BB Cream: The Body Shop All-In-One BB Cream

The Body Shop markets itself as the more environmentally friendly, socially conscious alternative in make up and body products.

A lot of their body product ranges lean towards natural scents, so there are your sweat pea, moringa, shea butter, brazil nut, chocomania, almond, strawberry, passion fruit, sweet lemon, mango, olive and other clean and identifiable scented products. 

Similarly, their face skin treatments come in set ranges, leaning towards natural healers, with ranges based on vitamin E for moisturizing, vitamin C for a pick-me-up, tea tree oil for acne and sea weed for balancing out oiliness. 

They also do a fair range of makeup, with foundations ranging from compact powders, through to mineral based liquid foundations, lipsticks in a variety of different shades, bronzers and body shimmers, blushes both baked and your normal powder blushes, eye shadows, eye shadow pallets, eye shadow duos, concealers, eye defining kohl pencils, lip liners, lip glosses, mascara, and makeup applicators. Ok, so they do more than just a fair range of makeup.

Their pricing varies depending on the product in question, for body butters, shower gels and 'body' products, they are on the expensive side. For makeup, depending on what you're looking for, they're in the upper drugstore range. Generally, there's some kind of special going on in the shop, and you'll normally get a discount of some kind off on something in the store. Having said that, some products will be a bargain, others can be quite the splurge.

The Body Shop has jumped in on the BB Cream scene, with two BB Creams, their All-In-One BB Cream, and their Vitamin E BB Cream, which I've seen advertised online, but haven't yet seen in store.

The All-In-One BB Cream promises the following:

• light to medium coverage;
• adapts to your skin tone;
• 24 hour hydration;
• even finish; and,
• non clogging

(Taken from their UK Website)

It comes in a 25ml, slim metallic silver tube, with a black screw on lid. There are three available shades, 01 for lighter skin tones, 02 for medium skin tones and 03 for dark skin tones.

Coming out of the tube, the 'cream' is fairly runny, having a similar viscosity to a liquid foundation than a moisturizer. The ingredients are written on the back, on one of those peel back stickers. Unfortunately, The Body Shop took it upon themselves to print 7 pages worth of material on a rather slim sticker. I have yet to split sticker page one from sticker page two, and so do not know what is in the BB Cream - I'm sure the website has the ingredients, though. Coming out of the tube, it looks like melted cookie and cream ice cream. When applied, it changes colour and takes on the appropriate shade. 

It blends into the skin quickly, and provides a light weight moisturizing effect. I have to apply it fairly quickly to avoid the colour from sinking in too quickly and becoming too concentrated at certain places on my face. The 01 light shade is a little dark for my skin right now, so it's definitely more of a summer BB Cream shade for me. It gives a dewy and fresh finish to the skin, for a natural look, which is what BB Creams generally like to piggy back ride on.

Oh yeah, let's get this out of the way now, it smells. It has a green-leaf, chemically smell that is rather unpleasant for any product, let alone one that goes on my face, in close proximity to my nose. I'm not sure if the smell disappears after a while, of if my brain just stops noticing it, but smelling the product out of the tube is a little blach. Honestly, the first time I tried it out, I was worried that I had bought an expired tube and hence the smell.

Besides that, there's no sun screen in this at all. This is a huge let down. I maintain that BB Cream is meant to be more than just a tinted moisturizer, it should be doing something for the good of my skin. In this case, I don't see what good this product does to deserve the title 'BB Cream,' it really is just a tinted moisturizer.

As a tinted moisturizer it's fine, it does provide light to medium coverage, it provides the even finish - though I'm not sure how it couldn't do that, and it is kinda cool to watch a spotted white moisturizer change colours. However, it is expensive, at least as far as available mainstream BB Creams go, it smells, it has no sun block, it doesn't brighten or illuminate my skin the way other BB Creams on the market do. It does not work well as a makeup base, I tried putting foundation on top of this, and it seemed to skew the foundation colour, making my foundation significantly darker and a little botchy in certain places. Honestly, given the option between a liquid foundation and this BB Cream, I'd rather get the foundation. Foundation can be applied with a light hand to give the same dewy fresh faced appearance that this product gives.

