Happy Friday!

I purchased a mini size of Kanebo Allie Extra UV Facial Gel N 3.0 quite sometime ago during discount (why not?!). Let's review this. I have tried its body version in the past and reviewed it here. Let's dig in!

 

Product Summary

Preface

I purchased this travel sized sunscreen locally via Allie Official Shopee storefront. This is not sponsored and all opinions are my own.

Just for reference: I have oily skin, living in hot humid tropical Southeast Asia. We only have sunny or rainy days over here. UV index ranging from 9 to 12 and above almost all year round, well except if it's raining. On average, the weather temperature is around 31-33°C during the day, humidity is around 80% and above, it is not uncommon to reach 100% humidity, especially on rainy days.

This is how my travel sized tube (25g) looks like.

 

Characteristics

Texture:

It's a thick white cream. Initially it spreads easily, however when it starts to set, it may clump and pill around drier part of the face. In my case, it pills around my jawline.

Scent:

It is fragrance free, doesn't smell like anything. I can't sniff any alcohol smell from it.

Application and Finish:

I find this one is dry to the touch when it has set, especially if I use it on my bare bones skincare (more about this below). However, I find this is quite difficult to apply. When it starts to set, it can get clumpy and the white clumps are hard to blend into the skin. I still can eventually blend it, but I'm not too fond of rubbing my face too hard, more so that I'm used to.

It does blend better when I use some kind emollient layer underneath the sunscreen, however the tendency to clump still persists. The clumps don't get balled up as much as application on bare face when I use emollient stuff underneath, and it's easier to blend in. The downside using an emollient skincare underneath is the finish won't be as dry touch as with bare bone skincare.

I use this on my neck without pilling issue, surprisingly. I enjoy using it on my neck. It sets fast and not sticky at all. As with all combination sunscreen with white cast, the sunscreen can get collected / trapped in the horizontal neck lines / neck folds, so I need to clean it off, by just rubbing the white lines until it disappears.

White Cast:

Yes, it does have white cast, and it intensifies after reapplication.

The white cast is lesser than Allie Extra UV Gel N (body version), but still more pronounced than Anessa Perfect UV Milk 2020 formulation.

Reapplication:

This is hard to reapply. As it's pretty dry touch sunscreen, it has tendency to pill. The white cast intensifies anyway, making me looking purplish, so I don't think I'm going to use this for reapplication.

Eye Stinging:

I can use it on my eyelids without problem. Never experience transfer even during exercise. It doesn't seep into my eyes as the day goes by either.

 

Adherence

Let's start from the water, rubbing and removal tests first.

Preparation:

As usual, I apply the product, massage it and wait for it to set. This sunscreen has fast drying time, which I like. The cream doesn't spread that far either. I use Sunscreenr camera to take the photos under nail curing UV lamp.

Note that I apply it on my bare arm, without any lotion underneath.

Texture:

This is how the texture looks like. It's a thick cream, pretty hard to spread once it starts to dry/set. It leaves a white cast.

Shine Level:

I put timestamps on the photo below. It sets and dries really quick. On my body, it is completely dry to the touch, though it retains slight glow, but it's unnoticeable, really. I put marker to indicate where the sunscreen stops.

Unfortunately, on my face, it is not dry at all. We will talk about this later.

Rub Test and Removal:

I rubbed my skin really hard for 30 seconds under running water. And I can definitely see some remnants of the sunscreen.

I also rubbed Vanicream Gentle Facial cleanser for 30 seconds and it is enough to remove it.

 

Wear Test 01 - Usual Skincare

Preparation:

On this test, I used my usual AM skincare underneath the sunscreen. This is what my usual AM routine looks like:

• Vanicream Gentle Facial Cleanser
• DIY - Niacinamide + Tranexamic acid serum in simple water and glycerin base
• Finacea Gel
• Benzac AC 5% Benzoyl Peroxide Cream
• Sunscreen of the day

I don't do any wait times. As the serum is my own concoction, I always make it very watery and leaves no emollient residue. By the time I apply my sunscreen, my face is hydrated and pretty much bare to the touch, but not damp or wet for sure.

