Golden Oldies

Hey guys, today I'm reviewing a product that I might be needing sometime soon, an anti-ageing BB cream. Unlike a lot of women, being on the wrong side of 25 doesn't really bother me, my gran is 76 and acts like a 21 year old so I know age is just a number! However I can totally understand being a little upset when your skin loses firmness and wrinkles appear, so I'm already having a little look about to see what wonder potions there are out there. This BB Cream is by L'Oreal and claims to fight 10 (yes 10!) signs of ageing. I didn't even know there WERE 10 signs but cool, whatever. I had three samples of these sent to me, in the medium shade, through their Facebook page I believe.

These samples are all pretty generous, I didn't even need half of one for my whole face. This is on my hand when I have a bit of fake tan on (couple of shades darker than normal) so the shade is really far too dark for paler skins, but fine for me with a tan which is around NW20. I like that it tends to a neutral tone rather than orange, and I have to say even on the skin it didn't oxidise too much so stayed pretty much the same colour.
Before and afters:

Before (obviously)

After

As you can see, it has smoothed out my skin tone completely and evened out the coloration, but it is quite waxy until you set it with powder, highlighting any already shine-prone areas. It also does not cover blemishes, which I consider to be a main point of BLEMISH balm?? I had to go over problem areas with concealer, which is fine but something I wouldn't expect from a product like this. After setting and putting the rest of my makeup on this is the finished article:

I did like the finished feel of the BB cream on my skin, but I noticed around my jaw it had gone a little patchy so tried to blend it lightly with my finger. Unfortunately, it rolled off in little rubbings leaving that part of my jaw bare!! So don't touch it when it's set is the moral of that story. As for the rest of my face, I have used Too Faced Brow-nies Eyebrow pencil, Avon Glazewear lipgloss in Iced Pink, Mac Mocha Blusher, Benefit They're Real mascara, Natural Collection eyeliner in brown and an ANCIENT neutal eyeshadow pallette from The Body Shop that doesn't even have the name on it any. Oh and Too Faced Candlelight Powder. Loads of makeup for a no-makeup look, that's quite scary!

Anyway, I would recommend this for older, dryer skins. Perhaps 35+ skins would benefit from this more than I have, it's a bit too thick and waxy when it goes on, and not flexible enough to be manipulated once set. I'll give the other two sachets to my mum and see how she gets on with them. The one major bonus is it did stay on for at least six hours and the colour was great, a couple of people at work thought I had caught the sun!

6/10 for me but generally 8/10, I would not purchase this sadly

No 7 Beautiful Skin BB Cream

Hey lovely ladies! The sun has reappeared in Scotland so I'm in a wonderful mood today :) Hope it's shining down on you too wherever you are. On my spending rampage shopping spree the other day I ended up in Boots, as always, and they had their deal on where if you spend over £5 you get a voucher which gives you £5 off No7 and £5 off perfume. I managed to resist buying perfume, but this is a great deal on No7 products as most of them are between £7 and £15 pounds. This is what I got!

Normally £12.95, getting this for £7.95 was pretty good, you get 30ml for this and it has an SPF of 15 which will come in handy over the summer. I like the fact that there are three different skin types available: Normal/Oily, Normal/Dry, and Dry/Very Dry. They both come in two shades, fair and medium which made me worry that the fair would be too light for me but when I swatched it in store it was fine! This is what it says on the pack:

I can't say that I'm in love with the packaging. Now I LOVE shiny things, but when it impairs reading the text on the box it's more of a pain than anything else. I had to retake these pics at least 5 times each to show the text as well as that. Bit annoying to be honest, I know this doesn't affect the product's performance but it's not user-friendly at all. This is what the tube itself looks like:

It's fine, well made, sturdy but not particularly nice, and the colour looks kind of medicinal. I think they could have done a lot more with the packaging, but it's easy to use and that's all that matters. Onto the product itself:

This is a thick, creamy substance, slightly glossy when it comes out like there could be gel part to it. It blends very well, doesn't go on streaky or leave lines. There is no scent or if there is I can't smell it! You don't need too much to cover your face and it thankfully doesn't turn orange as the day goes on. I wore this to the gym and remained shine free. The only tiny criticism is if you have any dry or flaky bits, it does make these more obvious so I would recommend exfoliating before use. Now for some before and after pics:

Before, warts and all in the name of science (well sortof lol).

