Review: Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector (or BB Cream)

There has been lots of buzz about this new product Garnier put on the market just recently. It’s supposed to be the first BB Cream produced for Non-Asian people. BB Creams are in fact blemish balms (hence the BB) that have been Asian women’s go to products for years. The problem was that the color tones of Asian BB creams never matched up with Westerners’ skin tones. Garnier tries to put an end to that and here is why I purchased it and my thoughts.

Garnier BB Cream

I purchased this product because I’m not really into day creams and foundations as they make my skin feel gross. The best part of this product is that it is not a make up product, but a skin care product. It is a day cream, but with some color to it to cover up redness and other parts of your face that you would otherwise cover in foundation or concealer. I don’t like the feel of foundation on my skin and because I have dry skin. It usually makes my skin look worse rather than better. Especially around my nose it will start to adhere to flakes of skin making it look like I’m a snake ready to shed. This makes it necessary for me to use a good moisturizer, but all the creams I’ve tried just sit on my skin and don’t seem to do anything but make my skin greasy. So that combined with the fact that creams and foundations making me feel yucky, made me not use it at all. Until now.

I purchased the BB cream on Monday and have been using it ever since. I love it and I hope to tell you why in the rest of this review. Let’s look at what Garnier says first of all.

Discover the BB Cream secret – a new generation of skincare that combines the best of skincare with the benefits of make-up in one application! New Miracle Skin Perfector has a lightweight formula with vitamin C and mineral pigments to deliver long-lasting hydrating care with SPF15 UV filters and a light touch of make-up for instantly visible, radiant results. Quickly & perfectly it unifies, corrects, brightens, moisturises & protects!

Now the SPF 15 I could do without. I don’t get a lot of sun to begin with so I treasure every ray I can catch, but in the light of aging skin it is a plus I guess. Other than that they promise to moisturize your skin and to correct it. In all it should give you healthier and better looking skin. Let’s look at the product to test these claims shall we?

The packaging

Plain and simple packaging. Me likies. I really don’t like products that look as if someone from the Barok era had their way with it. It also comes in a handy tube: you just squirt out a bit of the product and that’s it. It’s clean, hygienic and easy to use.

The cream itself

I have the BB cream in the color light, but this still looks a bit dark for me. The cream is nice and thick, yet still soft. It feels like whipped cream and is easy to spread out. It feels great on my face and it is absorbed by my skin wonderfully. This really is the first cream that is easy to wear and doesn’t just ‘sit’ on top of it. It also doesn’t rub off during the day.

Blendability

As you can see, the cream seems a bit dark for me here, but it is very blendable and if you just keep rubbing it will flawlessly match your skin. Even when you are NW15 like me! Because, yes, you can see that I have something on, but if I had covered my entire hand with it, you wouldn’t have seen the difference.

left: bare skin, right: with BB cream

Now on to the real test: does it work? Does it makes your skin look better? Does it reduce redness? Does it make your skin more glowy and healthy looking? Well judging by the picture above I think you can say yes. It is not hardcore coverage that you get, so if you really have bad spots you would still need a concealer, but it makes your complexion look 10x better. Another great thing is that it is buildable: need to reduce some more redness?, just put on a thin extra layer.

I’m actually loving this product. It really does make a difference whether or not I’m wearing this. To me, this really offers the best of both worlds as it moisturizes my skin as well as evening it out ever so slightly. I guess that if your skin has more blemishes and not just some redness like mine, you will need a foundation to cover it all up, but if your skin is not that bad and you still want to take proper care of it and make it look better without looking like you’re wearing a ton of make up, then this is a product you may want to consider.

The only slight turn off I can find about it is the smell. It smells sort of sweet, like they fused it with perfume. I don’t like scented creams as perfume does not always agree with my skin. However, after using it a few days I came to like it and I don’t even notice it anymore. Also, I didn’t break out or anything like that, so maybe it’s a natural scent rather than perfume.

Q: Are you looking to purchasing Garnier’s new BB cream?