To BB or not to BB...

As someone who enjoys the makeup and beauty world, although not as much as the fashion world, I try to stay up to date on beauty trends and hot products, and BB cream is a hot product if I ever did see one. Let me start out by clarifying what a BB cream is. 
BB cream stands for Blemish Balm Cream (but is sometimes called Blemish Base or Beblesh Balm) and is made to essentially replace practically all of your face products, but I will get more into that later. The "magic" cream is said to have originated in Germany where a doctors would give it to their patients who had undergone laser skin surgery. (any product that is good enough for people who are down a layer of skin is good enough for me) However its claim to fame came about because of its popularity in Asia, specifically Korea, where it was used by actresses who quickly spread the word about it.  More recently it has been spreading west and is becoming popular in Europe and the US. 
At first glance the product, pictured below, seems like any other foundation, but it is so much more.

 The thing that sets BB creams apart are all of their beneficial properties.  The benefits vary from brand to brand but generally most BB creams promise to help with evening out skin tone, clearing up blemishes, anti- aging, covering up scars or discoloration, moisturizing and of course they all come with SPF.  To clarify BB cream  is said to be able to replace all of the following products:
-moisturizer
-sunscreen
-makeup primer
-foundation
-concealer
-toner
That is quite impressive.  I have tried a couple of brands of BB cream and I can honestly say that I was pleasantly surprised. As a cynical New Yorker I am very suspicious of anything that sounds too good to be true, but for me BB cream seemed to be a pretty good fit.  The brands I tried were Missha M Perfect Cover BB Cream in the color natural beige and Skin 79 The Prestige BB Cream Diamond Collection.  I was pretty satisfied with both but I liked the Missha one better because the Skin 79 one was a tad gray for my coloring since my skin has a pinkish tint.
The only down side to BB creams is that they do not come in a very wide range of shades. They only go to medium at the darkest, and even for people with fair skin there are not very many choices.  In terms of picking a shade there are usually only one or two options so when buying one you just have to pray that it works for you.  All in all though the product is very impressive and has won me over, and because of its rising popularity who knows more shades might be developed...we can always hope.

xoxoxo