after working up a sweat.

10- SPF 50! Can’t get much better than that.

11- Bonus ingredient: hyaluronic acid.

This is everything I could want in a sunscreen. It’s too perfect. The only thing I hate is the ridiculously long ship time. I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop because I can’t find anything wrong with it. ~A

Perceived efficacy: 5/5

Longevity: 5/5

How much I actually like this product: 5/5

Recommended for sensitive skin: Yes