Don't Be Fooled By Fake Sunscreens

Ally asks…I have got a face cream as a gift and it’s day defence cream for normal/combination skin with UV filter. What strength that UV filter is or whether it’s UVA+UVB protection is not mentioned. I was reading through ingredients list and couldn’t find any evidence of UV protection, but maybe my knowledge is just not deep enough. It goes like this: ionized water, glyceryl stearate, cetearyl alcohol, vegetable oil, ceteareth-20, capric and capronic acid triglycerides, decapric ether, perfume oil, dimethicone, plantain extract, primrose extract, blueberry extract, perfume composition, methylparaben, propylparaben, silver ions. This list was translated by myself with help of Google. What do you think? It it any good for combination skin? The vegetable oil especially worries me as this is a product designed to deal with oily t-zone.

The Left Brain responds:

There is nothing on the list that is obviously a UV filter. Some blends of dimethicone may be sold as UV filters but this list doesn’t seem to have one. Maybe they are counting the blueberry extract or primrose extract as UV filters. The product doesn’t seem like a great face cream especially with all the different oils it contains. But it all depends on how the product is formulated. You could make a nice product with those ingredients but it would be difficult. Based on the ingredient list, my guess is that it probably isn’t the best thing to use for combination skin.