Anessa perfect pearly sunscreen
SPF 50 PA+++

Price: US 15.75 from alphabeautystore

I hate North American brand sunscreen. I am allergic to something in some, but no all sunscreens.
When applied to my face, certain sunscreens with make me blotchy, and purple, and I feel as though I’ve been burned.
It drives me Nuts. I try to wear sunscreen every day. I’m super pale and super paranoid about skin cancer.
But when 90% of sunscreens out there do bad things to you.... It makes it a chore.
So for the past 5 years I’ve tried nearly every sunscreen out there.
And discovered that there are two basic forms of Sunscreen, physical and chemical.
The physical sunscreens, like Zinc oxide don’t bother me.
It’s the chemical ones that make me uncomfortable.
But since walking around with a big slab of zinc oxide on my face... not so practical (Unless Clown was my choice of profession)
so onto chemical sunscreen. I’ve discovered that the thicker the consistency of sunscreen, the more it irritates my skin.
So those thick cream beach sunscreens.
I REFUSE to touch anything of the sort.
So as you might expect, a lot of lower SPF sunscreens work better for me. Like SPF ... useless.
Anyway, eventually I have found a couple of NA brands that work for me, Neutrogena Moisture – SPF 15.
Plus sheer cover mineral make-up has an SPF value...
But while I was in Japan, I ran out of all the safe sunscreen I brought with me.
I then attempted to buy sunscreen there, hoping I wouldn’t have to have stuff flown in (ah drama).
And out of all the brands I tried; only a couple bothered me.
Wait what?
Back home, I can only find a couple that don’t bother me, yet here only a few do...

Japanese sunscreen and NA sunscreens are very different.
In NA, they are generally very thick, very heavy creams; whereas in Japan they are very running liquids.
I think the difference is Sunscreen here is meant mostly as beach ware. Meant to be applied everywhere. And even though lighter facial sunscreens are becoming more and more popular they still maintain their roots.
Whereas the Japanese lines are meant for the face, and designed to apply lightly under make up!

The Anessa sunscreen is a drugstore brand by shisedo. It seems expensive at 15.75US (It’s cheaper in Japan of course...) especially when the size I have is only 25ml. This is tiny. Especially compared to my Neutrogena 120ml. But honestly it applies so well, and you need so little that they both take almost the same amount of time to use up!

So the Anessa perfect pearly sunscreen is a super runny liquid with an SPF of 50 PA+++!
It is lightly pearly but not sparkly. So it applies beautifully under makeup, leaving a soft slightly luminous finish.
It dries almost immediately. Plus it’s not greasy/oily at all. It makes a very good base for apply further make up application.
It doesn’t seem to make further make up slide off, or reduce the lasting time.

So if you have the opportunity, switch to a Japanese sunscreen, do it! They are a little more expensive than the usual drugstore sunscreen, but the quality and lasting power makes it worth it!