November 25, 2009

Sunscreen Series: Olay Complete UV Defence SPF15 Moisture Lotion & Cream

Every skincare nut knows that sunscreen is the most important product in our cupboard and that SPF15 is the bare minimum we should be using on our skin. Yes? (If your answer is no, you definitely need to read more beauty blogs like So Loverly.)

When one's morning beauty routine consists of wash face, tone, serum, moisturiser and the sunscreen, the layering of products does tend to drive a person insane. Thank goodness for moisturisers with SPF and my personal favourite happens to be this classic goodie from Olay.

I don't know if this is sold in Malaysia -- I always carry mine back from Australia so I never bothered checking -- but you can get this in Australia, US and Canada albeit in slightly different packaging.

There are cream and lotion versions of this product and both of them have different formulas for sensitive, dry/normal and combination/ oily skin. The cream version only caters for sensitve and dry/ normal skin though.

I have tried all 5 variants across the SPF 15 range (a bit nuts but this was over a period of 3 years and I wanted see if there was a difference) and discovered that the Olay moisture cream for dry/ normal skin worked best for me in autumn, winter and spring while the lotion for dry/ normal skin was my best bet for summer in Australia. The sensitive skin formulas were okay but my skin didn't really like it while the combination/ oily lotion only worked well in humid Malaysia. It wasn't moisturising enough in Australia.

The only one which broke me out was the combination/ oily lotion and that was more because it wasn't moisturising enough for my skin. My skin tends to break out when it isn't hydrated.

The difference may have something to do with the fact that the active ingredients are different for each skin type. The active ingredients for the Olay moisture lotion and cream for Normal/dry skin and sensitive skin (yes, they are similar) are as follows:

1. Octyl Salicylate: UVB protection
2. Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane/ Avobenzone: Long wave UVA protection
3. Phenylbenzimidazole Sulfonic Acid: UVB and short wave UVA protection
4. Octocrylene: UVB protection

The active ingredients for the combination/ oily skin version are:

1. Zinc oxide: provides both UVB and UVA protection
2. Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane/ Avobenzone: Long wave UVA protection

(I really do need to create a simple sunscreen chart for future reviews)

The Olay Complete UV Protection Moisture lotion is priced at AUD 13.15 for 150ml while the cream sells for AUD13.35 for 50g. It's so affordable, you can't cite price as a barrier to getting a decent sunscreen for your face.

5 comments:

kuri said...

Thanks for the review! Sadly Oil of Olay is not available in Japan but I'll look for it when I visit the U.S. I've been looking for a new sunscreen as Neutrogena Dry Touch is just too heavy, although it's effective.

Kahani said...

I suspect some variants are available in m'sia. So far the only one I'm keen to try is fragrance free since I suspect that Olay, like Biotherm, ALWAYS breaks me out because of the perfume they use. Of course if fragrance free also breaks me out there is no help.

~Lisa said...

I love the Olay Moisturizers too!! But I use Combo/Oily since my skin does get fairly oily. Too bad it didn't work for you =/

Petra said...

The one in the pot broke me out in NZ. The bottled one is ok in Malaysia.

Eve said...

Hi, I was wondering if you had the full ingredients list for the sensitive skin formulation that has the active ingredients of:

Octyl Salicylate, Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane, Phenylbenzimidazole Sulfonic Acid, Octocrylene

I can't seem to find them anywhere on the net, only the active ingredients and the preservatives. Would you mind posting them?

Thanks!