Review: Trader Joe’s Daily Facial Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 40

I picked up a box of Trader Joe’s Daily Facial Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 40 over the weekend. I’ve been searching for a new sunscreen that’s more affordable and convenient to purchase. I haven’t purchased a new skin care item in so long. I made an exception for SPFs, since I go through bottles of this stuff very quick. So this sunscreen is supposedly a dupe of the Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen SPF 40. I haven’t used the Supergoop before, but I’ve seen it. I’ve never had the urge to buy it. The Supergoop is $36 for 1.7 fl. oz. (50 mL) of product. That’s way too much for a sunscreen for me. The amount of sunscreen I use in a day…that would eat my wallet up so fast! IMO, it’s just not worth it. Trader Joe’s Daily Facial Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 40 is $8.99 for 1.7 fl. oz. (50 mL). It’s way much less expensive compared to Supergoop at the same size. I can see what the fuss is about! Similar product and better price, why not?! Let’s try it out!

The product comes in a pretty tannish color (box and tube). The tube is sealed (see photo). That’s awesome. I love products that are sealed, so I know it’s new, unopened. The product itself smells like plastic vinyl. Looking at the ingredients, I’m not shocked. The first three ingredients are isododecane, dimethicone crosspolymer, and polymethylsilsesquioxane. They’re silicones. Here’s the full ingredient list if you’re interested:

Active Ingredients: Avobenzone 3%, Homosalate 12%, Octisalate 5%, Octocrylene 6%

Inactive ingredients: Isododecane, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Dimethicone/Bis-Isobutyl PPG-20 Crosspolymer, Neopentyl Glycol Diheptanoate, Polyester-7, Isohexadecane, Jojoba Esters, Silica, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Tocopherol.

The ingredients are short and simple. It’s a chemical sunscreen. It’s oil-free, invisible gel formula, fragrance-free, water and sweat-resistant (40 minutes), and has a broad spectrum of SPF 40. That sounds really nice, especially the sunscreen being an invisible gel formula and is water/sweat-resistant. I’ve been trying to find a sunscreen that is invisible on the skin (no white cast) and stays on the skin well. This could be the one if it works.

The product claims to be fragrance-free. In fact, it is. But I’m able to pick up smells easily. This sunscreen smells too plastic and too chemical-like to me. In saying that, I would be able to let this aspect of the product go if the sunscreen actually works on my skin. The product when dispensed is a gel. It looks and feels like a primer (if you have used any of those). That’s exactly what it felt like on my skin. It’s soft, smooth, silky, and glides over the skin nicely. Blends into the skin without leaving a white cast behind. The sunscreen simply just vanishes into the skin. It’s truly invisible. It settles into the skin comfortably. It has a smoothing effect on the skin. My skin looked pretty good with this sunscreen on. It makes a good makeup base too due to it being a primer as well. I loved how it felt on the skin and how it looked on my skin. All was well…until…

Unfortunately, I had issues with this sunscreen. I noticed breakouts after using it the first day. I developed some closed comedones in random places. Also, I wasn’t able to use this sunscreen around my eyes. The product burned my eyes and made me teary. The smell of this product is irritating on my skin (face only). I’m able to use it on other parts of my body without any issues. I think it’s because it’s a chemical sunscreen. The sunscreens I’m using on my face right now are hybrid and physical sunscreens. They seem to work better for my eyes that get irritated and red easily. Even though I like how convenient this product is, meaning that I can go to Trader Joe’s to pick it up when I’m shopping for other essentials. It’s not something I would repurchase again. It didn’t work on my skin that is oily and acne-prone.

This is what the sunscreen looks like. It looks and feels like a typical makeup primer.

A quick recap on my thoughts. 🙂

✅ Pros

• Oil-free
• Invisible gel formula
• Water and sweat-resistant (40 minutes)
• SPF 40 (Avobenzone 3%, Homosalate 12%, Octisalate 5%, Octocrylene 6%)
• Works as a makeup primer
• Feels silky smooth on the skin
• Easy application
• Affordable ($8.99) compared to Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen SPF 40 that is $36 for the same size!

❌ Cons

• Can cause breakouts if skin is sensitive to silicones
• Burned my eyes
• Says it’s fragrance-free but the product itself (smell of it) irritates my eyes and nose

Those are my thoughts on Trader Joe’s Daily Facial Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 40. I hope this was helpful! Have a nice day! 😊

Review: Burt’s Bees Cleansing Oil Balm

I absolutely love cleansing balms. I had a chance to try Burt’s Bees Cleansing Oil Balm. If you LOVE cleansing balms, don’t forget to go check out my latest review on this cleansing balm right here. I’ll drop the link right here. Enjoy! 😃

My Experience with Banila Co Clean it Zero 3-in-1 Cleansing Balm!

Now on to Burt’s Bees Cleansing Oil Balm!

This cleansing balm transforms from a solid balm to a silky oil to gently remove impurities without stripping moisture from the skin. It includes antioxidant-rich green tea to fight against harmful effects of pollution and free radicals. It leaves the skin healthy, soft, and glowy. Removes makeup, dirt, oil without over-drying the skin. Rinses away easily. It’s paraben-free, phthalates-free, SLS-free, and petroleum-free. No animal testing. Responsible sourcing and recyclable.

