Hero Cosmetics Force Shield Superlight Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 30

I bought a travel size from Target to try it out before I committed to a full size. On first application, it blends in nicely and leaves my skin a bit shiny but not greasy. It is a green tinted formula that helps to cancel out redness. It smells a bit like oats because it uses colloidal oatmeal (ground oatmeal).

I have worn this with makeup and it wears better when there is no primer added over top. I have yet to try it with primer first, SPF second. When I add my L’Oreal matte primer, it won’t absorb right and pills when I try to blend out my foundation.

After I’ve powdered my face, I’m not oily/greasy for quite a few hours after. I oil blotted once during my 8 hour work day, I wore it for around 12 hours. 

I’ll try using it with a primer underneath and see how that goes. The pilling might be caused by not waiting an appropriate amount of time for the SPF to sink in so that’s another theory I’ll have to test.

On first impression with matte primer underneath the SPF, nothing pilled and the absorption time was faster, my face is slightly tacky if anything and not greasy looking at all, more like a slight sheen but when you touch it, almost matte but not. I wore this in combination to my usual nars sheer glow foundation. One of my favorite foundation/sheer tint options. I finished my makeup at about 9:30/45 am and took it off at about 1 pm so I wore this for about 3.5 hrs. All I did was hang out with a friend so nothing super intense. By the time I got home, my skin was still matte from being powdered so really great results.

I’m glad I tried a few different ways to wear this, I think that from now on, my standard wear test process will be by itself, SPF with foundation, SPF with primer and foundation and the various combinations like SPF first primer second, primer first SPF second.

I think the best way to wear this product for me was primer first, SPF second, then foundation over top. It created the most matte finish and wore really beautifully without clinging to dry patches or separating.

If you are interested in trying this product, I’d say it’s worth it! I would say that if you are oily, you could definitely use this on its own or with a matte primer and still be really happy with it. I think that if you have dry or normal skin, you won’t have to worry about adding other products to make it work for you.

My only complaint about this is that it’s only SPF 30. I’d like there to be a higher SPF option, at least over 40. From my brief research, I have found that the effectiveness of SPF 30 vs SPF higher than 30 is only about a 2% difference. SPF 50+ works to block out 99% of UV rays and SPF 30 works to block out about 97/98% UV rays so it’s not critical if you aren’t out in the sun all day.

I’m currently trying multiple other brands of SPF to find the best one for me but if I don’t find any other SPF’s that are higher, I would definitely come back to this one.