Product 411: What's BB Cream? 02

Skinfood's Line of BB's.

      In our last installment, we covered attempted to anyways, the purpose of the coveted bb creams. Truthfully, we think it's a wonderful product, but we do have beef, so here goes:

"Bb creams are often mistaken for tinted moisturizers."

Hardly true; bb creams commonly do offer more than just a daytime moisturizer, that's true. But consider this: not all products on the market under the veil of a bb cream offer a one stop skincare solution, and they're still called bb's. And this is addressing the Eastern brands, the brands that offer primer, moisturizer, mattyfier, spot healer, color corrector, skin firmers, and sunscreen, often much more than anyone should ever need, in one package. Some, many brands actually, don't offer even half of these, and they're still called bb creams. So, as you can imagine, the margin of confused new consumers in the market for this product is understandably high.

"BB creams are a one stop product; one should need to apply foundation over bb cream if they do not want to."

This seems counterintuitive; bb creams are generally not marketed as foundations, but rather as a product to go underneath foundation and protect the skin while also repairing/ greatly reducing the appearance of problem areas. Not mention the obvious color discrepancy amongst three fourths of wearers. Which, brings us to our next point:

"BB creams are not made for people with darker skin; it is meant for pale people who want their skin to become whiter. Most Asians Have very pale skin and this is why there aren't bb creams for darker skin tones; there isn't an apparent need."

And someone actually said this too. We could believe it given the present beauty standard; still, it doesn't make sense that this would be a thing that's okay. This is because most bb creams oxidize an ashy off grey/ pink color, though many claim to be gold-toned, that mutes the wrong colors in even the palest of people's skin. Not only that, but even the darkest colors a brand tends to carry, from observation, oxidize lighter than the wearer's skin and 'correct' the wrong areas in a person's skin. And, there are actually people who don't care to lighten their skin.

Don't misunderstand; we think bb's are a wonderful product, but their color palette is sorely lacking even on the lighter end if the gamut, which is bad. The saving grace is that you can out foundation over almost anything you put on your face, so just be wary when you're in the market to buy a bb, and do your research! As for recommendations, we like skinfood's line of bb's, very nice packaging and range of products. As for what we recommend avoiding.. Email us! :P