I recently had an opportunity to try the new Magic BB Cream from L'Oreal. I started wearing makeup in junior high school, and back then the prevailing mentality was that if you were going to wear makeup, you needed to wear foundation to protect your skin. Beauty products have changed a lot over the years, mostly for the better, and now, we have options regarding what type of coverage we want. Because my skin has an uneven tone and color, I most often still opt for a light foundation. It just helps me get a more even look. However, because my skin is so dry, it almost always looks like I am wearing makeup. I am never able to achieve that dewy, fresh faced look. This product really appealed to me, in the hopes that I could finally get that look.Magic BB Cream says it primes, perfects, hydrates, and corrects. Sadly, I found it lacking in all those areas. If something is a primer, to me, that says it can be worn under regular foundation. However, when I tried this, my makeup looked very thick and caked on. I only used a small amount of the Magic BB cream, as well as a small amount of foundation, but it still looked like I was wearing stage makeup, not a good look. Since the product claims to hydrate, I also tried using it without first moisturizing my skin; once again, the results were disastrous. My skin looked so dry, and the pigment in the Magic BB cream was concentrated on those areas of dry skin, so again, I looked like I was wearing a lot of makeup, despite the fact that this is a minimal coverage products.
I found that the best way for me to use this product is by first moisturizing my skin as I normally would, then using Magic BB cream in place of foundation. However, those claims to perfect and correct were also a let down to me, so I need to use spot corrector and undereye concealer, as well as powder. And the results? Well, they look the same as when I wear foundation. The big difference is I feel like I am not wearing makeup at all. And that is certainly a plus.
I think one of the reasons I ran into so many problems is that I chose the wrong color of Magic BB cream. I have fair skin; I always use a fair foundation and the lightest concealer. So, it stood to reason that I would need the lightest shade of Magic BB cream. When I opened it to use it, however, the cream is nearly white. It is very light, and I think that is the reason it fails to even my skin tone and cover up imperfections. While this is no fault of the product itself, consumers to need to be aware how very light (white really) the shade is in order to properly match their skin tones.
In summary, I think this product has a lot of potential for some women, but I just do not think it was a great match for me. I think L'Oreal foundation is probably better suited to my coverage needs than the Magic BB Cream.
Note: I received a complimentary product courtesy of SheSpeaks and L'Oréal for review purposes. All opinions are honest and original.
