Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The Evolution of BB Creams

A few years ago if you asked me about BB Cream I will question you what it is about? Now BB Creams seems to be everywhere. I believe most people join the bandwagon and even owned a few BB Creams in your stash like I do.

The question is what's the buzz about it?



The origins of BB cream started back in the 1960′s in Germany for patients of laser treatments. Then in the mid-1980′s the Korean market grabbed hold of this idea and tweaked it to cater to south Asian (primarily Korean) women as an all-in one, multi-tasking skin cream.  BB Cream which known as Blemish Balm is promoted as an all-in-one facial cosmetic product to replace serum, moisturizer, primer, foundation and sunblock. According to New York Times, BB creams make up 13% of the cosmetics market in South Korea. They even have BB creams for men too! 


The first few BB creams that I've tried were BRTC, Etude House, Dr. Jart, Missha and Skin79. These are the leading Korean BB brands since then. During then, these BB creams were made particularly for Korean to achieve natural and flawless makeup. Therefore, there wasn't much choice of colors. People who had darker or yellowish skintones couldn't fit into it. :'(

Till last year, Western cosmetics companies began to launch BB creams in the Western market. Brands such as Boscia, Clinique, Dior, Garnier, Maybelline and the list goes on. This is when we have a wider choices of different skintone colors. They are some critics among the western bb creams stating that the BB creams are lacking of skin-caring functions and it's just a tinted moisturizer. Not sure how do you think about it, but I personally find Korean BB creams did better on my skin than Western BB despite of the color match.

While BB trend continues in the Western market, Korean/Asian brands are taking another leaps forward. Generally, we all knew that conventional BB cream are in fluid form. Now, we have our BB cream in compact form. These compact BB - we called it as BB pact are usually creamier than the liquid base. Let's look at Etude House or Skin79. 

The changes of Korean makeup trend lead to a newer generation of BB cream. Oh, it's not BB cream anymore, it's called BB Cushion! BB Cushion is designed using the air pump technology. The air pump in the cushion contains air bubbles that functions to disperse a thin layer of BB liquid onto the skin with just a light pat. In simpler terms, cushion technology is suppose to improve BB application by making it smoother and more natural looking.


The few BB cushion were launched under Amore Pacific were Laneige, IOPE, Hera etc. With cushion technology, it was known that woman now can spend less than 30 seconds to achieve a flawless skin. Survey shown in 2012, 70% of Asian woman had abandoned their foundation and turn into BB cream. (I am one of them :p).  

We shall credits the success of BB creams worldwide to the Koreans. With their smart marketing, smart technology, smart innovation & smart packaging – they have managed to transform a simple treatment product – into something that now every women wants in their makeup bags. I foresee more "cushions" will be launch in the market soon including the western brands BB.


What do your say about BB Creams?
Will you join the latest trend of BB cushion?

8 comments :

Hanny Daforcena (慈涵) said...

Personally, I just think that BB creams are just another form of foundation. These are usually too light for me due to my darker Chinese skin so I tend to prefer foundations due to their shade selections. I've not used a BB cushion yet though, but I've returned to my all time fave- Dr. G BB cream. ^.^

LauraLeia said...

I've been using BB creams for several years now, and honestly, I'm like 'what is foundation?' (LOL) because i started with BB creams and hardly use foundation.

Jess said...

i have a bad start with BB cream until now....and well now I kinda like it, my current favourite Locittane Beauty Cream,giving luminious finishing! Well to me BB cream is for lazy day and for days I want my makeup to look flawless and really pretty, foundation is still the one!

Cynthia Loh said...

Dr. G BB Cream is quite good in terms of coverage and hydrating. But I too find it too fair for my shade. In terms of shade, I do agreed that we doesn't have much selection. But I heard there are some darker shades BB cream in the western market. Not sure how it works either.

Cynthia Loh said...

Me too! I do like foundation in terms of coverage but BB creams is very convenient.

Cynthia Loh said...

Glad you like BB cream now. I shall check out the Locittane soon. I hardly find any western brand bb that works for me though.

Cynthia Loh said...

Thank you! Glad to hear that many of us use bb cream a lot.

Sarvin Sidhu said...

I love BB creams as much as I love foundations! :D

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