Beauty Bag

BB Cream

Before I jetted off on holidays I intended to pack light. An unusual occurance for me indeed but I knew it was going to be hot and I was going to spend the majority of the time near the pool so I had no intention of doing a full face of makeup everyday. Instead I wanted something light, with a little coverage for the evenings. A tinted moisturiser perhaps or possibly a BB cream of some sort. I’ve used BB creams in the past and found they don’t agree with my skin at all. Either they didn’t provide enough coverage or they gave me too much of a glow. And not the good kind.

With little time to research, I gave this Garnier BB Cream a whirl. Before I get into the nitty-gritty I did have my eye on Bare Minerals Complexion Rescue – Tinted Moisturizer and despite nearly every review I  read being a positive one, many pointed out it was not great for oily skin. At €32 I was not going to take that chance. The other product I have wanted to try for years is Laura Mercier’s Tinted Moisturizer but again at €48 this was going to require more research than I had time for.

Instead I looked to more affordable products and this Garnier BB Cream kept popping up. Even Lisa Eldridge uses it so I figured it was worth a try. It has quite a few claims; anti-shine, blurs pores, even tones, SPF 20. It even has ‘miracle‘ in its description but let’s not get carried away. The best part though without even trying it at this stage, is that it is targeted for combination to oily skin.

I tried it the first day of my trip and what better way to test a product than with a crazy early flight to a hot destination. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this product but I was pleasantly surprised. In regards to the texture it is light but not mousse-like, it absorbed well into my skin and there is a light scent but noting too offensive, even for me. The coverage is very good, so good you could easily use this as your everyday foundation and boy did it last! I was actually blown away at how good this product is and how lovely it looked on my skin. None of this summer glow nonsense, just a nice natural looking finish. I would go so far as to say that it does what it says on the tin, minus the miracle part.

So good is this product that I’ve continued using it since returning from my little jaunt and I think it is going to stay that way. I will say that the texture is very much like my very favourite YSL Ink Fusion Foundation, with very similar coverage hence the reason I like it so much. I imagine if you are used to full coverage you will find this a little sheer and equally if you are not used to wearing foundation at all you may find this too much. Whether you are the former or the latter, it is easy to work with, so build-able and fluid enough to thin out and give you an even tone.

Now for the down side and it’s a big one: It only comes in two shades! I don’t know how brands expect to sell a product with just two shade options. It really is such a shame as the product is excellent but I imagine this will put many of you off. I’m using the medium shade and thankfully it is not too ‘pink’ which I find the biggest problem with drug store/pharmacy brand foundations. For something that can stand up to my oily skin and at only €13.99 this is definitely staying in my beauty bag for those days when I don’t want to waste my YSL Fusion Ink but still want to look decent enough to step out of the house.

xo