As much as I love the quietness of winter and the beauty of snow, one thing I find difficult to deal with during this time of year is how pale my already super-fair skin gets, and ultimately how impossible it becomes to shade match. On top of that, even though I have pretty issue-free skin, the winter season has a tendency to dry even my skin out, so during the winter I not only have to find a coverage product that matches my skin tone but also one that doesn’t dry my skin out even more.
Enter in my decision to try Maybelline’s Dream Fresh BB Cream in the shade Light.
When I first saw this BB cream, I was really excited because it looked like a perfect shade match for me, costed only $8 at Ulta, and boasted the following claim on the tube:
The 1-step wonder for a good skin day, everyday. Packed with 8 great skin benefits for instant skin perfection. Ideal for Normal Skin. BB creams combine skincare + makeup in 1 simple step. 8-in-Skin Perfector : • Blurs imperfections • Brightens • Evens skin tone • Smoothes • Hydrates • Enhances • Protects with SPF 30 • 0% oils and heavy ingredients
First of all, let me say that in no way does this product blur imperfections; in fact, it enhances them. The brightening prospect is true, but not in a good way – it brightens in that it illuminates your face with shine, not a dewy complexion. Also, this doesn’t even remotely even out skin tone, given that it actually makes it look streaky and splotchy. As far as smoothing, it does do that fairly well, but ultimately it becomes so smooth on the skin that it literally melts right off in the sun or after a workout. Does this hydrate the skin? Not even close, which irritates me because that’s exactly why I bought this in the first place. Maybelline claims this BB cream enhances, and it does, only the enhancing is not of your best features, it’s of your fine lines and pores. Awesome. The SPF 30 is legitimate, so no complaints there. Additionally, there is no way this product contains 0% oils and heavy ingredients considering it makes you shine to high heaven and ends up feeling like a mask after a few hours of wear. And finally, my biggest problem: this BB cream oxidizes to a level I’ve never experienced before in my life! If you look at the shades offered, the Light shade oxidizes to the point where it looks like the Medium Deep shade, so I can’t even imagine what the darker tones look like when they oxidize, as I’m sure they do as well.
After trying this a few times, every single use I wanted to rush right home and wash it off, which thankfully it does rather easily. Also, I should warn you that this burns quite a bit when you first use it – the company claims that’s just the 8 benefits taking effect, but I expect any BB cream to perform as just that – a cream, not a chemical peel.
If you are looking for a quality, hydrating BB cream for these last few months of winter, the Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream isn’t it. If it can cause issues with super tolerant skin like mine, I shudder at the thought of what it would do to sensitive skin.
1 star rating here – and that’s only because of the price and SPF 30.
