L'Oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream: Catering to 5 People, at Most

BB creams are kind of gimmicky. In America, most are just tinted face lotion. DD creams? CC creams? If you pick a letter out of the air, I'm sure someone will name it the new big thing. Anyway, I don't like slapping Revlon Colorstay on my face every day so I thought I'd pick up some drugstore BBs.

The back, if you need ingredients.

Here's the L'Oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream, with "Beautifying Beads; encapsulated pigments infused in an ultra-light lotion with antioxidants Vitamins C&E". L'Oreal claims this BB cream "delivers 4 beautifying actions in 1: hydrates, corrects, evens and perfects. Instantly transforms to your perfect shade for a flawless, bare skin finish. Over time, more beautiful skin" (Source).

Let me skip right to the punch line. Don't buy this BB cream.

First off, why are Beautifying Beads capitalized. Also, how are they beautifying. If you've never used this BB cream, you'll notice it comes out as a white lotion with little round things in it. As you press them and rub them into your skin, they pop and color comes out. It sounds like a neat idea in theory, but damn is that inconvenient. You have no clue what color you're going to get--and if you don't rub it enough, you're going to have weird half-white skin.

"Beautifying Beads" 

This lotion may be "ultra-light", but the problem is it won't be so super light when you have to slap more and more on to cover your gross skin. This product was tinted but at the same time kind of transparent. It basically just sits on your skin. It feels a little greasy. L'Oreal also gets a finger-wag because saying "over time, more beautiful skin" is so vague and unmeasurable that it really shouldn't be said at all. Also, no sunscreen in this BB.

L'Oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream next to Maybelline Dream Fresh BB

It may be a bad product, but L'Oreal's nozzle is snazzy and convenient.

Now the real kicker is the shitty color choices. "Instantly transforms to your perfect shade"? God no. They're so horrendous that unless you're medium toned, pink, have a fake tan, and have relatively clear skin, this BB cream can go straight to the trash. If you have really dark skin, sorry, since L'Oreal only caters to the medium. The colors available are Fair, Light, Medium, and Deep. Somehow, they managed to alienate just about everyone.

I'm pretty pale. Usually I fall under 'ivory' or the 2nd lightest shade so I grabbed Light. Jesus Christ was this awful.

L-R: Unblended gloop, hardly blended but still white, Fair color, Light color.

Yeah, you're seeing that right. The Light shade is fucking orange. I don't think even someone with a fake tan could use this successfully because it's just so damn orange. And guess what, Fair is literally fucking white. There must be a good 10 skin tones between Light and Fair. It looks ok on the back of my hand, but on my face it's white. And I can't tell what the color is supposed to be because of the damn Beautifying Beads. Is it white? Or am I not blending it out enough? It just gives my face a white mask with a pink undertone, so I can't use it either way (since I'm yellow-toned).

Here's my arm zoomed out, to give you a better idea. Note how the Fair shade doesn't cover my faded lipstick swatch.

So overall, this BB cream is supposed to hydrate, correct, even and perfect. It does hydrate, but if you pile on, it's too greasy. It doesn't correct either, since the colors are off and super duper sheer. Again, doesn't even and perfect for those reasons too.

Look, I even put it on my face. Because I hate myself.

I couldn't dare to go outside to take photos. The orange looks even more orange in natural light.
On the rest of my face I've been wearing Maybelline's BB in Light for 10hrs in 100 degree heat. Still looks ok.

Just don't buy it. If you want an affordable but more neutral and more appealing to more skin tones, try Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream. It still is targeted towards the white medium tones, but they lean more neutral. Plus, there's coverage. I have acne and it covers it pretty well and makes the rest of my skin look less blotchy and red.

L'Oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream retails for  ~$10 for 1 ounce. For comparison, Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream retails for ~$7.50 for 1 ounce, depending on where you buy.