Kelly Driscoll

Sunscreen is the trickiest skincare product to get just right. Outsiders think it’s as simple as the amount of SPF coverage and whether you prefer chemical or mineral filters… how hard could it be?

I know you’re laughing at reading that sentence because you and I know it’s waaaaay more complicated than that!

To list a few of the other requirements we might have for a sunscreen: no whitecast, can’t pill, can’t irritate the skin, not too dry, not too dewy, no silicones, no fragrance, easy to reapply…

As we know, it goes deeper than just coverage and filters alone! And we also know that finding the sunscreen that fulfills all our needs and wants without any compromises… well that’s just downright hard.

I’ve been on an odyssey in the sunscreen world and never found the “perfect” sunscreen. I either compromised on things like dry time in order to use a more moisturizing sunscreen (Shiseido Senka Anti-Aging Sunscreen), or I put up with ingredients that I wasn’t super comfortable with using like essential oils (Klairs Soft Airy UV Essence and Purito Centella Green Level Safe Sun). I just felt like there was always going to be a compromise I needed to make when it came to finding my everyday sunscreen.

And yet, there has been a change of events. I think I found the one. The perfect sunscreen that requires no compromise from me.

Let me introduce to you Purito Centella Green Level Unscented Sunscreen! Amazon* | Yesstyle*

My skin type: Combo-Dry/Dehydrated/Sensitive

*Product was provided as a press sample from Purito*

What it is:

A chemical sunscreen offering SPF 50+ PA++++, Purito Centella Green Level Safe Sun is a sunscreen that uses mild and safe ingredients all rated green level on the EWG scale (hence the name) and avoids the drawbacks of traditional chemical sunscreens like skin and eye irritation. It does this all while not using any fragrance or essential oils. (Purito Website)

Just a word about that EWG green level rating: the EWG has created a scale to rate the safety of ingredients used in cosmetic products. The safest level is rated 1-2, or green to indicate low risk. This is not a rating of potential irritation or breakouts, so please take the whole EWG green rating with a grain of salt.

UV Filters:

The UV filters used here are the same as the original centella scented sunscreen. These are new generation chemical filters that offer more photostability and have been developed for less risk of irritation on the skin.

• Uvinul A Plus (diethylamino hydroxybenzoyl hexyl benzoate) offers highly photostable UVA protection.
• Uvinul T150 (ethylhexyl triazone) protects from UVB and has the highest photostability absorption rate of all available UVB filters!

 

Ingredients and How They Differ from the Original Scented Version (spoiler, they do):

Ingredients: Water, Butylene Glycol, Butyloctyl Salicylate, Glycerin, Diethylamino Hydroxybenzoyl Hexyl Benzoate, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Acrylates Copolymer, Silica, 1,2-Hexanediol, Niacinamide, Dibutyl Adipate, Ethylhexyl Triazone, Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate, Cetearyl Olivate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Sorbitan Olivate, Glyceryl Stearate, Methyl Glucose Sesquistearate, Sorbitan Stearate, Centella Asiatica Extract(4315ppm), Madecassoside, Asiaticoside, Madecassic Acid, Asiatic Acid, Pentaerythrityl Tetra-di-t-butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Disodium EDTA, Adenosine, Hyaluronic Acid, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, Tocopherol

Purito could have easily used the formula for their original centella scented sunscreen and simply removed the essential oils, preserving their excellent texture and delivering an unscented product. However, it seems that Purito decided to go back to the drawing board and see how they could improve the formula. Because of this, you will notice some slight differences in the ingredients between the original and the new unscented version.

More Centella: The unscented sunscreen has added MORE centella! The original does feature centella extract, but the new unscented version has kicked it up a notch by including centella extract AND madecassoside, asiaticoside, madecassic acid and Asiatic acid!

More centella means more soothing, hydrating and collagen-stimulating benefits. But what is most exciting for a sunscreen product is that it increases the antioxidant profile. Antioxidants are an all-around great ingredient for all skin types, but it’s an especially beneficial pair with UV filters. Antioxidants can boost your skin’s defenses against UV damage (boost but not fully protect, this isn’t sunscreen replacement!). So adding them into a sunscreen can help protect your skin from the sun even more!

