Kelly Driscoll's Sunscreen Picks: What She Rates, Skips, and Recommends

Across more than 30 sunscreens, Kelly Driscoll approved most of them, with a clear preference for lightweight, no-white-cast formulas that play nicely under makeup.

Kelly Driscoll · 33 products reviewed · 71 mentions analyzed · Last reviewed 2 October 2026

76%Approval rate

25 Yay5 Mixed3 Nay

Kelly Driscoll has worked through more than 30 sunscreens, and she came away approving the vast majority, with an approval rate of 76%. She has sensitive, dehydration-prone skin and some melanin in her complexion, so white cast and texture are never small details for her. Those two things shape almost every take she gives.

What does Kelly Driscoll recommend in sunscreen?

What she keeps coming back to is sunscreens that feel like nothing on the skin. The Numbuzin No.1 Clear Filter Sun Essence SPF50+ PA++++ impressed her precisely because, as she put it, she forgets she is wearing it. She also loves the Skin1004 Madagascar Centella Hyalu-Cica Water-Fit Sun Serum SPF 50+ PA++++ for its glowy finish and zero irritation on her sensitive skin. The Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics SPF 50+ PA++++ (Korean formula) earned praise for keeping makeup intact while layering over it, and she called it a budget hack. She was even won over by the Haruharu Wonder Black Rice Pure Mineral Relief Daily Sunscreen SPF 50+ PA++++. She generally dislikes mineral filters because they leave a cast and dry her out, but this one barely did either.

In her words

"I'm using a chemical formula today. It does not have much of a white cast. This is the Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics SPF 50+ PA++++. It's an elegant formula that works well with this method. [...] My makeup is intact and there's a full layer of sunscreen on top of my makeup, offering very good protection that you can control. [...] Plus, it's incredibly affordable. I mean, this is a budget hack."

Yay watch ▸

"It's hydrating and a little bit creamy, but it's not like your traditional overwhelming emollient moisturizing sunscreen. And there is a kiss of glow and a kiss of dew to this one that's going to give you that glass skin appearance everyone's looking for. It's one of my favorites because it doesn't have a white cast on my skin tone. It works really well underneath makeup and it doesn't irritate my sensitive skin."

Yay watch ▸

"I do find it to be a very affordable, a great sunscreen. The word mermaid skin gel is referring to the fact that this is a sunscreen that is going to give you a lot of dewiness to your skin, a wetness if you will to your skin, and it is really sold as like a works great under makeup type of sunscreen. This one being a hybrid sunscreen so they're using chemical and mineral filters. Because there is that hybrid there, there is a bit of a white cast to this."

Yay watch ▸

"I was really impressed with the texture and that's why it's a favorite for me and why I've been using it a lot this month. The texture is really weightless. It's one of those sunscreens that I say I forget that I'm wearing it, and that's a good thing. What I mean when I say I can't feel this sunscreen is it's not heavy."

Yay watch ▸

"I personally hate [...] mineral sunscreens, but I do like this one. I don't like mineral sunscreens because I have some melanin in my skin, so [...] there will always be some type of white cast, [...] and I also have very dehydration-prone skin and [...] mineral filters seem to zap a lot of moisture from my skin. However, what really impressed me about this sunscreen is that it actually doesn't really seem to dry out my skin that much."

Yay watch ▸

"As soon as I started using this bottle of sunscreen I was like, oh yeah, I remember why I loved that one so much. This blow my mind and feel like new and innovative? No, not at all. I've definitely evolved in my sunscreen use and the products I've been exposed to, and I think the market has changed a lot since that original product came out. But all that being said, this really does maintain a lot of those main characteristics that made it special in the first place."

Yay watch ▸

How many sunscreens has Kelly Driscoll reviewed?

Kelly Driscoll has reviewed 33 sunscreens, for an approval rate of 76%. 25 approved, 5 mixed, and 3 skipped.

What has Kelly Driscoll skipped in sunscreen?

The skips are few, but the reasons are pointed. She skipped the Missha Waterproof Sun Milk SPF 50+ PA++++ entirely because of its fragrance, describing it as cologne-like and headache-inducing. The Skin1004 Madagascar Centella Probio-Cica Glow Sun Ampoule SPF 50+ PA++++ was a skip too, after it made her skin feel itchy on repeated wear. She also skipped the Innisfree Daily UV Defense SPF 36 Sunscreen, calling its SPF 36 low by K-beauty standards and noting the texture is less elegant than she would like.

"This is a product that in the past I've liked but not loved. It's SPF 36, which is pretty low SPF for K beauty usually. You know, SPF 50 is the standard. This is a little meh in the SPF protection. It's always used the older generation chemical filters, so nothing has been tweaked here. This is what the formula has always been. It does have some fragrance that is pleasant but fairly strong in my opinion, and I'm not a big fan of that. It's not as elegant in the texture."

Nay watch ▸

"I recently tried this one, this is a new release from Skin1004, and I do like the other products in the Probio-Cica line. I don't think I like this sunscreen though. This is very much like a first impression review that I'm giving you. I was very excited about this, but I think it's irritating my skin because every time I wear it, now granted it's only been a few times, every time I've worn it it's made my skin feel itchy."

Nay watch ▸

"There's a lot of fragrance at play here, but even the actual scent of this I hate it so much, it is so cloying and gross. It smells like baby powder that was made into a perfume, like it's so concentrated, it's so perfumey, it's almost cologne-like. I don't mind that powdery baby scent but it was just so thick and it just sticks with you all day long. This one I found headache-inducing because it's just so hard on your nose and your senses. I did not like it at all."

Nay watch ▸

What should you take from Kelly Driscoll's picks?

Kelly Driscoll's record on sunscreens is a strong one, and her picks lean toward light, dewy, makeup-friendly formulas. For her single category winner, she named iUNIK Centella Calming Daily Sun Water SPF50. Anyone with sensitive skin or a deeper complexion will find her takes especially useful, because she tests for both irritation and white cast every time.

Watch Kelly Driscoll say it

Every verdict here comes from a video. These are the moments themselves, each one jumping straight to the bit about that product.

About this expert

Kelly Driscoll

See everything Kelly Driscoll has reviewed

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This guide reflects what Kelly Driscoll said across her videos about 33 products in sunscreen, aggregated by The Guru Index. Sponsored takes are excluded. The approval rate is the share of these products she approved. It is general information, not medical advice.