Solanoveil White Milk and Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk sunblocks

This is part 4 of our 2015 alcohol-free sunblock series (part 1 part 2, part 3)

You know what annoys me to no end?

Two things:

• when my local store is selling something that disappeared from the manufacturer's website, meaning it has been discontinued, most likely, 

and

• sloppy CosDNA entries - I'm not an ingredient nazi, but I know many people are and CosDNA is their bible. And I'm realizing now that in their overenthusiastic zeal to enter as many products into the database, many times they tend to get sloppy or take shortcuts. Missing ingredients due to poor copy-paste skills, missing ingredients due to poor translations, missing ingredients due to careless typing... 

I've realized that unless I input it in there myself, I can't trust the existing entires.

OK, rant over...

Let's introduce today's contestants.

• Solanoveil White Milk SPF50+ PA+++ 40 ml (made by Omi and also known as Solanoveil Medicated Bihaku Milk)

and

• Mentholatum Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++ 40 ml (made by Rohto and, fortunately, only going under one name, yay)

Solanoveil White Milk SPF50+ PA+++ has disappeared from the manufacturer's website, but it's still available at drugstores, at least in my neck of the woods.
Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++ is just one of the 23423 different sunscreens in the Skin Aqua range.

They are both in the very affordable category costing less than a 1000 yen a piece.

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Let's start with Solanoveil White Milk SPF50+ PA+++.

Here is the entry about it on Ratzilla's website.

In the ingredient section (in Japanese), Ratzi links to Omi's (the company) website but this particular sunblock no longer appears in their current lineup. Oh well... It happens. And while Ratzilla doesn't list it as "discontinued", it certainly looks like it went bye-bye.

It's supposed to be moisturizing and the word "white" in the name refers to the fact that it claims to prevent hyper-pigmentation due to UV exposure. In other words - no sun spots, or so it says.

Solanoveil White Milk SPF50+ PA+++'s active ingredients are Tocopheryl Acetate (a form of Vitamin E, anti-oxidant), Stearyl Glycyrrhetinate (a form of Licorice extract, soothing for dry skin) and pig placenta extract (who the heck knows what that is supposed to be doing).

Ratzi has the ingredients on her website, but here's a closeup of the Japanese version:

Not sure which one of these is responsible for the smell of this sunscreen, but let me tell you, this thing stinks.
It smells like furniture polish. That fake, vaguely citrusy smell of furniture spray, you know what I mean, right? Yeah, that's the smell of this sunscreen.

Due to this smell I couldn't use it on my face. The smell lingers and sticks to the skin. Pity, because otherwise it's a very decent sunscreen.

Despite only PA+++ rating (PA ranking refers to the amount of protection from the UVA rays, SPF - from UVB rays.) it was a surprisingly effective sunscreen.

Solanoveil White Milk SPF50+ PA+++ gets its sun protection from these UV filters:

• Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate a.k.a. Octinoxate (to absorb UVB rays)
• Zinc Oxide (to protect against UVA and UVB)
• Titanium Dioxide (against UVA and UVB)

And this is how it looked on the skin:

It's a quite thick, milky liquid that spreads easily and dries to a semi-matte, semi-satin finish. Non-sticky, non-greasy, non-filmy. There was no noticeable white cast on my skin.

I used it far away from my nose (the awful scent!) and it worked great.
It's supposed to be water-, sweat- and sebum resistant but I reapplied often.
I used an oil cleanser to remove it while taking a shower.

As I only applied it on my arms and legs, I can't tell if it would clog pores or cause breakouts. I tend to get eczema from just about everything, but there were no major signs of irritation from this product.

So there... It smells like furniture polish, it has pig placenta extract and it seems to be discontinued. Pity. They should have just fixed the scent. And changed pig to sheep to make it kosher / halal.

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Next up we have Mentholatum Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++.

Here is what Ratzilla has to say about it.
As the name suggests, Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++ is supposed to be moisturizing. It has collagen, two kinds of hyaluronic acid and amino acids, and yeah, it is moist. Very moist.

Again, only PA+++ rating here.

These are the UV filters in Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++:

• Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate a.k.a. Octinoxate (to absorb UVB rays)
• Zinc Oxide (to protect against UVA and UVB)
• Diethylamino Hydroxybenzoyl Hexyl Benzoate a.k.a. Uvinul A Plus (to absorb UVA rays)

And here's the list in Japanese up close:

It's the same as what's on the manufacturer's website.

Here is the CosDNA analysis of Mentholatum Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++. No major irritants found, it should be good for sensitive skin.
There was no offensive smell. In fact, I didn't detect any noticeable smell at all.

This is how Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++ behaved on the skin:

It's more watery than Solanoveil and doesn't look as oily when it's spread out.
It dried to a semi-matte, semi-satin finish.

Again, it's supposed to be water-, sweat- and sebum resistant.

All fine and lovely, except for one thing.
This sunscreen didn't work for me at all.

At. All.

I don't spend much time outside. In fact when I work, I don't spend any time outside. I just walk from my car to the building in the morning, and then back to the car in the afternoon. It's not a long walk. Less than 5 minutes.

And during that walk on the first day I used this sunscreen my arms got tanned.
I'm not a sunscreen virgin. But in my stupidity, even the tan on my arms, I decided to test it on my face.
The result?
My face now is a tone darker than my neck.

Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF50+ PA+++ went straight to the garbage after the photo session.

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Other details:

Both sunscreen bottles are semi-transparent, if you hold them against the light, you can see how much product is left inside.

As both products are milks, they have a mixing ball inside. You need to shake the bottle to make sure the contents are uniformly blended.

Both have a typical spout dispenser:

Of the two Solanoveil is thicker and more substantial. Skin Aqua is more watery.

Both claim to double as makeup bases. I didn't test Solanoveil on my face, so I can't tell you how it would perform under makeup.
And I didn't put any makeup on top of Skin Aqua. That was supposed to be stage two of face testing. However, we never got that far.

Here you can see them side by side:

Skin Aqua looks a lot lighter. Pity it didn't work for me.

So that's that.
The one that worked smelled bad and seems to be discontinued.
The one that didn't work for me had a lighter texture and no offensive smell. And it's still in production.
Murphy's Law.

The search goes on...