Review: Etude House Sunprise SPF 30/PA++ Water Jelly

Hello! Back again for another sunscreen review, this time it's Sunprise (Aquamoist) SPF 30/PA++ Water Jelly. Before I begin, let me remind you how important it is to keep calm and inspect your product before buying.

Let me also stress how important it is to first make sure a sunscreen can adequately protect. That is, it has to be at least at an SPF of 30 and PA+++. And photostable.

Behold, my mistake!

Availability and Price: Easily available at the nearest Etude House - most malls here in the Philippines have them now. I got this for around 700 php, which is expensive for a PA++ only sunscreen.

Packaging: Yeah, the first thing I noticed is the SPF 30 label, but my carelessness made me miss the tiny PA++ label. My stupidity aside, the packaging is adequate as it has all the labels required by the FDA.

Texture and Scent: There is a hint of floral scent which, if represented in a painting, is a picture of a bouquet of flowers overly constricted with plastic wrappings. But that's just me. The sunscreen is quite fluid, which is bad during application as it can spill easily even before the fluid touches the face, but good after application as it is absorbed fast.

Ingredients: Etude House's Sunprise Water Jelly sunscreen's ingredient list was a pain to type (link here from cosdna.com) and is probably scaring the folks who are afraid of "chemicals". But that long list of chemical compunds did not scare me - at first. This all-chemical sunscreen uses ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate (octinoxate), ethylhexyl salicylate (octisalate), octocrylene, butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane (avobenzone) and ethylhexyl triazone (Univul T 150) as its UV filters. As per this helpful sunscreen FAQ from makeupalley.com, octinoxate + avobenzone could be bad news as this would mean the product is less photostable. 

If your read through all of that FAQ, good. If not, here's the gist: sunscreen which aren't photostable may damage the skin. 

Finish: This sunscreen dries up quick - yet is does not dry my skin out - and has a dewy finish that's just right. Sunprise Water Jelly also works well with my BB cream, so overall, the finish is perfect.

Rating: While this product's photostability is questionable, the finish is quite good. This product may not be able to provide adequate protection as it is not a broad spectrum screen, so it's overall usefulness is also doubtful. I will probably still use it indoors as I stay near a window with vertical blinds which have little rays penetrating occasionally, but I will not repurchase this product for sure.

Value for money: 3/5

Ingredients: 2/5

Performance: 2/5

Overall: 2.3/5