Review: Belo Essentials Day Cover

Have you ever had a case of 'computer face'? It's UV damage on the skin from sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time. Perhaps you may not notice it with your naked eye, but it'll show up on those camera skin tests. When it does, you are officially a candidate for premature skin aging... Lucky for you, it can gradually be remedied by a moisturizer with SPF.

For my own UV-related problems, I chose Belo Essentials Day Cover Whitening Vitamin Cream SPF 15 (20 g of cream at PHP 60+).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] Belo Essentials Day Cover Whitening Vitamin Cream SPF15[/caption]

When it comes down to it, this is not the most cost-effective SPF cream I could have bought. My 2 other choices at the grocery were Human Nature 100% Natural Day Moisturizer (no SPF; but because of the all-natural claim) and Clean & Clear Clear Fairness Moisturizer SPF 30. Belo won simply because I had such a good experience with their face wash, though Clean & Clear—on sale at the time—would've been the cheapest choice of moisturizer with a higher SPF. Well, to be fair, Belo's products are hypoallergenic, a term I usually associate with fancier formulations that cost twice or thrice the usual drugstore price. If you look at it that way, the price becomes quite reasonable.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] Ingredients[/caption]

Now let's talk about looks, because it can be deceiving. If you don't know how famous Belo is—if that's even possible for someone who lives in the Philippines—the basic packaging here doesn't particularly stand out from the shelves. What's more, if you get the chance to hold the tube up to the light, you'll see that the cream takes up only half of the container once it has settled to the bottom. Just remember that it's only 20g you're paying for, so don't be too shocked to see a tube that isn't full.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] A light cream[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"] Semi-blended[/caption]

The cream itself has a pleasant lightness to it without being too runny that's it's considered a moisturizing fluid. On the other hand, it isn't too thick that it feels sticky. The scent is the same as that of the facial wash, albeit slightly stronger. Once I smoothed it on, it gave off the faintest sheen. It does what an effective lightweight moisturizer is supposed to, but I only wish the SPF was higher so I could feel confident wearing this outside the house. As for the claims of visible whitening in 7 days, well, I didn't notice any improvements.

Rating: 4.5/5 for being an inexpensive hypoallergenic moisturizer we sorely need more of. Hope they could lessen the scent, increase SPF, and go easy on the whitening claims that could generate too-high expectations. Buy it because it's mild on the skin, not because it's supposed to lighten. Otherwise, you'll miss a perfectly gentle moisturizer.