La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL 50+ Extreme Fluid Review

La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL 50+ Extreme Fluid, 50ml

Like every other skincare junky out there I was very excited to see La Roche-Posay finally in stock at my local pharmacies. At the time, after recently finding out the difference between physical and chemical sunscreens, I decided to try this out after reading a lot of rave reviews.

This sunscreen has a very runny, milky texture. La Roche-Posay was right in calling it a ‘fluid’. On the box it says it’s non-greasy and trace free, but unfortunately this wasn’t the case for my skin. The product didn’t seem to absorb at all, and sat on top of my skin making it feel quite thick and grainy. I didn’t think twice about it at first, a physical sunscreen is supposed to feel thick, sit on top of the skin and reflect UVA and UVB rays, but the slippery, slimy texture just didn’t seem to feel or look very great. And when you added makeup into the mix it was a complete disaster. Not even my most mattifying foundation lasted very long with this sunscreen beneath it.

Active Ingredients: Octocrylene, Titanium Dioxide, Butyl Methoxydibenzoylmethane, Bemotrizinol, Ecamsule, Drometrizole Trisiloxane, Octyl Triazone

Before I purchased this, I read many reviews stating that it was a physical sunscreen (a sunscreen that contains physical UV filters that block and or deflect the sun’s rays). Correct me if I am wrong, but I am certain that there are only two ingredients that make a physical sunscreen: titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. The Anthelios XL only contains one physical ingredient, titanium dioxide, which gives extensive protection from UVA and UVB rays but not as much as Zinc oxide, which is more reliable at deflecting UVA rays than its counterpart. Just to note, UVA rays are the ones that give you wrinkles. For someone adamant about anti-aging, having a sunscreen that extensively blocks UVA rays is pretty important, so the lack of Zinc Oxide in the ingredients did surprise me.

I also read that this product was perfect for oily skin, but once again I was deceived. This product in no way worked well with my combination-oily skin. It even states on the box that it’s more suitable for normal to combination skin. I would think this product would be great for dryer types, so now that it’s winter I decided to test this out again. Even with slightly dryer skin I still had the same results. I also really dislike the scent. It’s atrocious, a really horrible chemically smell that linger all day long. I may be sitting in my room on the computer or something, then all of a sudden I’ll get a whiff of it and my entire body would just convulse in disgust. Ick. Even as I’m  describing it I can smell it.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this product. Okay, extremely disappointed, considering the minuscule 50ml bottle cost $30 AUD, but this was first time venturing out into the world of physical sunscreen, so I haven’t lost hope yet.

Have you had any bad experiences with sunscreens before? What’s your go-to sunscreen? Also, if you have any products you would like to recommend let me know!