BB Cream

BB huh? I know I didn't get it either. “BB” stands for blemish balm or beauty balm. The cream was originally designed and used by a German surgeon to speed healing after post-peel and laser treatments on his clients. He also designed it to hide redness and help with inflammation.  
The product was picked up by the Koreans, and their celebrities started to attribute their flawless skin to the product. It's also said that the average women's skin care routine in Asia is an astonishing 7 steps. Apparently Asia has been holding out on us girls because this cream is a moisturizer/sunscreen/foundation/concealer all in ONE fantastic tube, with soothing, healing and anti-aging benefits. It's no wonder the craze took off with feverish panic in the Asian community! 7 steps? Yeah, ok, not in our insanely fast paced world.


Now, how and where do you buy it? Looking into this further I found that different companies concentrate on different problems:

• hydration
• anti-aging
• redness
• acne control
• skin lightening (most Asian brands)

Decide what you are after and make sure you read the packaging. 


After reading many blogs, and articles a trend started to appear. Here are the top 5 brands for BB cream in the US as far as I can tell:

1. Garnier Skin Renew ~ You can get it for under 15 bucks at Target
2. Bobby Brown ~ comes in 3 different shades with SPF 35
3. MAC prep + prime bb ~ SPF 35 and sold out online! So go directly to a MAC store
4. Estee Lauder Day Wear BB ~ comes in 2 shades with SPF 35
5. Smashbox Camera Ready BB ~ comes in 5 different shades with SPF 35