I will try to be as descriptive as I can regarding the application. This is my first hard to apply Japanese sunscreen actually, surprisingly (and I believe I have tried many *cough).

For application, I squeeze out small amount of sunscreen and work section by section. I always do section by section on all sunscreens application. I'm not the type of person who squeezes 2-3 fingers length and rub everything between hands and apply at one go, nope, I don't do that.

Upon putting on the sunscreen on my skin, I can spread it out easily. After like 5 seconds (yes, it's that quick), I can see the sunscreen starts to dry and want to "settle" on my skin. This is when the cream starts to clump on certain area, and it takes more pressure to force blend those out.

Eventually it does blend out, but I'm not used to use stronger pressure to rub sunscreen onto my skin. Partly because my skin can get red pretty easily (hence the twice daily usage of Finacea gel / Azelaic acid 15%). I don't think it will blend effortlessly with hairy area.

I didn't put anything on my eyelids, ears and neck for contrast purpose. No makeup applied on my face.

The first layer of sunscreen still looks acceptable on my skin tone, but I can definitely see some "tone up" happening.

That being said, I like that it is truly dry to the touch, no tackiness at all. It doesn't have much shine, but I won't say it's matte finish either. The Kanebo Allie Extra UV Gel N 3.0 (Body version) is very tacky, very glowy and shiny. I'm surprised this Face version is not the case at all.

Just for comparison sake, these are some photos comparing shine level on sunscreens that I have tried in the past. I'd probably consolidate this as an album for future comparison list. I'll add this to my "to-do" list.

From the above list, my favorite is the Anessa Perfect UV Milk a 2020 Formulation as it makes my skin looks so smooth and flattering! And it also feels light as air, weightless, and less problematic in terms of application and reapplication. It has white cast but less so than the other (it's using nano zinc oxide), it's still bearable on my skin tone. I'd say some white cast is useful for me to cover redness. My only gripe is, when the humidity level reaches 100% (not unusual), even Anessa can feel tacky. But I doubt there is sunscreen can feel dry touch completely with 100% humidity, anyway!

 

After ~3 hours:

Here how it looks after 3 hours of wearing. It's not particularly hot today. It's 32°C, 62% humidity, highest UV Index at 12pm is 9 only as it's cloudy, seems it's gonna rain soon.

 

After Blotting with Tissue:

As usual, I'd blot my face once in the noon. It doesn't look that oily actually when compared to other sunscreen.

And this is how the tissue looks like:

 

Wear Test 02 - With Additional Serum Underneath

Preparation:

On this test, I used my usual AM skincare with extra serum underneath the sunscreen. Today we have 32/28°C 74% humidity.

• Vanicream Gentle Facial Cleanser
• DIY - Niacinamide + Tranexamic acid serum in simple water and glycerin base
• Finacea Gel
• Benzac AC 5% Benzoyl Peroxide Cream
• Purito Centella Unscented Buffet Serum
• Sunscreen of the day

The sunscreen still has the same difficulty on application where it clumps when it starts to set, like how I apply it on bare face. Granted this Purito serum is a water based, so it doesn't really have any emollient residue once it dries.

This is how it looks. I don't see any difference in terms of sunscreen coverage, it's still as even as applied on bare face.

 

After ~3 hours:

Here how it looks after 3 hours of wearing.

 

After Blotting with Tissue:

As usual, I'd blot my face once in the noon. It doesn't look that oily actually when compared to other sunscreen.

 

Wear Test 03 - With Oil Based Serum Underneath

Preparation:

On this test, I used my usual AM skincare with extra oil containing serum underneath the sunscreen. Today we have 31/29°C 83% humidity. It's probably a bad idea to use oil based serum today since the humidity is pretty high, but anyhoo!

• Vanicream Gentle Facial Cleanser
• DIY - Niacinamide + Tranexamic acid serum in simple water and glycerin base
• Finacea Gel
• Benzac AC 5% Benzoyl Peroxide Cream
• Laneige Cream Skin Refiner
• Sunscreen of the day

The sunscreen finally glides on so much easier and I observe there is less clumping; however, there's a caveat to it: it takes longer to dry and the finish is more shiny and not dry to the touch.

