My entire childhood consisted of the following sentence: “GET OUT OF THE HEAT OF THE SUN, YOU ARE GOING TO GET TOO DARK.”

The mantra of many a Filipino parent, my mom would consistently scold me for playing in the sun, turning my fair complexion into her tanned nightmares. My dad would tell her I was just a kid, but my mom would make me scrub with a whitening papaya soap every day (which I later realized dried out my already very-dry skin; ah, skincare). Coming from a culture where white skin was highly prized, my mom thought I was throwing a great beauty of mine right out the window. My grandmother used to walk around the neighborhood on hot days with an umbrella, every inch of her skin covered lest her own complexion be jeopardized. Fear of the sun seems to be hereditary.

While I do like the way my skin looks when I’m pale (red lipstick never looks better on me than when I’m pale from a winter spent hiding indoors), the healthy glow of a good tan is also really appealing. It implies beaches! Sunny activities! An active lifestyle! Plus, deeper skintones are just as beautiful and can more easily wear other make-up trends. It’s a fun, seasonal switch-up for me, when I inevitably end up getting tan from countless hours in the sun.

Unfortunately, a tan is also a sign of sun damage, and I do want to avoid damaging my skin as much as possible. You always hear the horror stories of people who commit too hard to tanning and paid the price in wrinkles and suspect dark spots, even skin cancer, later in their life. But I’m not going to coop myself up in the house just to avoid “the heat of the sun”, as my well-intentioned mother might suggest. Instead, there are sunscreens, and like many consumers with an Asian Beauty product habit, I’ve fallen into the hole that is Asian sunscreen. It is a big hole.

I bought this sunscreen in my RRS haul, after browsing very briefly through their sunscreen selection. It looked like everything in stock had been tried with middling reviews — except the Arra Top Face UV Perfect Covering Mild Sun Sunscreen. I decided to take the plunge and risk it. The worst thing that could happen was that I would have to give it away because it didn’t work for me and buy another option. Well, and it could break me out like freakin’ crazy, but that was sort of implied.

It comes in a white tube with stylish branding — nothing too obnoxious, but not minimal either. Obviously, this container does not hold enough product to be spreading all over your body daily. Something this pretty deserves a face-only designation. I love the subtle design of the label, and the cap snaps on and off easily. No more unexpected squirts of product in this girl’s purse! Nope, everything is safely kept inside with this sturdy plastic cap. At least, I hope so.

Ingredients: water, etheylhexylmethoxycinnamate, titanium dioxide, butylene glycol, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, dicaprylylcarbonate, beeswax, cetearyl alcohol, polyglyceryl-3 methylglucose distearate, stearyl alcohol, caprylic/capric triglyceride, glyceryl stearate, dimethicone, tocopheryl acetate, hydrolyzed collagen, xanthan gum, arbutin, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, morus alba bark extract, disodium EDTA, hydroxyethylcellulose, dipotassium glycyrrhizate, allantoin, betaine, resveratrol, 1,2-hexanediol, perfume. Added to CosDNA here!

Let’s talk about that ingredients list: it’s awesome. There are a number of soothing/moisturizing ingredients in there to help calm your skin. Certainly not a replacement for a good moisturizer, but nothing that will really hurt. The only things that might raise a flag are the fatty alcohols, so if you are sensitive to those, I’d suggest patch-testing or passing over this entirely. We also have three identifiable sunscreens: octyl methoxycinnamate/oxtinoxate, titanium dioxide, and 4-methylbenzylidene camphor. I should point out now, the 4-methylbenzylidene camphor is not approved as an active ingredient for sunscreen in the US and Japan. It is, however, approved for use in Canada and Europe. Because it seems to interfere with uterine growth, I’d suggest not using this on children and reserving it for grown adults. The two other sunscreens are much more familiar and widespread, having been approved by the FDA.

This product has both physical and chemical sunscreens. Because it has chemical sunscreens, I would not recommend this to a person with very sensitive skin.

As you can see, it comes out of the tube slightly tinted, which I liked. A lot of people dislike the ‘white cast’ that sunscreens tend to give, making them look paler and more washed out than they really are. Especially because I’m working a tan right now, a white cast would be noticeable. There was a slight white cast, despite the tinting, but it faded within minutes! Great, because the last thing I need to do is walk out looking like I threw a bunch of baby powder on my face (my mom’s version of ‘foundation’).

There was a light fragrance which became stronger as I pat and distributed the sunscreen over my face. Sort of like… honeyed flowers? It’s a touch sweet but mature and round. Maybe a little vanilla or something. I’m not a fragrance junkie but I’ve been developing more of an interest in scents, and so when I got a whiff of this, I did not mind it at ALL. Seriously, a lot better than the familiar chemical smell of western sunblocks (itself a form of ‘nostalgia’ but I will drop nostalgia for a better product almost any day), and not overpowering, so you don’t feel like you’re about to gag the person next to you with your scent. Always a plus.

The formula feels great too. The sunscreen spreads very easily on the skin, with minimal tugging. And not a lot of stickiness! That tacky feeling you get when you dump a bunch of sunscreen on yourself just doesn’t happen here. The stickiness was minimal and just like the white cast, went away as the sunscreen was absorbed by my skin. Sunscreens do tend to feel tacky/sticky on my skin, so this was pretty par for the course.

What I do like about this sunscreen is that thanks to the moisturizers, my skin feels very supple and bouncy after using this. I know, right? A sunscreen that feels like an extra moisturizer? I’m used to sunblock feeling like a film on my skin, or like something I need to immediately wash off because it’s going to ruin my complexion. And I know sunscreen has a reputation of drying people out, too. Nope — this sunscreen easily slides in as just another step in my routine, and it feels weightless and moisturizing while it does its thing. I don’t feel like I’m just slathering stuff on and letting it sit on top of my skin. It’s just as enjoyable & luxurious a step as the other parts of my routine.

FINAL VERDICT: Honestly, I really like the ARRA Top Face UV Perfect Covering Mild Sun Sunscreen, no matter how annoyingly long that name is. My skin seems to love it too! Living in California, finding a good sunscreen is important; I’m excited to use up the rest of this tube and live the benefits of well-protected skin. (✿◠‿◠)