credit do smabssputzer for the banana photo

Japanese sunscreens are my favourite sunscreens. Even after having used a lot of different Korean and Western ones over the past few years, their Japanese counterparts have won hands down. I am not even afraid to just randomly and blindly buy Japanese sun products anymore, since every single one I have used is quite excellent indeed. 

So I thought I would present to you a comparison of all the ones I currently have in my house to make choosing easier. To be honest though I would recommend all of these. They are also written in order of absorption speed, from fastest to slowest.

Biore Watery Gel SPF50 PA++++

Biore Watery Gel is my favourite of the bunch. I got it after my previous favorite the Biore Watery Mousse was just too small of a size for me and the gel comes in the more convenient 90ml size.

It is super easy to apply since it has a watery milky consistency.



It smells citrusy fresh and you can faintly detect the scent of alcohol as well. There is no white cast on my current NC30 skin and it absorbs practically instantly. It can't be felt at all on the skin, something that is very important to me, yet it is not drying either. I am really happy with this sunscreen since it not only works excellently, but has a good price to size ratio.

Sun bears Sensitive SPF35 PA++

I got this one for the little monster since it is waterproof and came recommended from the internet.

I know the SPF isn't the highest but I wanted to give an alcohol free sunscreen, targeted at sensitive skin, a try. I like this one a lot as well, but as I said before I like them all! The bottle looks teeny tiny, and I suppose it would get used up quite fast if I would to use it on me daily, but since the monster has a little body and only the exposed areas would get sunscreened, it is an OK size. The scent is basically non existent but if I would have to say anything I would say it smells very faintly like citrus. It has the same watery milky consistency as the Biore gel and absorbs very fast but a little slower than the former. 


You can't really feel it on your skin either but I would say it is a smidgen more moisturising. 
It also has no white cast, so all in all this one is also a success!

Sunkiller Perfect Strong Plus SPF50+ PA++++

This one is my least favorite of the bunch but it is still quite good. The reason I like it less, is a mixture of a few things. First off I am not fond of the alcohol smell it has. It isn't too strong but I can do without that. It also has this weird oily layer while it dries down. It absorbs relatively fast (around one minute) but during that time, if you would touch your skin it would be oily. 
That oiliness practically disappears completely once it's absorbed, but if you would compare that part of your skin to one without it, it would feel slightly less moisturised and a little rougher. But I am really splitting hairs here. 


I can imagine that people with oily skin would notice this the most though. It has the same texture as the others and also no white cast. Another downside is that the bottle is also very small but it is a great size to use when up and about.

50 Megumi Morning UV Protection Cream

This one I bought to see if a Japanese moisturizer/sunscreen combo would be better than its European equivalents. The thing is it is not the most moisturising cream there is, but it feels like the sun protection is reliable (unlike the western ones where I feel like they threw the SPF in there as a marketing ploy, yet it doesn't do much at all). Even though it isn't the most potent cream it is enough even for my super dry skin as long as it is;
A: summer time  
B: I have a good hydrating routine before hand. 
I don't know why I was under the impression that this was a gel type lotion but to my surprise it turned out to be a thicker cream type texture. It is still easy to apply though and looks thicker on a first glance than it actually is. It takes the longest to fully absorb but that is only about a minute and a half until it dried down completely. 



At first I thought it had a white cast but thankfully it disappeared once absorbed to the skin, so don't panic if you think it will make you look ghosty (tested on NC45 skin and no white cast either). 
It is the most moisturising of the bunch as well, but possibly not any more than the Hada-Senka Q10 BG Mineral Water UV Essence Gel (reviewed here). I don't have that one anymore so I can't compare but they are in a similar ball park. It doesn't smell very strongly but if I would have to describe it I would go with a slightly vintage scent. I also like that it is quite a large size just like the Biore which doesn't make me feel like I have to repurchase sunscreen all the time.

I think this one is really great for lazy or busy people since you can definitely skip moisturiser on top of it. It would also work as a more hydrating sunscreen on top of the regular cream in the wintertime.

Oh sunscreens you are so necessary and such a pain to find a perfect one. I can consider myself lucky to have found a sunscreen that is perfect to me. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure it is discontinued. (Yes it is...)  Dear Biore Watery Mousse I will miss you forever! But I really like Biore's Watery Gel!

On my quest to find a new sunscreen that I love just as much as my beloved Watery Mousse, I have gone through quite a few of them.

I have a whole ton to review and comparisons for you so I will split it up in two parts. Part I is about sunscreens I have used extensively in different weather conditions.

I would also like to mention that the swatches are done on NC35 skin which makes the white cast a little bit of a pain to deal with. I hope this will help some of my fellow brown skinned beauties to find something that won't make them look like a ghost. Unless they want to of course!

