BB creams seem to be everywhere at the moment, with almost any brand worth their salt bringing out their own unique version. Blemish Balms, Beauty Balms or whatever you want to call them they all claim to do the same thing which is to conceal and hide imperfections. Always one to be quick to try any new products promising to conceal my imperfections you could say I have tried a few so I was intrigued when one of my favourite go-to affordable brands 'The Sanctuary' released their own version.
I would class BB creams as makeup, verging on a tinted moisturiser with a more pleasing name. So when a brand that primarily focuses on skincare alone releases one, I had to wonder whether they can step up to the mark against other leading brands. Priced at £14.99 this product is a tad pricier than most BB's on the market, although fits perfectly with the pricing structure of a majority of their existing products which I would deem affordable. Available in only two shades its very limited but that seems to be the case with all BB's/tinted moisturisers. I opted for light-medium but fairer skinned ladies might want to avoid as it is fairly dark. With that in mind though, it did match my NC20 tone well when blended. The product itself resembles more of a paste, quite thick unlike standard foundations with shade and texture similarities to that of Benefit You Rebel tinted moisturiser. Despite the consistency it actually blends really well absorbing into the skin comfortably with only needing a small amount of product. The issue I did have is that you have to work pretty quick blending. If you spend too long playing around applying it then I found that the product can thicken slightly in the crevices of your face leaving tiny balls of product which I had to brush off with a kabuki. I'd advise using a makeup brush to apply this as you can get a more even application, just apply it as you would do a normal foundation. Whether you prime or not is entirely your preference however I like to slap on a bit of Porefessional beforehand for longevity and found that this enabled the product to glide on and sit better.
Having slightly oily skin means that I tend to steer clear from tinted moisturisers and the like as they have a habit of slipping and sliding around my skin throughout the day so the fact that this has oil absorbing properties is an added bonus and it definitely stayed put for a good few hours before it had worn off completely but had worn off naturally rather than leaving odd brown patches over my face.
In a nutshell, although I like the concept of BB creams they just don't 'kick it' for me. But don't get me wrong I think if you have a tad dryer skin with little or few imperfections then this could work for you. Whilst I do not dislike the product I think in general and that is speaking for all brands which have released BB creams is that the 'one size fits all' isn't really cutting it and if they added a few more shades and accounted for different peoples skin types then it just might meet the grade.
The Sanctuary BB cream is available at Boots for £14.99
*PR Sample
