BB Cream (beauty balm or blemish balm) is like a tinted moisturizer but has other benefits to the skin. It was only sold in the Asian markets until recently hitting the U.S. by storm. Like many beauty products I find, many are not intended or marketed to women with darker complexions. There are not many BB Creams on the market for black women as there are for women with light to olive skinned toned across ethnicities. While there is Smashbox and Iman for black girls, I decided to put Maybelline to the test first!
Maybelline seemed off the back to match my tone correctly and was $9.00 dollars! Some of these creams can get really pricey. So nine bucks didn’t seem so bad. Maybelline’s Dream Fresh BB Cream is an 8 in 1 BB cream. It claims to blur imperfections, brighten your skin, enhance your skin, adjust to your skin tone, smooth, hydrate, contain SPF 30 and have 0 % in oils and other heavy ingredients in this product.
What I found by using it on my skin:
PROS
-brightens the skin
-adjusts to your skin tone
-smooths
-hydrates
-gives you a dewy look
-acts as a primer for makeup
CONS
-can make your skin greasy (if you have oily proned skin)
-not much coverage
-may cause breakouts if prone to acne (based on my own use and reviews of others)
If you have acne prone skin, oily skin or get sporadic breakouts like myself, I personally would not recommend this product. I found that while it did smooth and give me that dewy natural look that I love (after using it as a primer and then put on mineral based makeup), as the day went on my face became oiler than usual and it caused breakouts on my cheeks and jaw line. Undeterred, I tried it again (two days in a row). It looked great in the morning, but come afternoon, I was greasy (used oil blotter sheets to handle that) and again found little bumps. I have to give this cream up or maybe use it as an under eye base (I have dark circles).
If you have normal to dry skin, I would recommend to try this. You could save yourself some money and get that look you want at half the cost!
After BB Cream application. Please keep in mind i am using Bare Minerals on top of it.
Until the next BB Cream trial!
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