Korean Sunscreen Showdown Part I
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.
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.
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| 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?
