Gone are the days of caking your face! Girls have smartened up to looking flawless with minimal foundation!
And the brands are helping us perfect our face with lightweight, barely there foundation that looks natural!
For the past couple of months I’ve been using lighter foundations than usual. Because of my pigmentation, I prefer full coverage, but have managed to get great finishes with these products. The BB creams have been rolling in, and I have reviewed a couple of them, but for today’s post, I’ll mention only the newer ones that I haven’t featured before.
Okay, so here we go… Operation: Natural Foundation
Stila Stay all Day 10-in-1 HD Beauty Balm
This beauty balm is awesome! Quite ironic to think that it only comes in one shade, and yet matches my skin perfectly! It preps and primes the skin, covers imperfections, hides minor wrinkle lines, all while it gives you flawless cover and additional skin protection!
A lot of beauty balms give that you that “dewy” look, which is great if you have perfect skin! For me, I like a product that mattifies my skin. That way I can just fake my glow with highlighters! Sneaky Sneaky! This BB Balm from Stila offers the best of both worlds! It mattifies my skin just enough, but gives it a slight natural glow without being greasy!
With Stila Stay All Day 10-in-one HD Beauty Balm, I can literally go from washing my face to applying this product! I only need to use a little bit of concealer to hide the more serious imperfections and I’m done! It also comes in a supersize tube of 45ml! A lot of the products in today’s review are mostly 30ml (with the exception of Decleor which is 40).
If I had to pick a BB cream right now, that tops my list, this one would have to be it! Don’t get me wrong, I like all the BB creams I have reviewed on StyleScoop (and all for different reasons), but skin generally changes with the season, so if you had to put me on the spot, this second and asked me to pick my fave BB balm, Stila would come out on top!
Price R395/ 45ml
Works out to R8.70 per ml
BUY THIS PRODUCT ONLINE HERE FOR R349.95 and save R45! Works out to R7.77 per ml! BONUS
DECLEOR Hydra Floral BB Creme
If I had to pick a product based on most amazing smell, Decleor Hydra Floral Multi-Protection BB Cream would be my top choice! I friggin love the floral scent of this one! It transports me to a beautiful summer garden! I think I’ll definitely pack this one when I go on holiday next month.
On my BB cream list, this one also ranks pretty high! It has that skin perfecting ability, where I only need to use a tiny bit of concealer to cover completely. It’s slightly (and I mean slightly) more dewy than the Stila HD Beauty Balm on my skin. With this one, I found that I did need to powder my skin with blotting powder, just to keep it looking natural and shine free!
Being a skin smart brand, Declor’s BB Cream works as a 24 hour moisturizer and skin protectant. It’s also has an SPF of 15 which I like!
Price R395/ 40ml
Works out to R9.80 per ml
Smashbox Camera Ready CC Cream
It’s no typo! Just when you got used to BB creams, out come the CC creams! CC cream is basically your complexion correcting cream, and works in a similar manner to BB cream, with the focus being on reducing dark spots and uneven skintone.
Smashbox Camera Ready CC Cream is available in five shades; fair, light, light/medium, medium and dark. On my skin, I used Medium, which I think may have been a wee bit on the dark side – however, come summer, it will be an ideal shade for me!
It’s also packed with broad spectrum SPF 30, so a perfect summer product!
You can use it on it’s own or under foundation! For me, while it helped to even out the patchy areas, it didn’t seem to last long on it’s own, so I used it under a very light veil of foundation, which worked like a dream!
Price R390/ 30ml
Works out to R13 per ml
GOSH BB Cream
Here is another BB Cream that offers SPF (this one is SPF 15). GOSH BB Cream All in One works like most BB creams, in that it is a foundation, primer and moisturizer all rolled into one.
It comes in five shades that adapt to various skin colours – as long as you choose the one closest to your skintone.
The four shades include; 01 Sand, 02 Beige, 03 Warm Beige, 04 Chestnut and 05 Espresso. I tried out the shade Chestnut, which was a tad too much on the dark side.
Ironically, I have GOSH X-Ceptional Wear Foundation in the colour 19 Chestnut (which suits me perfectly), but the BB cream Chestnut is much darker and turned out orange on my skin! A tip if you’re buying this product online – dont assume it’s the same colour tone as the X-Ceptional Wear Foundation.
Anyway, to give it a try I tried this one out at home, without going out :). It feels really great on the skin and is quite highly pigmented (that could also just because it was so dark), but covered really well. I found it to be only a little bit lighter in texture, than the GOSH X-Ceptional Wear foundation.
Price R180/ 30ml
Works out to R6 per ml
Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation
The launch of this little guy arrived just in time to include it in my lightweight foundation feature!
Even though the colour I got to sample (Warm Beige) was too dark for my skin, it didn’t leave any streaky marks and blended pretty well, which was very impressive! It wasn’t overly dark, just not the best suited for my skin I guess. It comes in 16 different shades, so can be tricky finding the perfect shade.
I almost spilt out the entire foundation the first time I opened it. I guess I wasn’t quite expecting the bottle opening to be so large. The texture of the foundation is very lightweight and flows, so be careful when opening this foundation.
On the skin, Revlon Nearly Naked Makeup offers a light veil of coverage, so I did need to touch up a few areas with concealer. On it’s own I found that it felt a little bit on the oily side – like a super hydrating moisturizer (which I don’t like in foundation), but the problem was quickly solved, and easily with the Revlon Nearly Naked pressed powder. I am so-so with the foundation, but the pressed powder is in my bag permanently!
Price of the Foundation: R169/ 30ml
Works out to R5.60 per ml
Price of the Pressed Powder: R159/ 8.017g
Works out to R19.80 per gram
Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturizing Balm
I’ve always been a fan of Bobbi Brown foundation products. One of my fave has got to be their Tinted Moisturizer, which I use with their Foundation Stick for a gorgeous, fresh face.
Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturizing Balm is a great product if you’re after that dewy look or have really dry, dehydrated skin! It offers a lovely sheer finish that makes your skin look healthy. On the downside, it doesn’t offer much coverage, so if you have marks you would need to cover them with a concealer or Bobbi Brown’s amazing Foundation Stick.
It comes in 7 shades: Albaster, Extra Light, Light, Light to Medium, Medium, Medium to Dark and Dark. I used Medium to Dark, however Medium is more my colour.
The texture of Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturizing Balm (not to be confused with Bobbi Browns’ BB Balm) reminds me of chocolate mousse. It’s fluffy but not thick and it blends to an almost invisible shade on the skin. It’s also packed with an SPF of 25, as apposed to the Tinted Moisturizer which has an SPF of 15.
If you’re after that dewy complexion, then this product is ideal for you. Personally, after having tried both the moisturizer and balm, I think I prefer the moisturizer (which comes in a tube). The balm comes in a jar and looks so much more special.
Price: R415/ 30ml
Works out to R13.80 per ml
What are some of your favourite lightweight foundations? Have you found one (or two, or three) that you love?