Can This Sunscreen Keep Up With Life Under the Philippine Heat?
With Luxelle’s Centella Sun Serum, Heart Evangelista redefines Filipino SPF: lightweight, healing, and rooted in the radical belief that beauty should never steal time from the life you’re trying to live.
Underneath Paris and Manila’s flashing lights, Allure Philippines maiden cover star Heart Evangelista rarely breaks a sweat—at least not visibly. She’s walked the cobblestone streets of Europe in head-to-toe couture under the summer sun, posed for photographs in full glam beneath 4 P.M. humidity, and logged countless hours beneath runway lights and real-world heat. But even for someone who makes looking flawless seem effortless, there’s one beauty product that used to trip her up: sunscreen.
“I hate the sun and I hate [sunscreen],” Heart says, laughing. “It was always oily, it messed up my bangs, it made my skin greasy—I just hated wearing it.”
That personal frustration became the foundation for Luxelle, the beauty brand she quietly began building during the pandemic. Its hero product, the Centella Sun Serum, is a direct answer to years of skin-care trials and on-camera realities. The formula is lightweight, non-greasy, calming, and, crucially, invisible. It’s designed to work hard without making itself known. Retailing at PHP 799 for 50 mL, it’s a sunscreen that claims to be built not just for Filipino skin, but for Filipino weather, Filipino routines, and Filipino lives.
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Beauty that lives with you
Heart’s approach to beauty has always blended high fashion with everyday practicality. The Centella Sun Serum reflects that balance. It’s elegant and effective, but more than that, it’s liveable—a word she comes back to over and over again.
“Luxury isn’t about spending so much just to look good,” she says. “Luxury is actually having more time. To live life. To be with your loved ones. Not just to be in front of the mirror.”
For Heart, real skin care isn’t about looking perfect under fluorescent lights. It’s about supporting your skin quietly, so you can keep living your life.
“You don’t have to spend hours just to look great,” she adds. “The goal is to have more time for yourself.”
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She puts her product to the test, too. “I’m always overly conscious about what I put on my skin. I usually go for translucent powder or concealer, never bare skin,” she says. “But today, I have nothing on my face except a little concealer right here [the sides of her nose]. I tested this for a while and even my makeup artists were like, ‘So what’s our job after this?’”
What convinced her wasn’t just the finish, it was how her skin felt after using it.
“I develop urticaria (hives), whenever I’m stressed or excited. With the Centella, I needed something that would calm me down, that I could even retouch with instead of powder or foundation. That’s why I kept using it.”
“I’ve been testing [the serum] for a while, and actually, later today during my presentation, I’m going to take off my makeup on stage and reapply it. It was just to prove a point—that I wasn’t lying about testing it out, and that it really, truly was the only thing I was wearing. If it’s too good to be true, the only way to prove it is to try it.”
It was the kind of gesture only Heart could pull off: part performance, part proof, all poise.
A Filipino SPF, finally
Heart reflects on the way Filipinos used to approach skin care, and how much of that came from working around limited options.
“There was a time when everyone wanted to look white. They were exfoliating and peeling, and always under the sun,” she recalls. “But we had [sunscreens] that had white casts, that were super oily, that made us break out even more. We’d take a photo and look super red, but people lived with it.” This, she felt, was unacceptable. Filipino skin deserved a sunscreen that understood brown tones, humidity, sensitive skin, and the need for everyday wear. Luxelle was born out of that gap.
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The medical backing
According to Francis John Torres, MD, Luxelle’s resident expert on aesthetics and regenerative medicine, sunscreen isn’t optional—it’s foundational.
“Your skin is the largest organ in your body. If you’re not protecting it, your treatments, products, even expensive facials—none of it will matter,” he says. “You’ll just waste your money.”
Dr. Torres breaks down why protection matters so much, especially in the tropics. UVA rays account for 95 percent of the UV that reaches the earth’s surface. They penetrate deep into the dermis, causing premature aging and long-term damage. UVB rays are more superficial but responsible for sunburns and the development of skin cancer.
His photoprotection checklist?
- Slip on protective clothing.
- Slop on sunscreen.
- Slap on a hat.
- Seek shade.
The Centella Sun Serum checks every box: SPF protection, PA++++ rating, no white cast (or oily finish!), and skin-calming ingredients that work even under makeup. “Sunscreen should be invisible,” Heart adds. “That’s the number one thing people get wrong. They think it needs to be thick or oily to work. But you shouldn’t even feel it.”
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Skin care with soul
When asked about how she sees her role now, not just as an icon, but as a brand founder, Heart’s answer is gentle but pointed. “It’s about giving people options. Making life easier. I don’t want to complicate beauty. I want to simplify it.”
For her, beauty should feel like a part of your day, not a performance. That’s what she’s trying to build. She’s giving Filipinos a little more time back, and a lot more permission to live in their skin.
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