Review : The Body Shop All-in-One BB Cream

Hello lovelies!

Last Saturday we were invited by The Body Shop to attend their Love Your Body Loves Green event. There they also introduced us to their new All-in-One make up line and they were so kind to give us samples that were in our shade.

So before I head into the review proper, here's a little information on the All-in-One make up line.

The All-in-One collection is made up of the All-in-One Face Base, All-in-One Cheek Colour, All-in-One Concealer, and of course, All-in-One BB Cream. And of course, this make up line not only beautifies our skin but also contains ingredients that help nourish it. This line's ingredients like vitamin E and community fair trade marula oil.

So now, back to my little review...

So the star of this make up line is actually the All-in-One BB Cream.

What's so special about this one? Well, a lot of the BB cream formulas are not really skin tone friendly. Most of them have a grayish tone and are not really compatible to morenas, dark skinned, and generally, most Filipina women. It takes a lot of time and layers of powder to get them down to your tone, or takes precision to ensure that you get only a thin and even layer so that it doesn't come out too white. Which is a lot of work compared to just getting a regular foundation of your skin tone and applying it simply. Still, foundation lacks the skin nourishing ingredients found in BB creams which made them so popular.

And this is where The Body Shop All-in-One BB Cream comes in. This innovative formula offers what all other BB creams can't, 3 different shades that can match your skin tone; and when I say match, I mean... it adapts to your skin tone... like literally change color. You'll see in a while.

Here's a picture of the ingredients.

So here is the product.

It starts out as a white cream with microbeads... color beads I guess, or what they call pigment filled capsules.

Then you apply it, and as you spread, the color changes into your skin tone. As you can see, along the edges and around the area near Dawn's wrist, the color is already changing to adapt to her skin tone.

And viola! The end product is a light, natural looking coverage.

So here it is on Dawn's face before (left) and after (right) application.

As you can see, it offers minimal coverage, but you CAN build it up until you're satisfied with the coverage since the color naturally adapts to your skin tone. This is a big plus since you can't normally do this with other BB creams as they will look too white or they'll gray out your tone.

So there are three shades for this BB cream. The one Dawn and I are using is the 01 shade which is good for those with pinkish undertones. The 02 shade is for women with yellow undertones to their skin, and the 03 shade is for women with darker tones. So, you'd still have to work out which shade is right for you, but since they only come in three, and they adapt to your skin color, it's not really a big problem.

It is quite long lasting, as you can see, here it is after 12 hours (with powder foundation) and no retouching. It has a smooth finish that is quite natural looking and it's lightweight. Since it adapts to your skin tone, it cuts down your make up time so it's perfect for women on the go.

I did try this out for about a week using different primers. I used it with The Body Shop Tea Tree Pore Minimiser, Benefit The Porefessional, and Missha The Style Silky Soft Base in Green and it works well with them. Plus you can use any powder base on top of it.

It does give you that shiny-ness after some hours, since it contains moisturizer and madura oil. But the coverage is still good, you just need to wipe the excess oil off and probably put some powder.

It has a very fragrant rosy smell. When Dawn and I took it out of the goodie bag, we immediately smelled it, and it was covered at that time; plus when my sister entered our room, she immediately smelled it while I was applying it on my face. And it adds a certain girly feeling to it. :)

The only thing I do not like about this product is that it does not have spf. What it has, however, is sunscreen, but I'd still like it if it has spf since I'm always walking to school and the sun is always upon me. So yeah, hope they can improve on that.

Also, I think it's kind of pricey for a student, but given that it offers so much more than other BB creams, I'd say it's a fair price.

So in summary,

What I like:
- Packaging
- BB cream
- Colour-adapts
- can build up coverage
- Lightweight
- can mix with other make up products
- Fragrant
- Natural looking smooth finish
- long lasting
- comes in different shades

What I don't like:
- NO SPF just sunscreen

Will I buy again:
Of course! I'm more of a BB cream girl than a full on foundation girl. :)

So this line comes out on August 10, if I am not mistaken. So I hope you girls watch out for it and try it out. Hope this review has helped you.

Ah! And if you know of any other BB creams with the same feature do tell me as I haven't really seen one like this and it would be great to be informed so I can try that one too.

Cheers,
LIZ