Review: up&up Continual Sunblock Face Lotion

Before Purchase: It’s now summer in the northern hemisphere and sunscreen products are abundant in stores. My last tube of face sunscreen expired and I hadn’t replaced it yet, so my plan was to find more of the same product.

Price: I paid $7.34 USD at a local Target, which was cheaper than the brand I originally planned to buy. It was the cheapest face sunscreen I saw on display, actually.

Packaging: The sunscreen comes in a 3 fl oz size, packaged in an oval-shaped tube that dispenses from the bottom. It’s in line with other up&up products in that it’s white, with a single color accent (in this case, brown text and a brown cap) for contrast, a comparison suggestion to a brand-name product (Aveeno Face SPF 70 Sunblock) and a clever comment below the product points on front (“Face value,” it says). The packaging is simple, with the image of a book and sunglasses on the front, and easy to read. The only thing I don’t like about it is the brown accents, because while the dark caramel might make you think tan, it doesn’t really make you think summer fun.

Ingredients: Active ingredients: Avobenzone 3%, Homosalate 15%, Octisalate 5%, Octocrylene 2.8%, Oxybenzone 6%.

Inactive ingredients: acrylates/C12-22 alkyl methacrylate copolymer, ascorbic acid, beeswax, BHT, caprylyl methicone, cetyl dimethicone, dimethicone, dipotassium glycyrrhizate, disodium EDTA, ethylhexyl stearate, ethylhexylglycerin, fragrance, glyceryl stearate, glycine soja (soybean) protein, methylisothiazolinone, peg-100 stearate, polyminopropyl biguanide, retinyl palmate, silica, sodium polyacrylate, styrene/acrylates copolymer, tocopheryl acetate, trideceth-6, trimethylsiloxysilicate, water, xanthan gum.

The Product: SPF is not an actual unit of measure when it comes to sunscreen. Sun Protection Factor means it multiplies how long it would normally take for you to start to burn – if you start burning after 10 minutes, for example, an SPF 30 would give you 300 minutes (5 hours) before you started burning (provided you don’t swim/sweat/shower it off, of course).

Having said that, I can’t pass judgement on the actual sunscreen abilities of this sunblock. I can, however, say that I like it.

It applied fairly easily, but didn’t absorb in as fast as I hoped, which turned out to be a good thing. I applied my mmu foundation after the sunscreen, and it did a lovely job of stopping that caked-on powdered face look you can get. I patted my foundation on more than brushed it on, but I was pleasantly surprised with the finished result, which ended up lasting through a 10-hour shift at my work.

I do have to say that it does have a faint sunscreen smell. Personally, I love the smell of sunscreen, but some people don’t so I will mention it.

Final Thoughts: