Garnier BB Cream: First Impressions Review

I recently picked up the Garner BB cream for oily to combination skin at Priceline while it was 50% off! It usually retails for $13.99 but with all drugstore brands shop around at different chemists, supermarkets and department stores like KMart, Big W and Target because its bound to be on sale at one of them.

First Impressions:

The first thing I noticed when I started to apply this on my face was the smell of alcohol. I've never experienced this with a product before and was slightly shocked that the product could smell so strongly. I checked the packaging and alcohol is the third listed ingredient. I mean I know my skin is oily but I didn't think I would need this much alcohol to control it!

Despite there being an orange tint to the BB cream, the colour match was decent and the orange-ness blended away into my skin nicely. One layer definitely reduced my redness and smoothed out my skin overall but I was having a bit of a bad skin day and stubborn red spots around breakouts and sensitive areas were not hidden.

I added another layer which definitely improved the redness but I still went on and added concealer. I also felt this didn't do much to neutralise the puffiness/dark circles under my eyes. I know this is only a BB cream but I did have high expectations considering my Dr Dennis Gross CC Cream is really brightening under the eyes.

Garnier describes the finish as 'luminous matte'. There's nothing luminous about it to be honest which I prefer particularly since I didn't feel I needed to finish off with a powder.

Final Thoughts:

After a full day of wear, this product left me with a natural look for most of the day without a primer underneath. It wore away evenly and only really around my nose and mouth which I do have a habit to touch a lot. I really like the finish and was impressed with how natural it looked. However, it is a light coverage base and imperfections and redness aren't covered by this product.

This is not a bad BB cream, but not the best light coverage base I own and to be honest I'm quite skeptical about its claims that like a skincare product it will reduce pores, imperfections and dullness over time. The price is definitely reasonable though and considering I got it on sale for 50% off it was a fantastic deal and won't go unused. I will probably use this most if I want a little bit of coverage for work or if I need to leave the house in a rush. My word of warning for those with pale skin, even the light shade is likely to be too dark and for those with sensitive skin the amount of alcohol in this product probably won't do wonders for you either.

xx Catherine