Currently Loving: Smashbox Camera Ready 5-in-1 Beauty Balm BB Cream

Hi. I’m Amber, and over the summer—I’ve become a BB Cream-aholic. There, I said it.

The concept of BB creams is still kind of new here in the U.S., and I’ve heard grumblings from those who have tried the original BB creams from Asia—that the U.S. versions are no match for the originals. Well, being I’m as American as apple pie, I can only tell you what I know about our versions of BB creams, and let me tell you—I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve tried. I checked out Boscia and loved it, I tried Dr. Jart (review on that coming soon!), and here’s a new contender from Smashbox, their Camera Ready 5-in-1 Beauty Balm. I’ve avoided true full-coverage foundation for almost a month now, just to test the benefits of this Smashbox version of a BB cream, and here are my findings…

With the exception of always wearing my eye cream, I’ve found that Camera Ready 5-in-1 does an awesome job with hydration on my face, and that I never need to layer a moisturizer underneath it.
No need to prime either, this BB cream has a primer built-in.
It makes my skin look polished, as if I had a medium-coverage foundation on…but surprise! I don’t. I’m just wearing a lightweight BB cream!
This protects my skin with an SPF 35, one of the higher SPFs I’ve seen in a multi-tasking product like this. The highest I’ve actually seen is an SPF 45, but the Smashbox SPF 35 is the closest I’ve come.
This helps control a little bit of oil, but if you’re excessively oily…maybe not so much. These days I’m preferring a healthy, dewy look and this works for me. If you’re excessively oily, try a light dusting of translucent powder over the BB cream to help you get more mileage out of your wear.
This also works well under foundation, giving you long-distance mileage out of true foundation for the day (or night)!

This does a great job at disguising the redness in areas I normally have to put concealer on—especially around my nose, where I have always had broken capillaries.

(It honestly doesn’t appear this shiny, but I had to use a flash for the photos.)

The saddest part about this product for me, is that right now it’s only available from QVC, so I can’t just waltz into a store and pick one up when I run out! The good news is, unlike other BB creams—this is available in four shades instead of just one universal tone. You’ll find Fair, Light, Medium, and Dark on QVC.com, and I’m definitely a true fair lass in this.

If you’re curious about BB creams because the shades never match up and you want to try out the multi-tasking benefits they offer, check out the Smashbox Camera Rady 5-in-1 Beauty Balm in the shade of your choice.