Sunscreen Review: The Kiehl's Ultra Light Daily UV Defense Aqua Gel

I’ve been using the Kiehl's Ultra Light Daily UV Defense since last year and I love it. It’s lightweight and doesn’t dry my skin, so it was especially useful during my travels when the weather is cooler! It wears well under makeup and never makes my skin feel greasy during the day. Recently, I’ve been trying out the Kiehl’s Ultra Light Daily UV Defense Aqua Gel SPF 50 PA++++ (P2,100 /30ml or P3,100 / 60ml from the Kiehl’s PH website) which is supposedly an even lighter version. So is it better?

The Aqua Gel does feel more watery and thin on the skin. Its main ingredient is water, followed by denatured alcohol. My skin loves alcohol in skincare for some reason but I am aware that some may have a sensitivity to it. If you do, avoid products with alcohol, naturally. If you don’t, then this should be fine! For me this doesn’t feel drying even though it is mainly water and alcohol, perhaps because of the glycerin content. I would still use a moisturizer underneath it for my oily-combination skin.

This features mainly chemical sunscreens with a touch of titanium dioxide, a physical sunscreen. It has a slight white cast when it’s freshly applied, but once it’s dry it’s invisible on my medium yellow skin - same as the original Daily UV Defense. I love that it leaves the skin with a nice dewy glow that for me doesn’t look oily! It has no strong scent and spreads easily; it also dries fairly fast, within a minute of application.

The caveat is this: when I sweat a LOT especially underneath my face mask, this feels super tingly on my skin. It’s because of the Peppermint Extract, which is a potential irritant for some. It doesn’t seem to affect my skin in a negative way except for the cooling feeling, which makes me feel like I’m having cold sweats.

Another issue is that this is quite expensive for a sunscreen. My everyday sunscreen as you all know is the Biore UV Aqua Rich, and that’s only around P430 or so for 50ml. For something that I must use every single day, P2,100 for 30ml is quite an ask. If you do love this sunscreen nevertheless and don’t mind splurging, I suggest getting the 60ml for P3,100 - it’s more sulit per gram!

Honestly, I would purchase the original version Kiehl’s Ultra Light Daily UV Defense (not the Aqua Gel) for when I travel to a cooler climate because Biore made my skin dry and raw while I was in New York during the fall. That’s something I would gladly pay not to happen again, and for the record, Kiehl’s served me well in a cold Turkish autumn.

Overall, I find the Kiehl’s Ultra Light Daily UV Defense Aqua Gel SPF 50 PA++++ to be a well-formulated sunscreen that my skin enjoys despite the caveats. Try it out if you're on the hunt for sunscreen that doesn’t feel like it’s smothering your face, or go for the original formula if you want more hydration. I’d love to know what your current sunscreen is and why you love it, or even want to replace it!