I bought this sunscreen from a shop, after I spoke to a Forest Essentials’ salesperson.
The salesperson said this was a “natural” sunscreen. I had to correct her. This product contains chemical UV filters – Avobenzone and Octocrylene – and its misleading to call sunscreen “natural” because they are full of chemicals.
This sun fluid passes the Happy Skin Days sunscreen test, which not many Made in India sunscreens pass.
(The harmful chemicals that I look for, namely parabens, Oxybenzone (Benzophenone-4) and BHT are absent).
Q3) The product contains UVA and UVB filters?
Filters in a product must protect against these damages:
The filters present in the product are:
- Zinc Oxide (Yashada Bhasm) – 4th ingredient
- Avobenzone – 19th ingredient
- Octocrylene – 18th ingredient
The Zinc Oxide is made by a natural extraction process (per the salesperson). Not sure what that means, but what I did get out of her is this: the Zinc Oxide present brings the product to an SPF 25 and the Avobenzone and Octocrylene present pushes the product’s SPF to an SPF 50.
I will be honest, I have reviewed over 200+ sunscreens. Based on my knowledge and experience, I have difficulties believing that any product, where the sunscreen filters are present at positions 18th and 19th, is an SPF 50 product.
My view of this product
My suggestion is that if you use this product treat as if it were an SPF 30 and not an SPF 50 product. It does not provide superior UVA protection and if you want to prevent tanning, pigmentation, wrinkles you must look for products with superior UVA protection – this is the main reason for Indians to wear sunscreen!! (see my Top Sunscreen Recommendations for suggestions). Finally, do not get this sunscreen in your eyes, because it will make your eyes sting like crazy.
See below for further information on:
- Product’s look and feel
- How much sunscreen to wear
- Information on skin damage caused by UVA (ie, tanning, pigmentation).
Available at Nykaa or Forest Essential online
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Product’s look and feel
The product is a runny liquid, which is a good thing because it makes it easier to blend in.
The sunscreen completely blends in. This tells me that the product has nano Zinc Oxide. It leaves a matte finish and I didn’t need any extra moisturiser. However, because this product has so much almond oil in it, I am afraid to reapply it because it will just cause me pimples.
The product has a faint powdery smell, which is amazing because most Zinc Oxide sunscreens smell like chalk.
I would suggest that you apply the sunscreen in small quantities – these will ensure that all the sunscreen is blended in and that you are using enough sunscreen.
What sunscreen best practices should I adopt?
***Technical detail part of blog: UVA filters and damage caused by UVA*****
If you are not interested in the technical side of sunscreens, you can stop reading now.
The harmful effects of over-exposure to UVA and UVB are:
It’s vital that sunscreens contain “UV filters” that protect our skin by absorbing, reflecting or scattering UVA and UVB rays, as both rays have been definitively linked to photoaging and skin cancer.
Zinc Oxide is a photostable broadspectrum filter that provides superior UVA protection (see also this blog Zinc Oxide 101).
Avobenzone provides more UVA1 protection than Zinc Oxide does but it is notoriously photounstable. It’s stabilised here by the presence of UVB filter, Octocrylene. As I have mentioned before, the problem with this sunscreen is that it does not have a lot of Avobenzone, so the amount of UVA protection is going to be limited.
To its credit, Forest Essentials’ acknowledges this as the product only has PA++ protection. To remind you this means that the product has a significant preventative effect against UVA
(see this blog to better understand What is PA?)
See also
Who am I?
I am an independent blogger and I am not paid or affiliated by anyone or anything. I write about skincare, shopping and importantly, feminism. I pay for my products and this allows me the freedom to write with complete honesty. If you’d prefer other sales based influencers then that’s ok. I love them too, but that’s not who I am or want to be. Thank you for your time.
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10 thoughts on “Forest Essentials Sun Fluid SPF 50 PA++”
Thank you! This was extremely helpful
Thank you Reva! I don’t really know how the comment section works, hence the delay in responding!
Amazing review.
Thank you
Thank you Valisa, you are too kind!
This helps me alot to buy sunscreen. But I have one question if u could answer does turmeric leaves brings dullness once exposed to sun??
Hi Garima, thank you for writing. I have written a blog on the turmeric as well. (Link https://happyskindays.com/skin-lighteners-in-your-pantry-cupboard-turmeric-and-saffron)
When you mean dull skin do you mean dry skin? If you’ve (e.g.) applied turmeric in a face mask then the quantity may be too much which is drying skin out – that will cause skin to become dry/dull. How are you using the turmeric?
You can write in the comments or at email@happyskindays.com and I am happy to help
Your blog has a great level of nuance and detail- something that
I find that a lot of reviews lack!
I haven’t found any literature on Yashada Bhasm, and how effective it is, and hence, I’m a little sceptical of the claim that it is essentially the same as zinc oxide extracted from other processes. I wonder if you have any information on that?
Thank you for your kind words. Its the benefit of being an independent blogger that I can write around my values. I believe Indian women are intelligent and the world’s biggest geeks: they want more information and honest views and not less.
I have to agree with you: the process of extraction is irrelevant. I am sorry I don’t have more information.
But I can be sure of a few things with respect to Forest Essentials SPF 50 formulation:
– the process of extraction is not likely to create nano-Zinc Oxide, because this is quite a recent discovery
– the % concentration of Zinc Oxide (which is what I am obsessed with) is not high.
Zinc Oxide is not the best of UVA filters – and therefore the higher the % concentration, the better. At 20%+ concentration, Zinc Oxide (non-nano) becomes chalky and leaves a whitecast (and therefore, look for a tinted formulation). At 22%, Zinc Oxide (non-nano) feels like chalk in water. Literally it is a nightmare to spread and sits on your skin – you need to double cleanse etc.
But I am absolutely sure (even without any chemical test), just based on the consistency of the sunscreen, that Forest Essentials does not contain 20%+ Zinc Oxide.
I hope that helps. If not, drop me a line!
Hey does it pass spf 50 test???
Hi Sahar,
The bottom line is no-one outside a lab setting can confirm whether or not its an SPF 50. That’s just the methodology and science. Therefore, I cannot comment on the published SPF.
Regards
Angeli
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