Etude House Rice BB cream

 One of the few things I have not blogged oftenly about, and is still really popular in Asian cosmetics and the beauty blogs, is that infamous product called BB cream. Probably everyone reading this blog will know that BB cream is a combination product of skincare and makeup-coverage in one.  The first thing popping to an newbie to BB cream comes to mind that it is a tinted foundation, it actually differs from a tinted foundation that it is often thicker and infused with ingredients that benefit the skin (whitening, anti-aging, pore-reducing, etc), something that depends on the BB cream itself.

BB creams have been highly popular for a while and a bit overhyped, in my opinion. They claimed to be the best thing since sliced bread and BB creams can have really good benefits among a large group of fans. I will be clear about the fact that I dislike most BB creams. I find them too heavy on my skin, like a sort of mask. My skin simply does not respond good on wearing most BB creams.

Another rant I have is that the colour selection is extremely limited. Even though I am lucky to be in the undertone BB creams often come in (and often in the darker variety, no 23), I cannot get over the grey undertone. I am aware that BB creams function more as a primer and not as a foundation, which makes it even worse --->over that first suffocating layer of BB cream comes a layer of foundation too? Oh noo.

Shortly, this review comes from a person who dislikes the bulk of BB creams on the market. Ha? you must say, why did you buy another BB cream? Ehm, because it came as a set, with a promising compact powder.

More promising...etudehouse (etudegmark) on gmarket promised its buyers lots and lots of extra goodies for the complete price of W 18.000 or $ 16.25 at the current rate. That would be a compact powder in colour 21 or 23 ( I will do a review on it soon, as it is already quite good!), a cream cheek colour in a dewy pink colour, a liptint/gloss combination product in one of the four colours they offered I saw on the promo picture (set 3, see below) and a box of brown stuff (that is instant coffee, I found out).

I would say that there would be no harm to buying this BB cream...it is just cheapskate and freebie heaven!

Surprisingly, the BB cream was better than I expected!

Which makes me disclaimer again that this opinion is completely personal, and comes from a very picky nicky person with a skin that would be a dermatologist nightmare.

I seem to tolerate the feeling of the Rice BB cream, as it is a lighter BB cream. This lightness, however, will result in a thinner coverage, thus more natural and less made-up... (check the swatches below)

The colour match is quite good, I believe (I have approximately MAC NW20 skin). The grey colour often present in BB creams is not present in this one:

When blending out, you can still see that the BB cream becomes slightly lighter. This reminds me of infamous L'Egere White BB cream, which starts even darker than this one. The left side of the next picture is the unbleded side which transgresses into a more blended version to the right.

However, it does not become too white that is is far away from my natural skintone. You can see that on the last picture below, when I completely blended it into the skin.

The fact that the colour is not too light might be a positive thing or a negative thing, which depends on the effect you are after.

Optically, it diminishes the size of my pores (and that is necessary!) on the one hand, and slightly blurs away the 'wonderful' sides of getting older, aka wrinkles.

So, the colour is quite matchy and the BB cream does not give me a suffocating, mask-like effect.

Which brings me to the scent....Some BB scents have these herbal-like mixes that linger the whole day. Something I am not too fond about. Etude House Rice BB cream is scented with a medical-like scent. It is hard to put my finger on it, but it has a slight medical-type scent that dissapears after a couple of minutes.

Which brings me to my dislike for BB creams. Have I become a BB-cream believer after this specific BB cream? Not entirely. Even though I tolerate this BB cream and it feels confortable on my skin every now and then, it has not reached everyday HG status. I am still convinced that standard foundations are better suited for the effect that I am after. Nevertheless, I absolutely am quite content about this BB cream: it feels light, has a believable colour, and is quite cheap.

I bought this one Gmarket from seller etudegmark  under itemcode 179033066 (click). And yes, I received all of the goodies promised in the listing, including a cute post-it set! Yey!