I just finished using up this product a few days ago, so I thought it was time that I posted about it. Sunblock is probably the most important step in my skincare routine. It prevents skin cancer, wrinkles, and dark spots. As someone with very fair skin, I am even more adamant about wearing it every day that probably your average person. So, trying the Missha Near Skin Dustless Defense Sunblock was a no brainer.
Whenever I buy K-Beauty, I do shop at a couple of different places. If you want to see all of the places that I shop at, you can check them all out here. I did purchase this product off of Sokoglam, but it isn’t available there anymore nor is it available on the Missha Korean website. That being said, if you are going to be buying any skincare or products in general, I always recommend that you check Rakuten to see if you can get any cashback on your purchase.
What is Rakuten?
Rakuten is a cashback site that gives you money for purchases you may have already made. They even have an extension for multiple browsers so when you go to a website that uses Rakuten, it will automatically pop up the cashback button to make sure you are saving money. I use this all the time, and I got over 80$ back from them for purchases I was going to make anyway. That’s about 3 more albums I can buy!
If you’ve never used Rakuten before, you can use this link to get $10 when making a qualified purchase of $25 when using Rakuten. You will also get whatever percent cashback is being offered from the site you are purchasing from. Sephora, typically has 4% cashback, through here. Ulta typically has 3%. These are just some of the companies on the website, but there are other major retailers are on there as well!
Things to know about the Missha Near Skin Dustless Defence Sunblock:
This product is formulated with the following ingredients that are good for your skin:
- Silicone – In order to prevent dust and small particles from making contact with your skin, this sunblock has various silicones in it to build a barrier between the environment and your skin. Some of these Silicones are: Cyclopentasiloxane and Cyclopentasiloxane.
- Zinc Oxide – Physical SPF that protects the skin from UVA and UVB rays. This ingredient is safe for coral reefs, as it is a mineral sunscreen.
- Caesalipinia Spinosa Fruit Extract – Anti-aging ingredient full on anti-oxidants
This product is formulated with the following ingredients that are “bad” for your skin:
- PEG-10 Dimethicone – So, this is a silicon-based ingredient that is considered safe for the skin, but it is an ingredient that can be contaminated during the creation of the dimethicone. That being said, this has never been proven to be bad for the skin, but I am operating under the guilty until proven innocent assumption.
- Ethylhexl Methoxycinnamate – This is a chemical SPF that is known to cause coral reef bleaching and can destroy wildlife. See the HEL report here).
- Octyl Salicylate – Chemical SPF that protects the skin from UVB rays. This ingredient is also not coral reef safe.
K-Points: 5/10
So, for beauty reviews, unlike my album unboxings, I will be much harsher on because this can directly impact your health, where buying K-Pop albums does not. It just impacts your wallet. As such, all of my beauty reviews will be out of 10 points. I will not be going over that number.
So I do really love that they formulated this sunblock specifically to protect your skin from pollutants, but I am docking a lot of points because even though they are protecting my skin, they are not protecting the environment at the same time. Additionally, any ingredients that could be beneficial for my skin that doesn’t just block pollutants are so far down on the list. For me, it simply feels selfish to use a product such as this that protects me but doesn’t protect the creatures of this planet. Overall, this sunblock has so much silicone that it doesn’t feel hydrating on my skin. That being said, my skin is much more on the dry side, so someone with oily skin may like the Missha Dustless Defence Sunblock more for its mattifying qualities.
What are the Koreans saying?
I was digging through reviews on 화해**, a Korean skincare app that lists out the ingredients of products from many brands for people to look through as well as post reviews. From what I can see, the Koreans aren’t harping that much on this product being environmentally safe. There are a number of people that are concerned about this being too dry for their skin. This product is so high in silicones, that I’m not shocked that this is what they are saying. Also, because of the zinc oxide, it does give a bit of a white cast to the skin, so if they are darker complected, many Koreans don’t seem to be a fan.
From what I can see, this product was pulled off the market because it is advertised for sensitized skin, but those with sensitized skin wouldn’t want a product that is too drying. Additionally, this product has very mixed reviews, and I bet that is due to different skin types. Those with oily skin will love it, but those with dry skin will not. I have a feeling this product was pulled off the market due to these mixed reviews and it was developed for a very niche subset of people: those surrounded by pollution with oily skin. I think Missha decided that they would rather put their budget in their tried and true sun care products.
What is your favorite sunblock, K-Nuggets? Let me know in the comments down below!
사랑합니다!
–Rachel
**Note: 화해 still only exists in Korean, but some of the products can be searched for in English.
