Today I wanted to review this sunblock I bought on a whim during a sale, the A’PIEU Pure Block Daily Sun Cream with SPF45, PA+++.
Honestly, my HG sunblock is the Etude House sunrprise mild airy finish with SPF50, PA+++. I absolutely adore that sunblock and have been using it for years, basically ever since I first got into Korean beauty.
I typically have oily skin, and the time I got into Korean beauty, I was living in an extremely humid city. Needless to say, I got oily real fast, especially during the Summer.
However, the Etude House sunscreen was great in helping control my oiliness, so while I still got a little oily, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. It mattifies my face down and it sits great under make-up. It doesn’t leave a white cast, and during my 10,000 feet above sea level mountain visit, the only part of my upper body that didn’t get burnt was honestly my face and I only put on that sunscreen during the day, never reapplied even after getting in the pool/hot tub (and I was literally out all day from 9 a.m. well until 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.) whereas I used a 30 SPF sunblock on the rest of my body and unsurprisingly, the parts that were exposed, got burnt. Side note, this is the first time I’ve ever been sunburnt… but this is the first time I’ve spent an extended stay out and about under the sun in the mountains but regardless, not a fun experience, 0/10 would not recommend.
Needless to say, I absolutely love my Etude House sunscreen.
I honestly have zero desire to replace it. I only wish it came in a jumbo bottle rather than the small 55 mL bottle.
All that being said, the mattifying effects of my Etude House sunscreen aren’t really conducive to how dry my skin has been recently, so I randomly picked out this A’PIEU sunblock to try out during one of my YesStyle (or Jolse?) hauls. It’s sort of sat around on my counter if I’m totally frank for a while now, untouched.
Until recently, that is.
I ended up repurchasing another bottle of the Etude House sunblock on Amazon because I was almost out of my old bottle and needed one fast. After it came to me, I cracked open the new bottle the next day and put it on my face and immediately noticed something was wrong.
My newly opened Etude House sunscreen smelled weirdly like a mix of slight fragrance and heavily burnt plastic. I quickly washed it all off and reapplied my routine before sniffing the bottle again and yuuuup, it just smelled like burnt plastic.
Needless to say, I had to place a new order with Jolse for another bottle of my sunscreen. In hindsight as I write this post, I should’ve ordered like 3 bottles.
I usually don’t buy a lot of my skincare or makeup on Amazon now, but sometimes I just want that fast two-day shipping. I gave in on the sunscreen because I’ve bought it like 10 times without an issue on Amazon. Of course, the one time I need it, I get either a fake or a spoiled product, despite the expiration date being 2023.
Luckily I had this A’PIEU sunblock waiting around for me to use.
First off, unlike the somewhat liquid-y ‘sun milk’ consistency that the Etude House sunblock has, this definitely has the consistency of cream. It’s got a sort of slightly bouncy, but cream-like texture when you squeeze it out of the bottle. It doesn’t feel like American sunscreens, which feel greasy when you touch them.
It has a plain white color, and it smells faintly like a mix of fake plastic Christmas trees (specifically, my family’s old ass fake Christmas tree that I’m pretty sure is twice my age) and clementines to me.
To be frank I low-key absolutely despise the smell of this sunblock. And this is coming from someone who likes citrus scents. If it just smelled like clementines, I’d enjoy it, but since there’s just a slight whiff of… yeah, fake plastic Christmas trees mixed into it. For the longest time I could not figure out what in the fuck scent was mixed with the citrus until I was sitting in the shower and it suddenly hit me like a train. It smells like fake, plastic Christmas trees. Old ones. I actually have no clue if new ones have this smell as well, but our insanely old Christmas tree has this like slightly fake plastic scent and that’s exactly what this sunscreen smells like mixed with clementines. It’s not like super abrasive, and the clementines definitely overpower the other scent, but it’s definitely mixed in there.
However, the smell is light enough that it isn’t headache inducing, which some fragranced items give me. It’s not extremely strong, and luckily after a while my nose got used to it and I stopped smelling it. Sometimes though, I would catch a whiff of it, and every time I did I definitely made a face.
It also has a lower SPF rating compared to the Etude House sunblock, but considering the recent sunscreen scandals going on, I’m kind of hesitant to make any sort of comment regarding that. But considering I live in an area that isn’t high on the UV Index (we’re typically in the 2-2.5 area) I guess I’m not super worried.
Unlike the Etude House sunscreen, the A’PIEU doesn’t totally mattify my face. It feels extremely moisturizing as you put it on, and it definitely leaves your face glowing after it’s been put on. However, after a few minutes it’ll dry down but still leave a slight glow behind. I still have a decent amount of dewiness on my skin, mostly focused around my t-zone area. It feels like a relatively good balance between full matte like the Etude House sunscreen, but also not a fully ‘dewy’ sunscreen. After a few hours though I found that the dewiness mostly went away, leaving my skin pretty much matte but leaving my t-zone just sliiiightly glowy with the perfect amount of dewiness.
Furthermore, although this is moisturizing sunscreen, it doesn’t make my skin feel greasy. It definitely has a very cream consistency but it’s light and feels more wet than anything else. It also doesn’t make my skin greasy as the day goes on, even if I’m out running about to the grocery store or something. To be honest, it does a decent job at controlling oiliness on my face as well, although not as well as the Etude House sunscreen does.
I also noticed that after the sunscreen has completely dried down on my skin, it does have the tiniest ‘grip’ to it when I slide my finger across my face. Not super noticeable but there is a slight grip. I’m not sure if this would make it good under makeup since I don’t use this sunscreen enough to judge.
I really like that this comes in a larger size (there’s also a smaller size), especially since I use sunscreen everyday regardless of if I go outside or not. I use a few products right now that make my skin more sensitive to sun, so I wear sunscreen every day for that purpose.
Regardless, I think that I would reconsider purchasing this solely for the fact that I really enjoy the finish of this sunscreen. It feels nice and moisturizing, which is good considering where I’m living right now is extremely dry due to the Winter. I have a pretty heavy Winter skincare routine with a ton of creams and toners (and on top of that, I usually sheet mask both in the morning and at night for the extra moisture) but there are some days that when I use the Etude House sunscreen, at the end of the day, although my skin looks fine and not dry at all, sometimes I’ll still feel dry underneath that.
Therefore, I find that this sunscreen is pretty nice. Especially since if you need to reapply it, it can easily add a nice boost of moisture to your skin during the day.
All that being said, I’m not sure if I’d use it in the Summer. Right now, with Winter being so dry and with the fact that I’m not running around outside very much due to COVID, I feel like this sunscreen suits my current needs. However, the Summer is very hot here, and I worry that using this sunscreen since it’s so moisturizing would only make my skin more oily than usual. It does a good job controlling the oil right now, but I feel like that’s partly due to not going out as often due to COVID and how dry Winter is. For now though, it is a good sunscreen in my opinion to keep as a back-up.
In total, if I had to rank it out of 10, I’d probably give it a solid 7/10. If 5 is average, then this is just a little bit above average for me.
In the end, I guess there really isn’t anything I can find that can beat how much I love my Etude House sunscreen. Hopefully some day they’ll start releasing it in a bigger bottle…. but for now, I’ve learned to start keeping back-ups of sunscreen, and to also start ordering sooner rather than later!
Thanks for reading!
{ Honey + Bunny } 