One last thing, it's the same price as my liquid foundation. It's a shame really, I had wanted to be wowed by The Body Shop's take on BB Cream. I would have thought The Body Shop would really put in the effort to make the most of a product that would be good for the skin, whilst as a secondary function, providing some coverage like foundation. Apparently, I was mistaken.

BB Creams: Garnier BB Cream All-In-One Skin Perfecter

In the beginning, there was BB Cream. Allegedly, formulated in the 1960s by a dermatologist in Germany, for use on patients coming out of surgery to protect their skin. BB Cream later found its way to South Korea where porcelain flawless skin is hugely popular, and there it became a sensation.

I first heard about BB Cream from Jen (Jen is awesome. Please, hit the link and check out her blog, she has so many great reviews) who did a review on a bunch of different BB Creams. Off the bat, it seems that the Korean versions are credited with doing more good for the skin than their Western counterparts, containing mineral properties to help with age spots, hyperpigmentation from acne, anti-aging, and provide anti-inflammatory protection. So far, a lot of the BB Creams I've seen coming out of the Western houses focus more on providing a beautiful image, without necessarily focusing on the good it does for the skin itself.

When Garnier's BB Cream All-In-One Skin Perfecter hit the market, I was on it like a cat on tuna. (Cats like tuna, right?) I had been longing to try out a BB Cream, and ordering online from South Korea was just not feasible.

Garnier's BB Cream claims to be a 'Miracle Skin Perfector'. Being an illuminator, lightweight moisturizer, primer, all wrapped up in the promise of a healthy glow. It also carries SPF15 UV Protection in its arsenal. Down in these parts of the woods, it comes in 3 shades, light, medium and dark. Light fits me perfectly, being pale with yellow undertones. Medium I think would suit more olive complexions, and dark suits my black colleague perfectly, who is the same skin tone as Tyrese Gibson. It comes in a 50ml plastic tube, with a snap lid, which makes it excellent for carrying around in a handbag, in case you wanted to reapply during the day, or are in just too much of a hurry to apply it before leaving home.

So how does it stack up?

It's a lightweight product, that leaves my skin feeling hydrated without being oily. It's a little thicker out of the tube than liquid foundations, so it applies just like a normal moisturizer. It has a pleasant clean citrusy scent to it, and a little goes a long way with this. It provides very light coverage, in terms of hiding eye bags, scarring and hyperpigmentation. However, it does go a ways to hiding them, and making them less noticeable.

Since this is a lightly tinted moisturizer, I don't have to be quite so precise when applying it, it can be applied just like a normal moisturizer (you know the routine, two warpaint swipes on either cheek sweeping downwards and out, the stripe over the forehead and chin respectively, and then the downward neck swipe. Blend til absorbed) without needing a mirror. At the end, moisturized with some colour and coverage.

It worked very well for me. It gave my skin an instant pick-me-up, and people quickly commented on how good my skin looked, that I was healthier than my normal sallow self. I quickly managed to pull my colleague into using it, and she cannot be bothered with foundation and the rest of it, but now practically swears by the stuff.

The vitamin C helps give skin than healthy glow, and vitamin C is meant to help with healing of hyperpigmentation left from pimples. - If you haven't guessed by now, this is a big deal for me. I break out sporadically and my acne tends to leave me with dark marks, which I know I shouldn't aggravate, but covering them up helps me avoid harassing them. Also, no breakouts from this product.

It acts as a good primer for makeup, and on some days I'll skip foundation completely, and just put makeup directly on top of this product. It works wonderfully to give you that 'natural,' look and it looks like you aren't wearing makeup, but you still have beautiful healthy skin.

The downside for me is really the SPF count. I live in very hot and sunny conditions, and SPF15 isn't enough in terms of protection. Don't get me wrong, I can and do put on a heavier duty sunblock underneath this product. But, one of the big selling points of this product is it's marketed to people on the go, who don't want to spend the time applying sunblock, moisturiser, primer, concealer and foundation but want one easy go-to product. I wanted this product to give me more protection from the sun.  Also, when it gets warm, this product melts and gets into my eyes, and this happens way more often than it should, and it stings.

All in all, this is a no fuss, good quality product. It gives a natural, healthy glow, making your natural skin look the best it can, without that made up look. It is good value for money, and I'd recommend it. Now, if only they could bump up the SPF...