The Beauty Wolf

Ahh, the never-ending quest for good sunscreen. I really wish the world at large would have figured out just how horrible the sun’s rays are sooner, so we wouldn’t be scrambling like we are now (many of us having gone through skin cancer, premature aging, and childhoods peppered with sunburns). I think I’ve talked about it before, but it was the removal of skin cancer from the tops of my ears that really made me sit up and get serious about the sun. I grew up in the south in a time where people coated themselves in butter to get as dark as possible and sunblock was only for the palest of non-tanning white kids. Nowadays you’ll find me in long sleeves in the dead of summer cursing the beaming rays and testing out a non-stop revolving door of sun products. That very activity is what lead me to today’s product, Shisedo’s Hada Senka Mineral UV Gel SPF50 PA+++

If we take a look at the ingredients on the Cosdna site we see a couple of things here, the most important being that this protects from both UVB and UVA rays. UVB rays are the one that will burn you up like a steamed hotdog, UVA rays are what make you look like an old leather crypt keeper. It’s very important that whatever product you ultimately choose, that you make sure you’re protected from both kinds of UV rays. If you’re curious about the “PA” you typically see on Japanese and Korean sunscreen offerings, wikipedia solved that mystery for me:
“PA system
Asian brands, particularly Japanese ones, tend to use The Protection Grade of UVA (PA) system to measure the UVA protection a sunscreen provides.

The Protection Grade of UVA (PA) system is based on the PPD reaction and is now widely adopted on the labels of sunscreens. According to the Japan Cosmetic Industry Association PA+ corresponds to a UVA protection factor between two and four, PA++ between four and eight, and PA+++ more than eight.”

After finding that out I’m always on the look out for that sweet, sweet “+++”.

Now, let’s get down to business. This bottle is a lot smaller than North American sunblocks if that’s what you’re used to. As you can see in the picture above, the whole thing almost fits in my hand, and I have tiny itty bitty hands. Before use, be sure to shake the bottle vigorously to mix everything together. You’ll hear a little mixing ball inside helping things along. Once you squeeze out the desired amount you will see how liquid-y this is, which is a texture I love for my sunblocks. The consistency is extremely light. When you first apply this to your skin there is a slick feeling and a sheen, but it quickly dissipates and dries nearly matte (I guess this is thanks to the inclusion of alcohol in the ingredients). This makes it easy to layer your product to get the best coverage. It’s suggested you use 1/4 tsp to get the maximum benefits from sunblock. That’s quite hard to do with heavier formulations. This is extremely easy and user-friendly. That is probably the greatest selling point for this particular product. Another thing that I really liked was that it did not cause me any breakouts.

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