Stand in front of the sunscreen wall at any Olive Young this summer and you’ll see the same bottle in half the baskets around you: a plain, pale-green tube labeled “Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics” from Beauty of Joseon. It’s not flashy packaging, and at roughly $17 a tube, it’s not an expensive one either. But it’s been going viral on TikTok and Reddit on and off for two years running, and this year’s wave of “skinimalism” — fewer products doing more — has only made the case for it stronger.
What’s actually in the tube explains some of the staying power. The formula leans on Beauty of Joseon’s signature angle, Hanbang — traditional Korean herbal medicine reinterpreted as modern skincare — built around 30% rice extract and grain ferment (probiotic) filtrate, ingredients chosen for hydration and barrier support rather than just sun protection. It’s rated SPF50+ PA++++, and independently verified lab testing in both South Korea and Spain measured the actual SPF at 52.5 and 63.1 respectively — comfortably backing up the label rather than just meeting the minimum. It’s also formulated without oxybenzone or octinoxate, the two UV filters most commonly flagged for coral reef damage.
The texture is the other half of why it spread the way it did. Most sunscreens force a tradeoff: heavier, more protective formulas that sit on top of makeup, or lighter ones that compromise on protection. Reviewers consistently point to this one layering cleanly under makeup without the usual white cast or greasy finish — which matters more than it sounds, since the single biggest reason people skip sunscreen reapplication is exactly that friction.
That’s also the more useful story here than the virality itself. SPF has stopped being the skincare step people remember last and started becoming the one Korean beauty brands are building entire product lines around — tinted versions, cushion formats, and now rice-and-probiotic hybrids that double as a light skincare step. If you’re shopping for a Korean sunscreen this year rather than just defaulting to whatever’s most hyped, the actual checklist worth using is simple: verified SPF rating (not just the label number), a texture you’ll actually tolerate reapplying every few hours, and ideally a formula doing a second job — hydration, barrier repair, antioxidant protection — while it protects.
Sources: Beauty of Joseon, official product page for Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics; Dr. Rachel Ho, product review and lab-test citation, “Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun: Rice + Probiotics Sunscreen Review.”
