Beauty Basic: What is BB Cream?

BB Creams are also known as Blemish Balm, or sometimes people call it Beauty Balm or Beblesh Balm. It was originally created in Germany and used by dermatologists to help laser surgery protect and soothe patient's sensitive skin, and to cover scars as well. Currently, BB Creams are big in Asia because they are considered as all-in-one skincare essential. FYI, they are even called as "the secret of Korean actresses." 

Why are they 'big?' Well, BB Creams have multitasking formula. Each BB Cream has different formula and qualities. Some has skin whitening properties, anti-acne and anti-wrinkle. Others are said to even out skin tone and to lighten blemish scars. Not only that, most of BB Creams have sun protection, and work to moisturize the skin, conceal imperfections and line, and basically treat the skin well. 

Briefly, people use BB Creams as their foundation, tinted moisturizer, or foundation primer. However, BB Creams usually just come with one or two shades only. This one shade will blend into your skin naturally and your skin will look so smooth, glowing and natural. This is why people love BB Creams. (FYI, I am talking about Asian BB Creams). 

So far, I have tried two brands of BB Creams: they are Lioele Triple the Solutions SPF 30 and Missha M Perfect Cover BB Cream No. 23 SPF 42. I used both of these during whole Summer 2011 and I loved them! For the first time using, I saw differences on my skin. It did treat my skin well, minimized my acne scars. However, they were kind of too light for my skin, so by the end of the day, my face turned so white and it did not match with my body. I used this for probably three months non stop and I got tired of it and missed my foundation. So, I stop using it until now. 

But now, I honestly miss using BB Creams again and I keep researching about which one is good for my skin. The only thing that scares me the most is the shade. Yes, it says it will blend into your natural skin tone, but really I want the one that matches my skin tone. But, I am still considering to purchase other kinds of BB creams in the future. 

Lastly I want to talk about is now a lot of cosmetic companies in the U.S. make BB Creams such as Smashbox, Clinique, Boscia, Estee Lauder, Too Faced and Garnier. They are not the same as the Asian BB Creams. I tried Smashbox before and I did not like it. I will be doing reviews soon on this soon. 

Overall, is BB cream worth buying? In my opinion, yes if you already have a perfect skin or just a few of imperfections because most of Western BB Creams are light coverage - they are more like tinted moisturizer and face primer, whereas Asian BB creams have more choices of light to full coverage. 

Have you tried BB Creams? What do you think about them? Hope this helpful for you all! 

loVe, 

Alexandra 

Photo source is from here.