After, not retouched in any way.

I really like this coverage, as you can see I have some discolouration, redness and freckles which come through. This has smoothed out my pores and totally evened out my skin tone without making it look like I have foundation on. I can still see enough of my freckles for it to look like my natural skin, just better.

I am so glad I picked this up and would urge others to do the same. Be warned, it will not cover large blemishes so don't get disappointed if you are expecting full coverage. This is the perfect product for summer on days where your skin is fairly clear but you want some cover and SPF.

10/10 for the product, 5/10 for the packaging, but I still would highly recommend. 

Garnier Skin Perfector BB Cream

We're all searching for an easy solution to give us perfect skin, and BB creams seem to be the answer. So when I saw Garnier's answer to the BB cream on a deal on Boots website (£7.49 instead of £9.99) I had to have it! The phrase "Miracle Skin Perfector" is a big promise but a great tagline.

The shade I bought was the fair one, there is also a medium but a lot of BB creams seem to be quite orange toned, and I found this to be darker than expected too. The consistency is a lot thicker than expected, and it is TOTALLY different to the L'Oreal BB cream I reviewed here. It is skin toned, which is nice but it has slightly gel-like or waxy feel to it, which I was worried about with my skin being oily.

You can even see the shine on the cream in the photo! It was a bit sludgy feeling, yuck! But smelled really nice and fruity. The tube is easy to use and fairly hygienic, and you get 50ml which is pretty good value for money. Now, onto the results: This is before

Now for after, check the colour difference!!



Can you SEE the waxiness?? Not really the matte look I was aiming for, but this could be due to the fact that this product is meant to be moisturising, and also has an SPF in it. Overall, I would say this is a great product for dry to combination skin, and if you have oily skin this really needs set with powder. I wore this for a full day the other day, and other than needing the powder topped up after 5 hours I felt this lasted really well. I did try to resist touching my skin due to the Madame Tussauds feel, though.

If you like looking perfect but a bit shiny, this is for you. If not, avoid like the plague.

6/10 and I would not repurchase, unfortunately.

L'Oreal Nude Magique BB Cream

So, like any good student, I sign up for any freebies going, and was sent a little sample of this through the post along with L'Oreal's new foundation. Unfortunately it was the medium tone, which was waaaay too dark for me and made me look like I'd been tangoed! Even then, though, I could see the potential of this product. I noticed a girl at my work had it and she loved it, so when I saw it on a deal in Superdrug the other day I snaffled it for my collection. Bad Emma- must stop spending!

Anyhoo, this BB cream isn't a BB cream in the classic South Korean sense, in fact it is almost nothing like those creams. For one thing it isn't a cream, and it isn't skin toned at all. When you squeeze this out, it is very runny, VIOLET, with little blue beads in it. The idea is that the beads burst on your skin and somehow cleverly adapt to your skin tone. This concept literally blows my mind, I don't get how that can work unless there is a foundation inside the bubbles already? Sigh. Anyway, it does work and you can see the liquid changing colour on your skin as you rub it in. It does change colour a little in the minutes after application, so I tend to put it on, then check it after five mins to either top up or adjust any lines that have magically appear.

Once on it really feels feather light and you feel fresh faced, but still covered. For day-to-day wear this is a really good product at a great price. They are currently buy one get one half price in Superdrug with all the L'Oreal products, and in Boots they are two for £14. I also got a lovely lippie which I will review next!

8/10, might repurchase if I don't find another BB cream I prefer first.