Unless you've been living in a cave for the past few years, you've probably been hearing about
the giant new craze in the beauty industry called BB Cream.
People are always asking me about these multi purpose, magic creams, so here is a little break down on them:
Essentially its a tinted moisturizer that also protects the skin, a sunscreen that also smooths out wrinkles, a foundation that also gets rid of age spots and a primer that has antioxidants.
Beauty Balms are multi tasking work horses that ultimately give you gorgeous, flawless looking skin.
If your skin is normal to dry you can use a moisturizer underneath.
If your skin is normal to oily you can use them alone.
You can use them as a primer under a thin veil of foundation, or you can use them alone instead of a tinted moisturizer.
I was never a fan of tinted moisturizers, as I found it nearly impossible to have an even color, all day with them. By contrast a BB Cream gives you a very thin, sheer, even color, that holds all day.
They generally come in only a few shades - light, medium and dark. (Some lines have a light/medium and a medium/dark as well). The magic lies in the product's "self adjusting, tone blending" ingredients. Somehow they adjust themselves slightly to fit your exact skin tone. You never wind up with color that's streaky or off-tone to your own skin.
What's even more exciting is that they have light diffusing properties that blur out fine lines and wrinkles and make your skin look smoother.
I wear BB's every day instead of foundation. They give the impression of perfect, even skin.
Even though I wore BB cream all winter long, they are also the perfect travel companion, and ideal for the hot summer months.
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A new(ish) BB Cream that has all my attention right now is made by REN. I'm a little obsessed with the entire REN line, as they are a clean skincare company.
REN is all about the three P's: Performance, Purity and Pleasure.
The products are very high performance (I cannot be bothered with any skincare product that I don't see immediate results with. - Its all about the performance), the purity lies in the fact that all natural plant and mineral derived actives are used, with no skin-unfriendly synthetic additives, and the pleasure is all bound up in the smell and the texture of the products. They are just lovely.
Anyway, The REN BB Cream is made with natural mineral pigments that give a lightweight coverage plus has an adaptive color technology, that allows the cream to adjust to most skin types.
You get a glorious satiny finish, the skin looks radiant as well as firmer and more toned.
Another cool thing about the REN BB Cream is that the company looked at ways to harness the benefits of the sun and incorporate them into the product. The cream is made with Noni extract fluorophores, which is a fluorescent chemical compound found in Noni fruit, that can absorb ultraviolet light rays and transform them into a beneficial, elastin boosting red light.
Red light has been shown in studies to stimulate elastin in skin. A double blind full face study showed that faces treated for 60 days with the extract and sunscreen showed a 50% increase in elastin levels.
REN BB Cream also has a mineral derived UVA/UVB protection broad spectrum SPF 15.
As far as I'm concerned the more SPF you can layer on, the better!
You can find REN products at Sephora, or online at www.RenSkinCare.com
the giant new craze in the beauty industry called BB Cream.
 |
| image from Clarins Beauty Balm Campaign |
People are always asking me about these multi purpose, magic creams, so here is a little break down on them:
BB stands for Beauty Balm.
Essentially its a tinted moisturizer that also protects the skin, a sunscreen that also smooths out wrinkles, a foundation that also gets rid of age spots and a primer that has antioxidants.
Beauty Balms are multi tasking work horses that ultimately give you gorgeous, flawless looking skin.
If your skin is normal to dry you can use a moisturizer underneath.
If your skin is normal to oily you can use them alone.
You can use them as a primer under a thin veil of foundation, or you can use them alone instead of a tinted moisturizer.
I was never a fan of tinted moisturizers, as I found it nearly impossible to have an even color, all day with them. By contrast a BB Cream gives you a very thin, sheer, even color, that holds all day.
They generally come in only a few shades - light, medium and dark. (Some lines have a light/medium and a medium/dark as well). The magic lies in the product's "self adjusting, tone blending" ingredients. Somehow they adjust themselves slightly to fit your exact skin tone. You never wind up with color that's streaky or off-tone to your own skin.
What's even more exciting is that they have light diffusing properties that blur out fine lines and wrinkles and make your skin look smoother.
I wear BB's every day instead of foundation. They give the impression of perfect, even skin.
Even though I wore BB cream all winter long, they are also the perfect travel companion, and ideal for the hot summer months.
.JPG)
A new(ish) BB Cream that has all my attention right now is made by REN. I'm a little obsessed with the entire REN line, as they are a clean skincare company.
REN is all about the three P's: Performance, Purity and Pleasure.
The products are very high performance (I cannot be bothered with any skincare product that I don't see immediate results with. - Its all about the performance), the purity lies in the fact that all natural plant and mineral derived actives are used, with no skin-unfriendly synthetic additives, and the pleasure is all bound up in the smell and the texture of the products. They are just lovely.
Anyway, The REN BB Cream is made with natural mineral pigments that give a lightweight coverage plus has an adaptive color technology, that allows the cream to adjust to most skin types.
You get a glorious satiny finish, the skin looks radiant as well as firmer and more toned.
Another cool thing about the REN BB Cream is that the company looked at ways to harness the benefits of the sun and incorporate them into the product. The cream is made with Noni extract fluorophores, which is a fluorescent chemical compound found in Noni fruit, that can absorb ultraviolet light rays and transform them into a beneficial, elastin boosting red light.
Red light has been shown in studies to stimulate elastin in skin. A double blind full face study showed that faces treated for 60 days with the extract and sunscreen showed a 50% increase in elastin levels.
REN BB Cream also has a mineral derived UVA/UVB protection broad spectrum SPF 15.
As far as I'm concerned the more SPF you can layer on, the better!
You can find REN products at Sephora, or online at www.RenSkinCare.com
