L’Oreal Magic Skin Beautifier: The Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde Line Of BB Creams

By Kate Amatuzzo on March 24, 2016@kateamatuzzo

Over the past few months, my skin has succumbed to the wear and tear of winter. It happens every year, right around the end of February my entire body collectively gasps, “I NEED SUNLIGHT,” but I am helpless to come to its aid. I live in Erie, PA, the second snowiest city in the USA (no, seriously…we’ve won awards for it), when winter hits — it hits hard.

When the weather isn’t cooperating, there’s a good chance your skin will revolt as well. My skin’s winter mutiny makes me feel more oily than normal and I find that makeup leaves my skin with a dull, boring sheen, which is why I was delighted to come across L’Oreal’s line of Magic Skin Beautifier BB Creams at Target one gloomy Thursday.

According to L’Oreal’s website, the BB Creams have, “4 Beautifying Actions in 1. Hydrates, Corrects, Perfects, Neutralizes. [Resulting in a] Flawless Bare Skin Finish.”

These all sounded like great things and my skin was definitely in need of a pick me up. Now, I love to try new beauty products, but I find it difficult to shell out more than $10 per product unless I have a strong recommendation. So, $7 at Target was a great price for me to indulge my curiosity.

I decided to try the anti-redness BB cream, which utilizes the concept of neutralizing redness with the

My face, or Mount Doom?

color green. This is an idea I have been following for a while, as I have struggled with acne all of my life and have quite a bit of scarring from it. I’m also about as pale as they come, so any light blemish looks like Pompeii on its most active day.

When I brought the tube home, I was really excited to try it. If this product worked well, I hoped to cut back on my concealer and foundation usage, which I specifically use

HULK EXFOLIATE!

to cover up my acne. When I opened the tube, I was surprised to find that the product was more of a liquid than an actual cream. I also found that you need to use great caution when squeezing the tube because if you’re overly zealous — your bathroom sink will look like the Hulk sneezed all over your vanity.

When I applied the cream to my face, I found that a little bit goes a long way. It’s rather thin when properly applied, but you don’t need much to see a difference.

You can see the difference with just the BB cream applied.

Before and after of me wearing the anti-redness cream

Overall, I was thrilled with this product. I haven’t used concealer to hide my acne since—well, it’s been so long that I don’t remember. The BB cream works so well to neutralize the areas with extra redness that I even considered just wearing the primer by itself.

A word of caution: you truly don’t need much of this stuff to make an impact. If you are heavy handed with your application, you may end up with a bit of an orange glow. I only try to put this over the areas with acne scars now. I have never applied it directly to my entire face.

But, do you know what I did apply to my entire face? L’Oreal’s Anti-Fatigue BB Cream. I was so impressed with the anti-redness tube that I gladly forked over another $7 for another product from the line, hopeful that it would bring me a healthy glow amidst the 100+ inches of snow we were

Me wearing the anti-fatigue cream

receiving.

Personal note: did you know if you apply orange-tinted makeup during the winter months when the landscape is blanketed with snow flurries, your skin will look like a jack-o-lantern? No? You didn’t know that? Apparently, neither did I.

I couldn’t stop laughing at my reflection in the mirror. I’m sure somebody, somewhere was using this product and getting great results, I was not that person. I actually started wondering, “What type of skin would you need to make this product work?” Would you need to have a naturally darker complexion? Or would you just have to be an Oompa Loompa?

In Conclusion…

Maybe it’s Maybelline

The anti-redness cream worked great, the anti-fatigue cream — not so much — but I am still tempted to try the rest of L’Oreal’s BB Cream line (along with their CC creams). My goal is to break away from all foundations and use them sparingly, although I do love, love, love L’Oreal’s Infallible Pro-Matte Foundation (it’s what I used in my photos after the BB cream).

The other great news? If your 2016 Halloween costume happens to be an Oompa Loompa, you’re all set!