Sunkiller Perfect Water Essence SPF 50+ PA++++

After my month-long (and tearful) honeymoon with the Coppertone Clearly Sheer. I ditched it for a proper sunscreen to welcome the blazing sun. As American brands are entering into the phase of liquid and light-cream sun products, the weightless gel-cream formula has been around in Japan/rest of Asia for at least 3 or 4 years. Sunkiller Perfect Water Essence is a example of it. 

As the name suggests, it's a (primarily-chemical) suncreen with a watery gel formula. The pale yellow gel feels light, weightless and cooling once spread (it's probably the alcohol but it's not strong enough to sting) and gives a lightly moisturizing/emollient feel to the skin that's not sticky. Thanks to the presence of some TiO2, I do get a tiniest bit of white cast, to cover my acne marks. The chemical formula is also much easier to remove than those mainly-physical ones.

Ingredient List is available at Ratzilla Cosme. Nope, I can't even quote anything...

Since it's virtually undetectable, it's a great nothing-base underneath makeup and doesn't make powder blush patchy/sticky (if you are the kind who doesn't want to deal with foundation). For adding concealer on top, I prefer a pasty formula like Shiseido Geisha Cast, which does a better job sticking to the...paste and provide some coverage (when my face isn't flaky).


While I can't tell exactly how effective it is, but I do notice that my pigmentation (from all the scab/face picking I do) gets a little better whenever I have those on. It smells nice (like citrus?), works and doesn't run into my eyes so I will definitely use it all up. No repurchase because there are many other options out there.

Comments

  1. LOL at "Shiseido Geisha Cast" I've used the liquid version of it for years, and that strong white cast actually help me to skip liquid foundation. But after experiencing other Japanese sunscreens from Sofina and Kao Biore, I don't think I'd buy it again. I did save my face from the Mexican sun so I know it works, but it is just too heavy and clogging.
    I keep getting disappointed by western(?) sunscreens and I think I will stick with Japanese brands from now on.

    BTW, I meant to ask you about Rakuten. Do you go to their Japanese site? For some reason, the U.S. price shown to me isn't that affordable. Maybe they try to trick me since my location service is enabled or something. Halp! ;)

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    1. Oh, it really depends on what you are looking for. Rakuten global fetches searches from rakuten jp sellers (who lists international shipping as an option). So sometime, the seller who are willing to ship international charge markup, sometime not...I found it best when I look for something in particular then found out there are other items I want from the same sellers. In my cases, I was browsing for lunasol lip brush and I found lunasol palettes (15bucks cheaper than adambeauty) and maquillage gloss around 18 bucks...(Then I was looking at anna sui lip brush...and found more Lunasol palettes -_- ....I have a lunasol problem).

      Sometime, the Japanese pages are auto translated (beside the obvious teaks=cheeks, gross=gloss)oftentimes the name are way off...Like Kao becomes flower king (what the kanji means) and Sekkisei becomes...snow complexion...cumshot(I was doing multiple double takes when I saw that). It's probably not the best place for canmake cream cheek but I see Visee cream blush for 7 bucks a piece (it knocked down canmake in that cosme.net award thing and it contains 2x the product!) and Visee eyeshadow palette for around 10 bucks.

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    2. Thank ou so much for telling me all this. Those auto-translation mishaps made me laugh out loud. ;D
      I'd definitely look into Visee, then. I only have one eyeshadow palette which is nice but not loved. Lunasol palettes sound awesome, too! (Oh, boy)

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  2. The formula for this sunscreen is pretty good. I can see UV filters like OMC, Tinosorb S, Titanium Dioxide, Univual A plus. Plus it contains abscorbyl tretaisopalmitate, an oil soluble form of vitamin C. Tinosorb filters are not yet approved in the US yet so that's why Japanese sunscreens have an edge over American sunscreens in my opinion.

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    1. Thanks for providing the ingredients, haha. I suppose dry skin is usually easier to take care of than photoaging/hyperpigmentation. The benefits out weight the disadvantages for sure.

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  3. The only deal breaker with Japanese sunscreens is that they contain a lot of alcohol (that is why they feel so light) which is drying on the skin in the long term.

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  4. Oh, I need to try this one out! Seems very similar to Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence!

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