More Antioxidants: Speaking of antioxidant protection, the original scented centella sunscreen also offered vitamin E (tocopherol) antioxidant protection in addition to the centella. The new unscented sunscreen has more centella, vitamin E and an additional antioxidant called pentaerythrityl tetra-bi-t-butyl hydroxhydrocinnamate (whew!).

Essential Oils: Obviously the biggest difference here comes from the lack of essential oils and is the reason why Purito developed this unscented version. The original featured chamomile and lavender oils to help fragrance the original. There is absolutely no fragrance properties in the new unscented sunscreen at all, a win for sensitive skin!

Related: Check my YouTube Review of the Original Purito Centella Sunscreen

Texture and Performance:

For those familiar with the original sunscreen the texture is pretty much the same.

This is a white cream that, once worked into the skin, turns very hydrating, watery and almost gel-like. This white cream transforms into an invisible, thin layer on the skin that is completely undetectable.

This has absolutely no whitecast and wears on the skin almost weightlessly. This is seriously a sunscreen you won’t feel on your skin!

This is also not a sunscreen that will dry out your skin. This has a wonderfully hydrating feel on the skin. Purito employs a 70% water-base (mostly glycerin and hyaluronic acid) for their formula that keeps even dry skin comfy throughout the day. But the finish is not dewy! This is what I call a neutral finish – it’s neither dewy nor matte, and will just work with your skin’s natural finish, taking away or adding nothing.

The texture varies ever so slightly from the original scented version, just ever so slightly. I did notice that the new version is just a touch thicker coming out of the bottle, but once it’s worked into the skin, it’s exactly the same and I felt it performed exactly the same too!

My Experience:

As I said before, this might just be the perfect sunscreen for me, so you know this section will be glowing with praise.

For me, this solved the issue of compromising on essential oils in my 2 favorite facial sunscreens (Klairs Soft Airy UV Essence and the original Purito sunscreen). I made this compromise because the hydrating texture and invisible look and feel was such a game changer for me. But I’ve been becoming more and more uncomfortable with essential oils in my skincare products and paranoid about their long term effects on my sensitive skin. The last product holdout in becoming completely essential oil free in my skincare routines was sunscreen.

And this sunscreen solved that major issue for me and still preserved all the amazing things I loved about the original sunscreen.

Here are a few stray observations I had:

I was totally impressed that this had no smell. As you know, unscented doesn’t always equal no scent. Raw skincare ingredients can smell downright funky, and formulating them to have little to no scent, without fragrance or essential oils, isn’t always easy. And I’m very impressed that Purito was able to reformulate this sunscreen (there have been some minor formulation changes) to have no smell and still preserve the amazing texture and performance of the original.

I also noticed that this has very little pilling. I won’t go so far as to say no pilling, because pilling can often be due to other factors like the skincare we put on prior to application. But I will note that there was significantly little pilling on reapplication up to 3 times. It most definitely does not pill as much as Purito’s Comfy Water Sunblock, and I’m unsure if it pilled less than the original scented centella one (I’m slightly inclined to say it does, though).

Besides the lack of essential oils, the ingredients list also leaves out alcohol and silicones which are often common offenders in sunscreen formulations.

And price! I prefer to keep my sunscreens on the affordable side (about $10-$15 range) when I can since it’s my most repurchased product. I was making a slight compromise on that value with the Klairs sunscreen which retails for $22 (not a huge difference and you get 20ml more, but still more than I wanted to spend). This Purito sunscreen retails for $14 which is definitely a great value!

The Final Word:

This is the sunscreen for me! I can’t seem to find any fault with this sunscreen, and it meets all my needs and wants, something that hasn’t been easy for me!

I whole-heartedly recommend this for all skin types! (remember that neutral finish and mild ingredients list)

Retails around $14 for 60ml Amazon* | Yesstyle*

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*Indicates use of affiliate links that provide a small commission to help run this blog