Western BB creams: Lancome UV Expert BB Base SPF50+++ Review

BB creams have been popular in Asia for many years now, and Western brands have recently caught on making their own versions of the cream. Here is a quick review on Lancome's UV Expert BB Base SPF50 PA+++.

The product in packaged in a small 30ml tube. Great for travelling, or carrying around in your bag.

The ingredients list:

Like most BB creams, this only comes in one shade, a pale beige. My guess is that this colour would only suit those with fair skin.

This is the cream partially blended on my skin. You can see there is a slight grey-cast to it:

However, once fully blended the grey cast almost fully disappears:

The BB cream on my face. It give a nice dewy finish:

And an FOTD using the BB cream (my skin looks a different shade in the 2 pics due to different lighting conditions):

According to Lancome:

'This incredibly lightweight texture unifies skin tone to ideally cover imperfections, such as brown spots, blemishes and fine lines.

Upon application, your complexion looks naturally flawless and even with enhanced make-up result. Skin is protected, visibly brightened, moisturised, soft and smooth, glowing with healthy translucency.'

My Thoughts:

Texture, scent and shade

The cream had a medium to thick consistency, which spreads easily over the skin. It's not as thick as most BB creams. The scent is pretty strong and smells of a flowery perfume. As previously mentioned, it only comes in one shade. The colour is a pale beige and will only match those with lighter skin colour.

Coverage

Coverage is not as good as most BB creams, but I found it to give the perfect amount of coverage for those with already good skin and want to even out their skintone. The finish is great! Really nice and glowy, making the skin look more radiant. Because the cream looks so dewy and glowy, it may look a bit on the shiny side on those with oily skin types.

Due to the light coverage, I found this cream to act more of a tinted SPF cream rather than a BB cream.

Staying power and oil control

I found the cream to have decent staying power. I'm not sure how well this cream fares for combination to oily skin types, or those living in tropical climates. It's winter here and my skin is currently normal to dry. As the cream is super dewy and has no mattifying effects, it may be too oily for some.

Would I recommend this BB cream?

I would recommend this cream to those with good skin and are looking for sheer to medium coverage to even out their skintone. I LOVE the fact that it contains SPF50. The bonus of this cream is the nice radiant glow it gives the skin. Having said that, this cream is pretty expensive (~£30) for such a small tube so I think it may not be worth it. There are less expensive creams out there who might do the job just as well.

Pros:

-SPF 50
-sheer to medium coverage, gave a lovely radiant, glowy finish

-compact enough to carry around in handbag

Cons:

-expensive at RM165 (~£30) for a small 30ml bottle

-too much fragrance, irritated my skin slightly

-coverage may be too light for some tastes

- only comes in one shade, too light for those with darker skintones