Battle of the BB Creams continues!

ICYMI: Round One and Round Two. My verdicts were that Wet N Wild's entry was none too shabby, but was a little color grabby. And Maybelline didn't particularly make a BB Cream, but what they did actually make was very nice.

At any rate, on to round three!

This round, we're on to Olay!

Olay Fresh Effects, they of the beautiful and bright packaging, threw their hat in to the BB Cream ring. And, since I spent most of the Maybelline entry crabbing about the fact that I think Maybelline actually made a foundation and just called it a BB Cream, let me be clear - of all the drug store BB Creams that I've tried, Olay Fresh Effects comes the closest to what I imagine the Eastern market BB Creams to be like. It's not just a light coverage foundation. It's a lotion. That just happens to be tinted. Which, just to point out the probably obvious, means that if you're one of our oily skinned sisters, this is probably not your jam, it's probably too emollient for you. And if you're one of our dry skinned sisters, this will probably be among your favorites.

My before shot came out just a tad blurry, but in the sake of...making everything equal (?) I'm going to run it anyway. Rounds one and two also included bare faced shots of me, if you really feel the need to get a good look at my no makeup wearin' mug. :D

I think at this point, I had on a bit of mattifying lotion, and that was about it. Pretty good skin day, as they go. Little redness, some uneven texture issues (which no BB Cream, regardless of how awesome, is going to fix...). None too shabby.

After shot. 

My skin certainly looks brighter, and has a bit of polish to it that it didn't before. But notice how the red around the nose is still visible? So the coverage is to the lighter side. Although I suppose if coverage was that much of a sticking point for me, I'd be discussing foundations, not BB Creams, right?

And I've found that in the past, I've also had trouble with this BB Cream grabbing my powder cosmetics. In fact, in person, my chin looked pretty orange. I applied my bronzer with the biggest, fluffiest brush that I had. 

The Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream though, loses out with me for one problem, and unfortunately, it's one you can't really see all that well in the pictures. Simply - it runs warm. The colors are warm. And I'm not - I actually fancy myself a bit of a Neutral tone. I've found that warm colors make me look cool toned, and the cool makes me look warm. 

So the "flaws" in this cream - couldn't completely camouflage the redness around my nose, little color grabby with the bronzer, scented for some inexplicable reason...those are all things I can look over. And if your skin runs to the dry side, you should overlook them too, cause this is a good product. It's just warm, and I'm not. Although, given that it's January and I'm in Michigan, I'd sure like to be. ;)

So so far, the winner in the "Battle of the BB Creams" is Maybelline, just by default. I stand by my contention that they didn't make a BB Cream at all, but when your competition is color grabby (Hi, Wet N Wild!) and limited in color choices (Hi, Olay!), you come out lookin' alright.

One more cream in our "battle!" See you next time!

Test...don't mind me...

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Battle of the BB Creams, Round Two!

(If you missed Round One!)

Today, we're talking Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream!

The beauty shot, as it were:

I don't have a lot to complain about with this one, actually. The colors are nice (they run a little pink, so if you're of the pink toned persuasion, you'll get along nicely with these), no overbearing scents - which is a problem I grumble about semi-frequently. Nice wear time, everything is very good.

My biggest problem?

Maybelline made a light/medium coverage foundation, and called it a BB Cream. I mean...I'm not in their marketing department, they can do whatever they want. But it even says balm right in the title. When you think of a balm, what do you think of? A nice, rich, emollient cream, right? You're not getting that here. You're getting a liquid foundation. 

At any rate - despite the fact that I don't think this is a BB cream at all, it's not terrible. When I actually had this on, I had about three minutes to finish my makeup, get some decent snaps, and get myself and my son out of the house, so I look like a crazy, crazy, crazed woman in all the pictures. So I swatched this one on the back of my hand instead. Please to enjoy;

Bare handed. Similarly to my face (which I've shown you before), little ruddiness, that red you see in the center is a scar from a surgery a couple of summers ago, otherwise, nothing major to cover up.

Covered. Nice, right?

To be clear - I don't think this is a bad product at all. I really don't. Nice coverage, wears well, good color match, no offensive odors. It's everything you'd want in a bb cream light coverage foundation. So I guess my only dispute is in truth in advertising. Make a foundation. That's fine. Chances are good I'll end up buying it eventually regardless. Just, in your chase to be first to the US market with a BB cream, don't make a foundation, and then tell me you made a BB cream. No, you didn't! You made a foundation!

