Last Minute Sunscreen Review: La Roche-Posay Anthelios Ultra-Fluid Lotion SPF 60 Sunscreen (with Mexoryl)

This review is last minute in that the end of summer is approaching (but it's not here yet! stop saying that!), and that my bottle is almost empty, so I figured I'd better write this post before I forgot what I thought of this sunscreen.

Note that I'm reviewing the Canadian version here, which contains the very effective filter Mexoryl (patented by L'Oréal), which is not FDA-approved in the US for some reason. It's been used safely in Canada and Europe (and elsewhere) since the 90s, so I'm not sure what the problem is here. It's generally agreed to be one of the most effective sunscreen filters on the market. (I swear I read a Consumer Reports article last year that said this was the most effective sunscreen they tested, and that's why I bought it, but I cannot find the link anywhere. Weird.) I bought my bottle at Superstore in Canada, but I think you can get it from just about any drugstore there. If you're in the U.S., you can buy it from eBay and have it shipped from Canada or Europe.It might also be available online elsewhere--does anyone know? (There is a product sold in in the US that looks the same as this, but i doesn't contain Mexoryl. I haven't tried it.)

I'm going to try to write this post in a simple pros and cons format, to reduce wordiness. Let's see how successful I am at being brief today.

Pros

• It really is very, very effective at protecting my skin from the sun. The southern California sun is a whole other thing, and everyone sits outside at lunch time where I work, so it's been put to the test. I also wore it for 4+ hours on a boat in direct sunlight and didn't burn or even tan. Over the past few month, my face has darkened by maybe half a shade, but to be honest that could have happened on days when I was lazy and didn't use this sunscreen. 
• It only has a faint sunscreen scent that I can't smell for long after I apply it.
• It's thin and easy to spread on the skin.
• My makeup applies just fine over it (though I am not generally someone who wears a full face of opaque foundation).
• The packaging is appropriate for the product, and it contains a little bead to help mix it up. (I'm more likely to shake it just because that rattling bead is in there than I would without it, for some reason!)

Cons

• It's a bit greasy. It definitely does not have a matte finish, and it has the potential to rub into my eyes and burn, if I'm not careful.
• It doesn't play well with all of my skincare products. If I try to layer over something with silicone, like Paula's Choice Moisture Gel, it pills like fucking crazy. Waiting longer between layers doesn't seem to help. So long as I avoid silicones, and I'm careful not to rub my face too much, it's ok. 
• It stings the sensitive skin around my eyes a bit for about half an hour after I apply it. This sensation is pretty common for me with "chemical" (i.e. organic) sunscreens. The packaging says "for sensitive skin," but if you usually have a bad reaction to chemical sunscreens or get a burning sensation that is a dealbreaker for you, I'm guessing you aren't going to like this product.
• The bottle is pretty small. I mean, it's clearly labeled, and if you buy it in a store, you know what you're getting, but the first time I saw it in person, I was surprised., especially since it costs around $20. The bottle lasts longer than you might expect, at least.

Because the pros and cons of Anthelios are pretty evenly balanced for me, I tend to only use this sunscreen when I know that I will be spending a significant portion of the day in the sun (which is actually most work days, lately). If I'm not, I'll opt for something a bit less powerful, but easier to wear, like Kinesys (reviewed here). If I were moving back to the midwest or Canada, where the sun is not as intense, I'm not sure if I would purchase this sunscreen again or if I would just stick with something easier. Instead, I'm going to be moving back to south Texas, where the sun, like everything else there, is trying to kill me--but then maybe I'll just become an indoor cat.

I'd recommend this sunscreen if getting the best protection is your priority, but if any of the things on my cons list are going to make you avoid using it, you might as well get another sunscreen that's less potent but comfortable enough to apply every day.

Have you ever bought a foreign sunscreen, or are you happy with what's available at home?

Pros and Cons: Paula's Choice Resist Super-Light Daily Wrinkle Defense SPF 30 Sunscreen

Affiliate Links

I finally finished my bottle of Biore Watery Gel sunscreen (reviewed here), and since I thought my favorite sunscreen had been discontinued, I had to decide what to use next. (As it turns out, Kinesys is back, and for now can be purchased on their website: US/Canada. I haven't ordered anything yet, but I'll post more when I've got my hands on some of their sunscreen again.) The Paula's Choice Resist Super-Light Daily Wrinkle Defense SPF 30 Sunscreen is a holy grail for a lot of people, so I decided to use a credit to try out a tube of it for myself.

After using it for several weeks, I have mixed feelings. What I like about it, I really like; what I don't like is kind of a deal-breaker. So I think it makes sense to write this review as a basic pros/cons list.

PROS:

• Ingredients: The sunscreen in this product is zinc oxide, which is reliable, stable, and good for most sensitive skin. It also contains some other potentially beneficial skincare ingredients like antioxidants.
• Texture: It's not too thin and not too thick. It's easy to apply an even layer on my face, and it really does feel like there's nothing on my skin after a few short minutes. It's supposed to be a "moisturizer + SPF," but if it's moisturizing, the results are very subtle. I don't mind that. It is meant for combination or oily skin, after all.

• Finish: Zinc oxide can leave a white cast on the skin, so this lotion is lightly tinted to counteract that. It leaves my skin matte and adds a tiny bit of sheer coverage. It also works very well under makeup, a lot like a primer. It provides a bit of oil control and keeps my makeup in place longer.

Here are some frowny before and after photos. In the first photo I have nothing on my face. In the second photo, I have just the Paula's Choice Resist SPF 30. You can see that the tint is very, very sheer, but if you look at the freckles under my eyes, for instance, they are less visible in the second photo. (Also if you ever doubted how invisible my eyelashes are, here you go. This is the nakedest face I've ever published on my blog.)