I'm aware the lighting was slightly different, as it was taken on different day.

 

Excuse me, I forgot to not apply it on my eyelids; hope you don't mind using my ears and skin between nose and lips as contrast.

I'm not quite sure if my eyes are playing tricks with me, but seems like one side has even coverage, while the other side looked patchy? What do you think?

 

After ~3 hours:

Here how it looks after 3 hours of wearing. I don't notice that much of difference with initial application above. My face did get oily by then.

 

After Blotting with Tissue:

As usual, I'd blot my face once in the noon. It doesn't look that oily actually when compared to other sunscreen.

 

Wear Test - Reapplication

By the time for reapplication, regardless of whether I use water based or oil based serum underneath, my face would be already dry at this point, without any emollient residue since I blot it off with tissue. So, the same application problem occured again, it's really hard to reapply as it gets clumpy and can pill if I don't work fast. It's not as bad as La Roche Posay Anthelios Anti Shine Gel Cream (EU version) or Altruist SPF50 Cream though. I can still make this work.

I appreciate the quick set time, I just need to be careful to prevent pilling. When I can make it work though, the effort is worthwhile. Look at how even the coverage is after reapplication. Note: I reapplied all over my face including my eyelids.

 

Unfortunately, the white cast does intensify after reapplication. Refer to below photo; this is only 2nd layer of the day, noticed the reappliced side has more cast than the other side.

 

 

Wear Test - Sweat

I do light exercise on daily basis and I'm naturally a sweaty person. Before doing exercise, I reapply the sunscreen properly.

After exercising, I usually blot with towel or some sort. I find this sunscreen fades very evenly and not patchy at all.

 

Comparison with Biore UV Oil Control Base

I find this sunscreen has similar quick drying speed with the discontinued (sadly as of Jan 2021) Biore UV Oil Control Base SPF50+ PA++++, which happened to be my favorite. I have been using this since it was launched in 2018. I hoarded this sunscreen when I learnt the news haha.

I do find the Allie Extra UV Facial Gel is even more "dry" looking than the Biore, which is great news for me. I would probably stick to Allie one by the time I'm done with my Biore stash, assuming I don't have any better line-up by then haha!

Checkout the photos below for comparison. The second Biore photo may leave more slightly wet looking when the humidity increased. It was raining that day, I took the photo in the AM, at 25°C 94% humidity to be exact, hence it looked more greyish. Oh, you can definitely tell I just picked at my skin that day, look at that redder marks, geez, it was fading well on the first biore photo. Not to worry though, they usually will be gone by 2~4 weeks time.

The difference may be too subtle via photos, but on real life, if I touch my skin, it's not as dry touch as when it is in lower humidity.

 

Just for fun - during that rainy day, the UV index was stated as 0 as per the local weather website. And this is how the outside looked with UV camera. it was 25°C, a chilly day (well, for a tropical equatorial climate standard haha).

 

Conclusion

I'm not mad at this purchase at all. I definitely enjoy using it on my face and neck. The application technique is a bit of learning curve for me, but I definitely like sunscreen that sets fast.

I am not going to use this for reapplication though, since the white cast intensifies and makes me look white with purplish hue haha.

I also use this on my neck. I don't notice it's hard to apply on my neck, for whatever reason. It glides on very smoothly on my neck without pilling issue. The white cast can still collect on neck fold / horizontal neck lines, so just something to be aware of.

 

Discussion

I posted this link over Reddit, Instagram and Twitter. If you would like to comment, you can head over these links for discussion.

https://www.reddit.com/user/chocosweet/comments/o2ldhk/under_uv_camera_allie_extra_uv_facial_gel_n_30/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQQcho4HcWj/ 

https://twitter.com/chocosweetclub/status/1405824162099200004

 

About UV Camera

Disclaimer: I only use this to see if a sunscreen disperses an even layer (or patchy and spotty); and if I miss out a spot during application. It's not by all means to measure the sunscreen protection level. Got mine from sunscreenr.com. It's compatible with android phone.