So, while I generally like this BB Cream a lot, and have been pretty specifically grumpy about the fact that I don't think it's a BB Cream at all, in the spirit of the "Battle of the BB Creams", between Wet N Wild and Maybelline, I'd have to tell you to pick Maybelline. This is good for those days where your skin is pretty good, you just need a little extra oomph. :)

Tomorrow, round three!

Until then!

Battle of the BB Creams, Round ONE!

All week, I'm featuring various BB Creams. Mainly to compare them to each other, and partly because...well, because I've got a lot of them. So let's talk BB Creams!

Yesterday, I explained what a BB Cream is. Sort of a heavy weight tinted moisturizer (some brands have actually phased out their tinted moisturizer, in favor of the popularity of BB Creams), or a light weight foundation, depending on the brand you're working with.

Today, we're talking:

Fergie for Wet N Wild's BB Cream 8 in 1 beauty balm!

This product came out with much the consistency of a foundation. I wouldn't have thought anything was amiss if it'd said it was one in fact. No funky smells, nothing seemed out of the ordinary in any way. Stellar so far!

And just for the sake of comparisons, this is the face I'm working with:

Little ruddy, little uneven in places, but nothing terrible right? Right. Nothing a BB Cream shouldn't be able to handle.

I washed my face with the Aveeno Positively Ageless face wash, applied the Aveeno Day Cream, and L'Oreal Revitalift Miracle Blur. Used a foundation brush to apply the BB Cream. After application;

See, this is where me and this BB Cream start to run off the rails with each other a little. Coverage is good, not great. See the left side of my nose (right side, as you're looking at the photo). See how it's still visibly red? See how the blemish by my lip is still pretty pink too? See me being annoyed with that?

Let's not lie to each other - the color match is pretty impeccable. This is "Light", and it's probably right up there with the best matched foundations/BB Creams I've ever worn. But if it's not covering everything, then it doesn't make much of a difference.

Also, it never fully absorbed in to my skin. I had to powder over it, to get that slightly tacky feeling to go away.

After powder, bronzer, blush, eyebrow wax, and mascara;

Notice how I look...kind of splotchy? And how what looked like a excellent color match in the last picture no longer really does?

Meet my biggest problem with this BB Cream - the color grabbing! I used my typical brushes, and my typical technique, and my typical product, and began trying to do a speedy little contour. I do that a lot, should have been no big deal. The BB Cream grabbed up the color, as if I were rubbing the bronzer compact directly on to my skin. Which I did not! I buffed and buffed and buffed, and was able to get the color to lighten up some, but there's still some visible splotchies. And just to test, to make sure that it wasn't that my bronzer had gone weird, I swatched both my highlight and contour shades on the inside of my arms. They were not the guilty parties on this one, it was hands down the BB Cream.

Just to put them all next to each other:

My verdict? Unless you plan to wear nothing but the BB cream and translucent powder, skip it.

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!

Go, go, Electro!

(From left: Minty Sheer, Pink Shock, Oh! Orange!)

Maybelline Baby Lips and I have a weird relationship. Like, I don't want to admit that I like them...but I also own like 10 of them. So we've apparently got a better than average relationship with each other.

A friend noticed me carrying in my pocket, and asked what they were like, and if she could swatch it on her hand. I said she could, and I made a comparison that was probably more apt than I realized at the time, even. Without thinking, I went "They're like Lip Smackers, for grown ups!"

Think about it - I'm right! Tinted, but not overly so. Flavored, but not overly so. Mostly just a nice, low maintenance gloss, that looks flashy coming out of your pocket, and has completely worn off in about an hour.

Now to be fair, that makes it sounds like I don't like these at all. And I do. Gives a quick, easy, glossy lip. Little color - the color varies a little. Like, in this electro set, the pink and orange have more pigment to them than the green color does. Which might not be what everyone is after, some people would happily rock a neon green gloss all day long. It's not my scene though. :D

I wore this pink a lot over the summer. Bright and kicky, looked nice with a tan.