CONS:

• Price: This is a $33 sunscreen. The tube contains 2 oz./60 ml, which for daily facial use would probably last around 6 months, I'm guessing. So if this is the perfect sunscreen for you, I can see $66 a year or so being worthwhile. It's better to buy something you love and actually wear it everyday than to buy something cheap that you hate and avoid applying sunscreen at all. For me, it's way too expensive when I factor in the issues described below.
• Smell: This is the biggest problem for me. It's really a YMMV situation, because most reviews I've read say that this sunscreen has no scent at all. I've only found one other person who noticed the smell I'm talking about here. When I apply this sunscreen, there's no really noticeable scent, at least nothing that bothers me. When I step outside, however, I get a big whiff of something strange, almost like burnt plastic or latex with a sour note. I can smell it for as long as I remain outside, but when I go back in, it's gone. Even when I go out to head home at the end of the work day, hours and hours after I first applied my sunscreen, I get the smell again. Could it be that the product is reacting to the sun somehow to release the smell? It's not the wind, because I don't smell it in a drafty indoor space. It's so odd! And very unpleasant. (I made my husband smell my face when we were outside the other day to see if I was just imagining it, and he noticed it too.)
• Eye irritation: I have less of a problem with this particular sunscreen smearing or running into my eyes than with others I've used in the past, but I do have to be careful not to rub my eyes or the lotion will get into them and make them itch and burn.
• Tint: I mentioned the tint as a sort of benefit above, in that it removes some of the white cast that would ordinarily be left by the zinc. The tint does, however, make this sunscreen more fussy to use than most others I've tried. I'm used to applying my facial sunscreen to my face and then bringing it down to my neck and exposed parts of my chest. More than once, while trying to do that with this stuff, I've accidentally smeared a bit of it onto the neckline of my shirt and then had to change out of an otherwise perfectly good, clean shirt. It's a hassle, when I'm in a hurry, to have to use a separate product for my neck and chest (or to have to pick out another top to wear! Ugh!!). You pretty much have to treat this stuff like makeup by, for instance, washing your hands after you apply it. Plus I have my doubts about how invisible the tint would be on people with darker skin. If you have a deep skin tone and have tried this sunscreen, I'd be interested to hear your results.

Here is it swatched on white paper, so you can see what a mess it would make if you got any on your clothing:

Personally, I don't think I will buy another tube of Paula's Choice Resist Super-Light Daily Wrinkle Defense once I've finished the one I have, even though I can understand why it's such a favorite. The texture and finish are really lovely and it plays exceptionally well with makeup. The smell is a big turnoff for me, but I'd guess you probably have a less than 5% chance of having that same problem, judging from reviews. But the smell combined with the finicky application is too much for me. I like to be able to apply my sunscreen quickly and move on. There's a reason I don't wear foundation every day, after all. 

Does this sound like a sunscreen that would work for you?

(You can get $10 off $15 from Paula's Choice when you sign up for a new account using my link--I get a credit too, which is what allowed me to review this sunscreen.)

Review: Coppertone Clearly Sheer Sunscreens (SPF 30 lotion and SPF 50 spray)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
I know what I like when it comes to sunscreen for my face, and I'm pretty devoted to the one I use. It's pretty pricy, though, so I prefer to use more affordable options on other parts of my body, so that I don't find myself skimping. I'm much less picky about what sunscreen goes below my neck, so long as it works, but there are definitely better and worse options out there.

When the most recent BzzAgent campaign I got into was for sunscreen, and I got a couple of bottles to test for free, I was pretty happy to try them. I'd been using this junk that I bought last year, just to get rid of it, and it's so terrible that even light friction from bra straps or other parts of my clothing are enough to rub it completely off and cause me to burn in certain areas. Ugh. Since I burn really easily, and I pretty much don't tan, I just slather on the sunscreen whenever I'm going to spend any time outside. There's no point hoping to get any color - and that's not important to me anyway. Besides, my freckles will pop out even with sunscreen, and isn't that really what matters?

BzzAgent sent me two new Coppertone sunscreens. One is the SPF 30 Clearly Sheer For Sunny Days lotion, and the other is the SPF 50 Clearly Sheer For Beach & Pool aerosol spray. Both contain a combination of avobenzone and other chemical sunscreen ingredients, so if you're sensitive to those, these won't be right for you - but I personally prefer them. They have the advantage of not creating a white tint on your skin or reflecting in flash photography, and they also don't clog my pores like mineral/physical sunscreens do (though I know the latter problem is a rare one). These sunscreens are quite affordable, in the $8-10 range, depending on where you find them.

I tried the SPF 30 lotion first. Even though I prefer a liquid on my face, I was curious how this would work as an everyday facial sunscreen. They sell another option that is labeled for use on the face (in a smaller bottle), but the marketing copy on the BzzAgent website says that the one they sent is "face friendly," "won't clog pores," and that its "matte finish is perfect under makeup." Sounds good.

What happens when you layer different sunscreens? (from FutureDerm)

Super useful! Explains things like: is there any benefit to layering multiple products that contain sunscreen? What happens when you apply two different SPFs, one over the other?

Do you really need SPF 100? (from Beautiful with Brains)

Basically, no.

The politics of sunscreen (From Racialicious)

And interesting and important personal essay about sunscreen and "fair skin".

How to figure out how much sunscreen you need to put on your face using MATH (from FutureDerm)

Ugh, math. This tells you how much you have to use to get the actual SPF on the packaging. Okay, I'm not going to measure and calculate it for my face. I'm going to guess that most people's faces are roughly the same size. You need to use quite a bit! This is why you should buy a sunscreen that is not too expensive and that feels good on your face, otherwise you are not going to get the protection you need.

What's your favorite sunscreen?