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Trending—Battle of the BB & CC Creams: Fab Over 50 Interviews Tracey Brown for the Lowdown on CC Creams
The one beauty product that made serious waves last year was the magical BB Cream. No, wait..It was the CC Cream. Or was it? What the heck is a BB Cream anyway, and what makes a CC cream so much better than a BB Cream. Did you jump on board with the flood of BB/CC creams introduced to the beauty market in 2012? Did you find that your BB/CC cream exponentially improved your life skin? With BB Creams available in all price points from mass marketed drugstore brands to chi chi luxe BB Creams from prominent prestige brands, there is no loss of these all-in-one cure-all creams for consumption of beauty trend followers. What is a BB Cream? BB Creams, which stand for blemish balm, originated in Germany in the 60s. They didn’t get so popular until recently in Asia where the women discovered BB Creams that had a mix of brightening ingredients in them, and the rest is beauty history. No doubt you have been concocting your own BB Cream all these years. A squirt of moisturizer, a dribble of foundation, a touch of SPF and then slather. Or maybe you applied your treatment product followed by a tinted moisturizer—another predecessor of the BB Cream. Some genius figured out how to combine all the steps and layers of products that women rely upon for everyday gorgeousness and put them in a tube. BB Cream is born. It’s like your tinted moisturizer to the 1o degree. High octane. What is a CC Cream? But whoa. Someone forgot that there is a segment of the market that could care less about blemishes, but more about lines and pigmentation and dry skin. Yes, those of us over 40 and 50 and so on. So, they said, “hey, let’s make a BB cream that corrects skin discoloration—upon application, like makeup, and over time like skin care.” There came the next big thing–BB Cream with roid rage. CC Creams contain ingredients like Vitamin C that increase brightening and improve the texture of the skin. I was put in the middle of a debate of where there is any intrinsic value to a CC Cream, and yes I believe there is. If nothing else, time saving. And what busy women doesn’t want to save 5 minutes of layering on skin care products in the morning? *Waving both hands HIGH in the air* Are all BB & CC Creams created equal? No. Some are oil free. Some have Vitamin C. Some have added humectants. Some have antioxidants. Some have added color for instant complexion correction. They all have the commonality of SPF. So read the label carefully to insure that your BB or CC Cream is right for you. Read about my debate with the CC Cream naysayer here from Fab over 50: Remember when BB creams were the beauty buzzword? Now cosmetic companies are taking it up a letter with the CC cream. First launched in Hong Kong by Rachel K cosmetics in 2011, CC creams contain all the benefits of BB creams, but claim to provide more coverage, targeting an issue particularly relevant to FOFs–uneven skintone. We spoke to two beauty experts, Tracey Brown who sings the praises of CC creams and Dana Ramos, who thinks it’s a marketing gimmick. Now, we want you to tell us what you think. Read the interviews below, then, enter to win Stem Cellular Repair CC Cream by Juice Beauty by answering this question in the comments below: What’s your most bothersome skin issue? What exactly is a CC cream? Tracey: CC stands for color correcting. Cosmetic companies have taken the BB Cream and added more property to it, so it makes skin look better by adding more coverage. Dana: CC creams and BB creams are essentially the same thing–it’s a basic makeup product [tinted moisturizer] with added ingredients to make it more effective. Each company has their own list of added ingredients: some contain peptides, others contain glycolic acid, etc. So there’s no difference between BB creams and CC creams? Tracey: BB cream doesn’t have properties to fix your skin discoloration. The CC cream ingredients and properties help even out your skin tone, age spots, acne scars, and hyperpigmentation. Dana: I don’t see a difference except that CC creams may be more effective in evening out skin tone, whereas BB creams are targeted more toward improving the skin overall–but you will find they each have some of the same ingredients. What skin issues do CC creams treat? Tracey: Dry skin, sun damage, acne, aging skin and shiny or oily skin. Dana: They might make your skin look better when used as makeup, but you’d get that same effect from products that don’t call themselves CC. You might get some sun protection if your CC cream has SPF. But really, you’re getting a little bit of things that are good for your skin, but not to the point that its going to make any real difference. Finish reading here: Tracey’s recommended CC Creams: [portfolio_slideshow id=34659]
Tracey Brown