Battle of the BB Creams!

This week, I'm testing out not one, not two, but FOUR BB creams! My, that's a lot of BB Cream!

But I find a lot of people asking "What is a BB Cream, and do I need one?"

Our good friends at webmd.com say that BB Creams were first invented by a doctor in Germany, who wanted a cream to be able to give his patients that would both protect skin, and offer coverage after laser treatments.

The cream eventually caught on in South Korea, then catching fire in Asia. There, the main benefit was the streamlining opportunity it offered to a woman's beauty routine. Rather than using 7 or 8 different products, if your BB cream is well formulated, you could use just the one, and achieve the same results!

But, as they often do, by the time BB creams made it to the American markets, it had been...well, Americanized, and wasn't quite the wonder cream it'd been when it initially began gaining ground overseas. Now, many consider BB cream to be an equivalent to tinted moisturizer, or more like a lightweight foundation.

Maybelline (who we'll hear from their BB Cream entry later this week), promises that their BB cream performs 8 functions - "Blurs imperfections, Brightens, Evens skin tone, Smooths, hydrates, enhances, Protects with SPF 30, and 0% oils and heavy ingredients."

Now, never mind that many other products on the market do that exact same thing. And, never mind that many of those listed things are simply euphemisms for each other. That's a handy thing, if I can get all that in one shot, mama want!

Do you need BB Cream in your life? It kind of depends. If you're like me, and you've got pretty good skin generally, maybe just a little ruddiness to cover over, or a little dullness you're hoping to brighten up, then yes, BB cream is a good product for you. You'd probably also be satisfied with it's sister, CC cream. If you're not one with just a little ruddiness to cover over, you've got real skin problems of some sort - acne, etc., then you're going to simply want more coverage than a BB Cream will offer.

If you opt to use BB Cream, then it goes on in your beauty routine in place of foundation. Or, for the boost I guess, it goes on under your foundation - if you want the extra coverage.

I've got FOUR different kinds of BB Cream I'll be trying out this week, for your singing and dancing pleasure. See you back here tomorrow!