Now here are my results and experience with Burt’s Bees Cleansing Oil Balm! 🙂

My experience

This cleansing balm comes in a 3 oz. jar. It’s tiny. When opening the jar, I noticed that the cleansing balm is the same coloring as the packaging. It’s a light pale greenish hue (see photo below to see the color of the cleansing balm product). It’s not a fragrance-free product. It has an herbal scent to it. The balm is soft to touch. Yes, it comes in solid form and melts into an oil. Well, it should fully melt into an oil. It didn’t fully melt into an oil for me, lol. There were still little chunks of the product in my palm even though I tried to rub the product a little more and add some heat to it for it to melt. It took a little more effort to melt the product. *sigh* That’s a negative.

The cleansing balm does feel oily as I expected it to be. I mean, it’s called a cleansing OIL balm. Says so right on the packaging. When applied to the skin, it feels soft and gentle on the skin. I actually do like the oiliness of the product. It helps to glide the product across the face much easier. It also helps to glide the product in the most delicate areas of the face, such as the eye area. It felt moisturizing on the skin too. But did it help to remove my makeup? It removed my foundation, eyeliner, eyeshadow, and other makeup, but I had trouble removing my mascara with this cleansing balm. I even left it on for a bit longer to give it a chance to break down the makeup/mascara. Nope, it didn’t work. My mascara was still sitting on my lashes just staring back at me.

So I was disappointed in the fact that it did a poor job at removing my mascara. Perhaps this cleansing balm isn’t for me. Removing my mascara was one of the most important parts of being a good makeup remover. So, I’m not very happy with the overall results. On top of that, I thought this cleansing balm felt a little too waxy. It does contain wax in the ingredients after all. Looking at the ingredients, it contains helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed wax. I tried rinsing the cleansing balm off, and my skin looked waxy afterwards. I don’t recommend using this cleansing balm as a face wash. Make sure to follow-up with an actual facial cleanser to remove any residue left behind on the skin. In saying that, it doesn’t rinse away easily or clean. Also, this cleansing balm isn’t gentle around the eyes but it is on other parts of the skin. My eyes burned. If you have sensitive eyes (or not), be careful using it around the eyes.

This is what the cleansing balm looks like. Mine had bubbles in it (fresh and new) that I couldn’t resist poking at. They left holes behind, lol. I was expecting more of a softer appearance to the balm. It looks more hard and waxy.

Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

• Feels soft and gentle on the facial skin (not the eyes)
• Moisturizing on the skin
• No animal testing

❌ Cons

• Contains fragrance (herbal smell)
• Feels waxy
• Doesn’t melt easily
• Burns the eyes. Not for sensitive eyes.
• Didn’t remove all of my eye makeup (mascara)

Conclusion

I wasn’t a huge fan of Burt’s Bees Cleansing Oil Balm after my experience with it. The product feels way too waxy, doesn’t melt easily, and didn’t remove all of my makeup off properly. I’ve tried other cleansing balms, and I find Burt’s Bees to be below average. It’s not a cleansing balm I would purchase again. I thought it would be better, but I’m just not into it anymore. haha. I’ve moved on to better makeup removers/cleansing balms.

Review: Trader Joe’s Cucumber Avocado Body Butter

I finished my bottle of Neutrogena Hydro Boost Body Gel Cream. 👈🏻 Previous review here! Should I do a new update?? 🤔 We’ll see! I’m currently looking for a new body moisturizer. I remembered that I had a jar of Trader Joe’s Cucumber Avocado Body Butter. I thought I would give it a try again. It’s there, so why not? lol. The purpose of this body butter is to moisturize, deeply hydrate, and leave the skin feeling super soft and supple. It’s enriched with shea butter, avocado oil, cucumber extract, and jojoba oil. So did it do what it’s supposed to do?? Keep reading to find out! Here’s my experience with Trader Joe’s Cucumber Avocado Body Butter!

My experience

The texture of the cream is super soft. It resembles more of a gel-cream than a body butter upon touch. But when applied to the skin, it feels much richer and leaves the skin moisturized. It absorbs and blends into the skin nicely. But it doesn’t leave a clean finish behind. Feels like there’s a layer of residue sitting on top of the skin after it blends into the skin. It doesn’t feel sticky or greasy though. I feel that my skin becomes irritated due to the residue and the fragrance in this cream. Yes, it contains fragrance. This cream smells like artificial cucumbers. And I didn’t like it at all. It gave me a really annoying headache each time I used it. So I can see why I stopped using this moisturizer for a while. In my opinion, the product is below average compared to other body moisturizers and butters. The smell is just way too strong for my taste. There’s nothing special about this body butter. It contains shea butter, avocado oil, cucumber fruit extract, jojoba oil, sodium hyaluronate, vitamin e…but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. A lot of products do too. I just think the overall formulation is just poor. It could’ve been better.

This is what the body butter looks like. I hope to finish it soon, lol.

Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

• Moisturizes
• Contains shea butter, avocado oil, cucumber fruit extract, jojoba oil, sodium hyaluronate, vitamin e
• Nice creamy, soft texture
• Blends into the skin well
• Not sticky or greasy
• Not tested on animals

❌ Cons

• Contains fragrance. Gave me a bad headache.
• Leaves residue behind

Conclusion

Honestly, I don’t like this product at all. I thought it would be good when I touched the cream, since it feels so soft and smooth in consistency. But when applied to the skin, it just feels very different. It doesn’t leave the skin feeling sticky or greasy, but the residue that it leaves behind is annoying and irritating. I prefer products that just vanishes into the skin and doesn’t feel like I have product on. The fragrance in this moisturizer is just as bad. I don’t like it. Since it gives me headaches, I only use it on my feet, so I won’t have to smell it, lol. All in all, I won’t purchase again. I wouldn’t recommend it either. It’s not as great as I thought it would be.

For more reviews on moisturizers go here