It’s 2019, but I’m still slowly working my way through the sunscreens in Sephora’s Sun Safety Kit 2018. My goal is to try them all before the 2019 kit comes out (I’m guessing sometime in April-ish?). The brightest (peppiest) option included in the kit was definitely Clinique Pep-Start Hydrorush Moisturizer SPF 20. It comes in a tiny, bright yellow squeeze tube, which makes it look like sunshine in a bottle.

As you can tell from the name, this product bills itself as a moisturizer with SPF, rather than a sunscreen. It’s formulated with beneficial ingredients that you would normally find in a night cream, like plankton extract, lactobacillus ferment (beneficial bacteria), sea whip extract, and palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7.

Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients in this chemical sunscreen/moisturizer.

Clinique Pep-Start Hydrorush Moisturizer SPF 20 ingredients

This sunscreen is formulated with two chemical sunscreen ingredients: avobenzone and octisalate. It calls itself “broad spectrum” but it is still missing protection for part of the UVA spectrum. According to this handy table provided by the Skin Cancer Foundation, avobenzone protects agains UVA1 and octisalate protects against UVB.

You know what that means: This sunscreen is missing UVA2 protection. Out of the FDA-approved sunscreen filters, only dioxybenzone, ecamsule (mexoryl sx), meradimate (menthyl anthranilate), oxybenzone, sulisobenzone, and titanium dioxide, and zinc oxide provide protection against UVA2 light. Therefore, I’d recommend using it in conjunction with another sunscreen that offers UVA2 protection if you’re planning to stay outside for a long time and/or whenever the UV index is particularly high in your area. SPF 20 is also pretty low (I like to go with at least SPF 30 if I’m going to be outside on a sunny day).

Now, moving on to the inactive ingredients. I found a few of these pretty interesting, including:

• caffeine: this may explain the “Pep-Start” in the name. Caffeine is actually used in skincare as an antioxidant that helps protect against UV radiation.
• ergothioneine: another interesting antioxidant that helps prevent the skin against damage.
• plankton extract: this was also in the COOLA BB+ Cream I reviewed yesterday; it also helps protect against aging, and provides moisturizing benefits.
• palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7: helps provide anti-inflammatory benefits. This ingredient was also included in IT Cosmetics CC Cream.
• squalane: a moisturizing ingredient found naturally in human sebum.

Clinique Pep-Start Hydrorush Moisturizer SPF 20 review

I thought that Clinique Pep-Start Hydrorush Moisturizer SPF 20 felt like a pretty average chemical sunscreen—definitely not like a luxurious or premium daytime moisturizer.

The texture is actually quite similar to NO-AD Sport Sunscreen SPF 50. I feel like I could get a stronger sunscreen for a fraction of the price. It doesn’t contain any fragrance (which is great!) but somehow, it has a pretty strong sunscreen-y fragrance (if you know what I’m talking about). It might be one of the active sunscreen ingredients that’s the culprit (avobenzone maybe?). On the plus side, it dries sheer and doesn’t leave your skin looking pale. It also blends nicely into the skin without pilling. I did find it to be quite oily for me, since my skin naturally gets pretty oily throughout the day. If you have dry skin, this might be a good fragrance-free, sheer sunscreen option—but only on days when you don’t plan to be out in the sun for a long time (remember it has a pretty low SPF factor and is missing UVA2 protection).

Related reading

• NO-AD Sport Sunscreen, SPF 50 Review: Best value for summer
• Best sunscreens in Sephora’s Sun Safety Kit 2018
• Sunscreen active ingredient percentages: How much do they matter?
• Australian Gold Tinted Face Sunscreen Review
• Save or Splurge? Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel vs. Equate