If you're looking for a low maintence, glossy little kick, that's easy to carry in any pocket or bag that you've got, you'll like these. The biggest critique I see of these is that they're not long lasting - if you're looking for long lasting...keep looking, you haven't found it.

A few swatches;

On the inside of my arm:

Each color, of course, is next to it's respective swatch on my arm, of course. Little bit of pigment - some, not a lot.

Swatches of me in each respective balm. In a moment of girlish insecurity, I had planned to crop these pictures - apparently, new face wash, new primer, new foundation and new makeup brushes make your makeup get weird. Who knew, amirite? But turns out, crops...magnify things. And far away bad things are less awful than close up bad things, as a general rule. See what I mean? Learning new things about blogging every week!

A collage, so I'm not boring you with piles of pictures I've already confessed to not liking. And I'm sure they're just fine, we all know full well we're our own worst critics, but just the same.

At any rate, that's me, from left to right, in Minty Sheer, Pink Shock, and Oh! Orange! Each tinted, glossy, nice. Wears well, but not for a long time - which most of their critics are quick to point out. You know what I think I might like most about these? Coming it at an average price point of $3, they're great for when you need that "new makeup" fix, or your look needs a little pick me up, but don't have a lot of money to spend. Maybe that's part of the friendship we've developed. 

Some stores are closing out their Electro colors, so if you're intrigued enough to try any of these for yourself, you might want to act fast!

The eyeshadow, by the by, is from the Wet N Wild "Comfort Zone" 8 pan shadow kit, which is so awesome, it practically deserves a blog of it's very own.

Like Maybelline? Me too! I talk about it all the time!

Wet N Wild ... Thursday?

Two weeks or so ago now, I posted several nail polish swatches from the Wet N Wild Megalast line of nail polish swatches. I had a little bit of difficulty photographing them, but they looked good on my laptop, and I published them. (See them here.)

I checked out the blog on the computers at the library yesterday, and long story short, I came straight home and reshot all the pictures!

Wet N Wild's nail polishes are free of toluene, pthalate and formaldehyde. They have a wide brush (you can do your whole nail in about three strokes!), and go on smooth and easy. The colors, or the ones I've got experience with thus far anyway, come out really true to what you see in the bottle - so I know that I'm pretty pale, and I'm swatching the polishes on a white nail wheel, but they all come out looking true to the bottle every time.

Wet N Wild promises you five days of chip free color, and that's pretty universally what you get. You might get six if you're lucky, but that's about it. Although of course, having said that, I don't have a job where I use my hands a lot. If you do, you may not get five.

I've gotten the most comments about "Under Your Spell", a nice brownish red with a light glitter running through it. Although I think Heatwave - a bright summery orange - may be my favorite so far.

"Haze of Love", a really pretty deep mauve. When I looked at it, I immediately thought of "Marsala", which was just named Color of the Year (oh yeah, that's a thing...), which makes this color so on trend right now, that it's out of control. If you don't own this, you need it. Sephora is selling Marsala nail colors for between $10 and $20 a bottle. Wet N Wild has your back for $2. Yes! Do this!

"Heatwave", a straight up, no foolin', orange. If you're one who always wants your colors to be seasonally on point, Heatwave isn't your guy now, but remember him come summer! You'll want this one!

"On A Trip", a fantastic, kicky lavender. No glitter, no foolin'. I can see this one being super fun like, in the Spring when you're out hunting for Easter eggs, right?

"Through The Grapevine", a deeper purple. Not as much red to it as "Haze of Love", more of a true purple. It's not quite a marsala, but it's probably close enough that you could fake it. 

"Under Your Spell", a nice red-brown, that has a slight bit of fine glitter running through it. This is the one that I get the most comments on when people see it. I don't know that I think it's the most unique one of the group (I think that honor probably goes to Heatwave, at least so far), but it's quite the eye catcher!

I appreciate the care that Wet N Wild puts in to their packaging. It's an inexpensive line, but their packaging doesn't look it. Look at this;

You could see each of these bottles turn up at any nail salon, and you wouldn't question it. You want a splurge feeling, on a didn't splurge budget? Wet N Wild is your brand!

(Bottles are pictured in order; Haze of Love, Heatwave, On A Trip, Through The Grapevine, Under Your Spell. Unfortunately, the bottle pictures were not reshot)