If you’ve been online (in Japanese) in the past few months, you’ve seen SKIN AQUA Tone Up UV Essence in its natural habitat: Instagram. It has quite the social buzz and is one of the most hyped-up beauty hits this year among millennials in Japan. The pink-and-blue “unicorn” sunscreen seemed like it was designed with Instagram in mind, and it most certainly was! Rohto (the company behind it) developed it specifically to be social media-friendly.
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And not just in the packaging design. The daily sunscreen has a lavender tint that is supposed to colour-correct and brighten skin tone to optimise it for a filtered selfie. Protecting the skin from everyday UV exposure looks more like an afterthought.
I fit in its targeted demographic and I like it a lot. It has a weightless, fast-absorbing feel that glides over skin with absolutely no chalky or gunky residue. I find it disappears into my skin while making skin tone brighter in the most believable and subtle way. The finish is matte on my normal skin, but there’s a gentle luminescence about it. I can also slather it generously on my arms and legs without worrying that it’ll transfer to my clothes.
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For complexion deeper than the average Japanese woman, the lavender tint will most likely lend a white cast to the skin. (As a reference, MAC NC20–25 are the most commonly used shades in Japan).
Swatches of 3 essence-type sunscreens on my wrist. (Picture was taken in natural light without post-processing.)
SKIN AQUA Tone Up UV Essence is great if you’re light-skinned and love the aesthetic of magical unicorn colours. So light and fresh-feeling, such nice skin-brightening effect — I can see why this has huge appeal. The packaging alone is enough to (temporarily) capture the fickle heart of millennials who have previously found sunscreens to be uninteresting.
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The downside, of course, is that it suits a narrow range of skin tones. If you match Japanese face makeup shades, the SKIN AQUA Tone Up UV Essence SPF50+ PA++++ is US$12.30 for 80g at eBay or US$12.90 at YesStyle. In Japan, you can find it in most drugstores — RRP is ¥740.