To provide a skin care external preparation having protective function enough to deal with environmental stress.

The skin care external preparation is of oil-in-water type emulsion dosage form and contains (1) a (partially modified) crosslinked type methylpolysiloxane and also includes (2) 15-35 mass% of a polyhydric alcohol and (3) 20-35 mass% of water. In this skin care preparation, the above (partially modified) crosslinked type methylpolysiloxane is selected preferably from crosslinked methylpolysiloxane, crosslinked phenylmethylpolysiloxane and polyether-modified methylpolysiloxane, and its content is preferably 1-10 mass%.