Lioele Fresh Sunscreen SPF 45 PA++

Let’s start with my least favorite sunscreen I have used to date. I was told by someone that this little cutey was their favourite sunscreen. I was super excited to give it a test when I realised it was just awful. It had a super strong white cast, felt really greasy and thick and didn’t smell good to boot. It is definitely better than your average western sunscreen, but is the worst Asian sunscreen I have tried so far. That teaches me not to listen to people who have no comparison to Asian sunscreens but only bad Spanish supermarket ones. 

Holika Holika Leports Sun SPF50 PA+++

The next one isn’t any good either. And by this I mean that they are both usable but if you have a certain standard of sunscreen comfort than I would walk a big circle around these two products.

I have reviewed Holika Holikas' thick mess here. To recap. Just as Lioele, it is thick and greasy in a very heavy way, takes forever to absorb and has tons of white cast. Somehow it manages to be a tiny bit less yucky than Lioele's but they are more or less equal ugh.

Nuganic Customize Sunblock SPF50 PA+++

Thankfully we are already in usable territory!

This Nuganic sunscreen was in one of my first Memeboxes. It took me forever to use this thing up since it is not the nicest sunscreen to have existed. Especially since I was using this at the same time as my beloved Biore. In general it is not a bad sunscreen. It is a tad thick but not that greasy. It also doesn't sink in very fast but in a few minutes this sunscreen is pretty much gone. There is no white cast on me but I can not vouch for skin darker than NC40 (which is the shade of my darkest body parts). The smell is not the most pleasant one but it isn't so strong as to turn me off. It is a decent sunscreen that feels fine in any regard. I would not repurchase this though since I know there are better ones on the market.

Laneige Sun Block Supreme SPF50 PA+++

I actually quite enjoyed this sunscreen. I haven't tried any other Laneige sunscreens but I was positively surprised when I started using this. That was at a time where virtually all my Korean sunscreens either sucked or were very average. This sunscreen feels pretty good. The texture is quite watery but not too liquid which would make it hard to apply. It doesn’t smell too strongly and it absorbs quite fast. The only thing that surprised me is that upon comparing it to other sunscreens, it does have a teeny tiny bit of a white cast. It is not something I noticed while using it on my face. It is not visible enough to notice unless you really really pay attention. I would not repurchase only due to the fact that it wasn't fun for me to use but I would definitely recommend this to people who don't require their skincare to have a fun factor. If I would get this for free, I would happily use the whole thing as well.

Etude House Sunprise Super Aqua SPF35 PA++

This might come as a shocker to some of you. At least it did to me. But my favorite sunscreen of the lot is actually by Etude House. The thing is not that Etude House is bad but their skincare tends to be pretty average to me. And I think just from looking at this lineup I would not pick the Etude House sunscreen as the best. Once again, best is relative and some of you might not be interested due to its lower SPF factor. But it is still one of my favorite sunscreens to date. It is watery and refreshing. It actually moisturises, which might be great for some combo or normal skin types so they can skip moisturisers. Johnny Clyde has used this a few times without a cream and it went well. I have done it a few times too and my skin did not fall off in a wrinkly pruney mess. That is honestly a feat! 
So not only does it apply beautifully and feel nice but it also has no white cast at all! It absorbs pretty fast. There is a glow that is visible for about 15 minutes but you can’t feel it beyond the same feeling you would have applying a moisturizer. The glow subsides eventually but still leaves your skin looking fresh. If you are more into mattifying sunscreens, than this is not your cup of (how is the saying) cheese, coffee, cake? I don't know. Either way this does not mattify at all but neither do any of the others on this list.  I would probably repurchase this one if there wouldn't be so many others to try. Full review can be found here.

Because even though I love the matte look anything mattifying makes me feel like a dehydrated sponge

Holika Holika UV Wonder Shield Smart Sun Spray SPF 50 PA+++ 

Last but not least, the outsider of this group. This spray has been raved about here already. I really like it simply because it is a joy to use. I have to admit that I only have it for times that I forget to use sunscreen. I bought it to reapply sunscreen during the day, but the bottle is too large to lug around.

The nozzle on this applies the spray in a very fine mist that one can not detect. There is no white cast and no offensive smell either. You can't feel the sunscreen on your skin and this format is so convenient to apply on your body or on top of makeup. I do recommend applying two layers to make sure that it is on your skin evenly.

By the way, I was under the impression that all sunscreen sprays would be great. So I went to the supermarket and tried 5 different ones. Some of them were marked dry spray or non greasy. Let me tell you, it was a mess! Those sprays were awful. They smelled bad and were super thick and greasy. One of them that I applied on Mother, marked as dry sunscreen, was still soaking wet after waiting for 10 minutes. I then tried to wipe it off but it left a shiny greasy mark on her arm. Yuck! That scared me off European drugstore sunscreens for a while!

This is it for today. Next time I will compare even more sunscreens to each other.

Now the question is, which is your favourite or least favorite sunscreen to date?

Is there any sunscreens you would like me to review or compare in particular?