Green-tinted sunscreens - a comparison

 I know I have not posted anything in years, because I was busy and because I started mostly exchanging beauty information with people on Reddit, but this seemed like the easiest format for this sunscreen comparison.

For those who are new here, or have forgotten who I am (I wouldn't blame you), I am very pale (I wear Pale in Nyx) with a neutral undertone, but a lot of redness in my face, while my neck is more olive-toned. (I match foundation to my neck, not my chest, because I don't often expose the latter. for various reasons.) Green-toned sunscreens have intrigued me from the moment I first saw one - after all, I wear sunscreen every day, so why not use it to color-correct? Turns out, it's not that easy.

Most of us know by now that sunscreen needs to be applied in generous amounts to actually protect us, but some of the sunscreens I tested made that pretty hard. If I applied too much at once, they got patchy and streaky, but if I tried to apply them in two or three layers, they pilled. And if I try to use them as a final layer over another sunscreen, I have to worry about compatibility issues, plus it defeats the whole purpose of using one product to achieve two things. And some of these will look patchy no matter what - maybe if you have perfect skin, these might work for you, but my early 30s, acne-prone, combination skin doesn't play well with tinted stuff, I'm afraid. (My favorite sunscreen, the sadly discontinued Sunkiller Perfect Strong Moisture, never pills on me, neither does Anessa.)

The candidates are:

Allie Nuance Change UV Gel in Bright White "Nuance Green"

Skin Aqua Tone Up UV Essence (I own both the 2019 and 2020 formula, but I cannot tell you which one I currently have open as the bottles look the exact same - if necessary, I will make another comparison post later, but I cannot in good conscience open another bottle of sunscreen before using this one up)

Suncut Tone Up UV Essence Mint Green

All of these are SPF 50, PA++++ sunscreens with mixed chemical and physical filters, and they all contain alcohol. Only the Skin Aqua bothers my eyes, though. They all claim to be resistant to water and sweat, but I personally would only trust Allie on a really hot or humid day. Also, all of these are scented. Considering many people with redness in their skin probably suffer from sensitivities, I am not sure why all three companies decided to do this... The scents don't bother me (I actually really like Allie's jasmine peach scent), but I don't think they were necessary. Majolica Majorca (owned by Shiseido) has an unscented green base, but that one is only SPF 30 and PA+++, so I personally would not use it in summer. Since it is also more of a dedicated make-up base, it's only 35 grams, so not great value considering it costs over a thousand yen. (I looked through their official website and store for ten minutes to find the volume until heading over to @cosme where I found it - it should be illegal to sell products without clearly stating how much they contain...) I am also already seeing comments saying the product doesn't play well with foundation - I guess it's not supposed to, because the purpose is to make your skin look better without foundation, but in my experience that doesn't bode well for the product not pilling.

Allie is the most expensive sunscreen in this line-up, with a set retail price of 1.800 yen for 60 grams, whereas the other two retail for under a thousand yen for 80 grams each. As I said above, though, Allie is the only brand of the three I would trust for actual outdoor activities, as Allie and Anessa are the two workhorse brands for sunscreens in Japan. (I wore Anessa when working outdoors in the Tokyo summer, and it kept my pale skin from burning.) That said. Skin Aqua looks absolutely beautiful in my bathroom. X'D

 Anyway, on to the swatches (excuse my awful photography skills):

All three sunscreens freshly applied, in natural outdoor lighting on an overcast day and in my bathroom under artificial lighting: Allie (top) - Skin Aqua (middle) - Suncut (bottom)

You can already see that Allie barely has a green tint, and pulls mostly white. That said, all of these are very pale green, definitely more "mouldy yoghurt" than "Wicked Witch of the West," so anyone with a darker complexion will most likely not be very happy with these.

Now look at the same swatches taken after letting them sit for 15 minutes:

Allie has dried to an almost invisible finish, while the other still look green. 

This is what they look like with the big blobs spread out/rubbed in a little:

To my eyes, Skin Aqua in the middle looks like a cool green, whereas Suncut at the bottom looks a little more neutral-green.

And here I tried dabbing some Canmake Marshmallow Powder on the sides and some Nyx Born To Glow foundation in the middle. (I wouldn't normally apply this much, but it was really hard to get some to stick to the swatches.) Can you see how patchy the bottom two look?

On my face:

I was not having a great day, health-wise, and hadn't slept well, which is actually the kind of morning when I want an easy, multi-use product. Unfortunately, these go on patchy unless you prep your skin super well, and putting them on in one thick layer doesn't work well, especially for the Suncut. That said, layering hasn't worked well for me either so far...

I applied some Hatomugi All-In-One Gel and Sana Isoflavone eye cream after washing with the green Heimish wash (Hatomugi has been my staple moisturizer for years, while Heimish is a newer discovery that I love already), waited for around twenty minutes, then applied Suncut on my left side (which is right in the photos) and Skin Aqua on my right side (left for you), and it does not look great. The suncut is especially patchy around my eye, which I guess ist my driest area, but maybe it didn't play well with the Sana  eye cream. Suncut also looked much flakier around my hairline.

I also thought it might be smart to take some swatches on my face the next day, which unfortunately had very different weather conditions, so I only managed to get a good shot indoors, but I hope they'll help anyway. I also got the order wrong - these are Suncut on top, Skin Aqua in the middle, and Allie the closest to my chin. Here, once again, I used Hatomugi All-In-One Gel and Sana Isoflavone eye cream after washing with the green Heimish wasm by the way. You can also see the general condition of my skin.

 

As you can see, Allie has a much less patchy finish and looks more radiant overall. Maybe you can put a price tage on good sunscreen after all? It also has the strongest fragrance of them all, and today, my sensitive eyes are a little bothered. It's a lovely scent (not sure I get peach or jasmine) that I would wear as a body spray, but I don't need it in my sunscreen.

I then applied Allie all over my face: here you can see me squinting into the sun. To me, this looks better than the other two. Keep in mind all of these photos are taken to show as much as possible, so they all look terribly unflattering. I use a first gen Iphone SE, no editing other than the black marker, and my atrocious photography skills only. (My hair was also still wet lol)

Let me know if you want me to compare these in different ways. I cannot get my hands on the Majolica Majorca base right now unless I ask a friend in Japan to send it to me, but I can apply the three sunscreens I have here in different ways if that helps anyone.

Have you tried these? Did you like them?