Hello Sunday SPF 50 Review: The Illuminating Sunscreen with a Tatcha-like Feel

This is a find and a half. A three-in-one skincare marvel. It has the juicy, skin-plumping feel of a (very expensive) Tatcha moisturiser, it has SPF 50 (UVA and UVB protection) and it also happens to work as an (incredibly dewy) makeup primer. Three brilliant products in one handy tube and it costs just over twenty quid.

You may have caught my Instagram post the other week about face creams that feel like the pricey ones from Tatcha. Tatcha is a luxury Japanese skincare brand and their moisturisers, which all leave skin ridiculously bouncy and dewy and plumped full of moisture, have an enormous cult following. I made it my mission to find a few products that were similar in feel, because so many people had requested it - the nearest I could find (and this has been a longstanding love of mine) was the Beauty Pie JapanFusion Power Elixir Moisturiser, £18 to Beauty Pie members here*.

Had I known about my new SPF discovery, at this point, it would most definitely have been in the running. Hello Sunday’s The Illuminating One Glow Primer, SPF 50. It’s interesting that this is marketed as a primer: from my experience, people tend to find this confusing, thinking that it won’t offer up the same protection as a “dedicated sunscreen”. So long as you’re applying the recommended amount of any product - which is around a quarter to a third of a teaspoon for your face - then you’ll get the stated protection. The problem comes when certain formulas don’t particularly lend themselves to application in those amounts - foundations with sunscreen included, for example, or sprays and mists where you lose the majority of the product into the air. There’s something about applying a dedicated sunscreen that makes you take it more seriously, I think, and you make sure that you get it all the way to the hairline and around the ears and so on.

Anyway this one, from Hello Sunday, not to be confused with Naked Sundays or Hello Farmer, is easy to apply in adequate amounts to get the stated SPF. Even though it feels as though you’re glazing yourself, like a doughnut, it doesn’t feel too thick or gloopy or greasy. It won’t be for the oilier-skinned amongst us, because the whole “Tatcha feel” is that you have a distinct dewy residue on the skin that doesn’t sink in, that leaves skin feeling very richly moisturised for the whole day, but for anyone with dry skin it will be an absolute treat.

Especially those who hate to layer multiple skincare products with a substantial, robust kind of texture. I very rarely layer a moisturiser and a sunscreen, for example: I cannot abide then having to apply makeup over the top. It feels wearing trousers over tights. This I have done only once, aged seven-ish, under complete duress, before going out to play in the snow.

Never again. I still remember the feeling very clearly, the smothering of it all, and the annoying tugging sensation as the woollen tights stuck to the insides of the corduroy trousers. Give me a multiple-use product any day. Or thermal leggings. Though I’m not sure those thermal leggings with the fleecy lining even existed in 1987.

So yes: for me, this little product is like stacking Tatcha’s Dewy Skin moisturiser with L’Oreal’s SPF 50 with a touch of Vieve Skin Nova primer.

Colour me impressed. You can see the glowing effect on my bare, makeup-less skin in the video I have so diligently uploaded above; this glow sheens on through if you use a lightweight makeup base on top and don’t go too heavy with your coverage. I suppose that even if you don’t want the dewy glow showing through, you might still want the instantly comforting richness.

Perhaps this will be more niche than I’m anticipating - not everyone wants to feel glazed like a doughnut, after all - but if you’re always on the search for the sort of deep hydration that makes your skin feel as wobbly as an eighties waterbed then you can add this SPF 50 to your list.

It’s £23 at Boots here* but at time of writing, Debenhams have 30% off and it is £16.10 here*.