Drunk Elephant Umbra Mineral Cream SPF 30 Tinted Face Sunscreen

Most Helpful Critical Review

Unsure about it, but worth a try

This is the first drunk elephant product I have ever used and I purchased this myself with my own money from ulta in the shade cocoa and I'm conflicted. I do feel like, color wise, it's one of the best mineral sunscreens i have ever tried. I don't feel like it leaves a white cast and it blends prett...y decently into my skin tone. You can still tell there's a little something on my face because it does look a tiny bit pale by itself, but if you put a little powder over it, it looks great. The pictures I include have my plain face, a swatch, the product not fully blended, the product blended, and the product with powder over it. For reference I'm the shade nw48 in mac studio fix powder plus foundation / 21 in fenty eaze drops. In addition, it does not burn my skin or eyes. I wore it all day on my face, including directly on my eyelids and I did not feel any irritation on my eyes at all, which I normally feel with sunscreens. I had an itch or two on my face, but that's normal for me. The main thing I look for is burning and my skin did not feel like it was burning at all, which as someone with sensitive skin, I appreciate that. Moreover, so many products have hyaluronic acid these days, and my skin is sensitive to that, so I also appreciate that this product does not have that in it. The thing I don't like about this product is the texture and difficulty blending. It has a grainy texture that does not feel good at all when you are putting it on. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the closest thing I can think of is, that it kind of feels like that st. Ives scrub we used to use back in the day, only not as bad. There are no visible beads in it or anything, but it has a gritty texture when you're rubbing it in, and I'm afraid it might be too harsh in the long run. I'm not sure if it's exfoliating my skin and I'm really working on repairing my skin barrier, so I'm unsure of how i feel about this product. I was on the fence about returning it, but I think i will probably keep it to see how I fair with continued used. Again, I like the color (for a mineral product) and the fact that it doesn't seem to irritate my skin throughout the day, but the texture when putting it on is just so off putting that I'm unsure about it, especially since it takes quite a bit of rubbing to get that decent blend with the skin. I would say I rubbed it in for a good 5 minutes to get this color that I think looks decent, and while I was rubbing it in, it looked streaky, so at the end, I pat it into my face to finish it off. And be warned that it is pretty messy. So don't wear something white or touch any white surfaces while you're rubbing it in because you defintely need to thoroughly wash your hands and get the product off before touching anything. Still, I would say it's worth a try because, let's be honest, the mineral options for us darker skinned girls are limited, but I'm just not sure if I would repurchase it. I think I will keep it and use it up because I do like how it looks under my mac studio fix powder plus foundation. It looks very natural with a little powder over it, but on its own, and the texture while applying it makes me feel unsure about it.