Bridging the gap between skincare and makeup, the best BB creams deliver skin-boosting properties while also providing ample coverage. A true multi-tasker, BB creams have steadily grown in popularity since making their way from East to West back in 2011. Now, we’re spoilt for choice in the BB arena.
“A BB cream is a tinted moisturizer that’s infused with skin-loving ingredients,” says Val Garland, L’Oréal Paris Global Makeup Artist, “they’re great if you want perfected and nourished skin in a hurry.” Ideal for the warmer months, BB creams are a great alternative to your best foundation when you want lightweight coverage and natural-looking results (plus, many boast added SPF).
Weighing up foundation vs BB cream? From blurring pores to neutralizing redness, there are so many brilliant benefits to using the best BB creams out there. To help you find the one, we’ve tested dozens of formulas to bring you a curated edit of the best BB creams to suit every need and budget.
How to choose the best BB creams for you
Why you can trust Woman & Home Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Before you make a beeline for a BB cream, consider your skin type and skin concerns—this will help steer you in the right direction.
- Blemish-prone: Many of the best BB creams contain skin-savvy ingredients like niacinamide that will help minimize the appearance of pores, blackheads, and pimples.
- Oily: The best BB creams for oily skin offer a lighter alternative to oil-control foundations. Look for mattifying formulas with micro-powders that will take down shine and help soak up oils.
- Dry: Go for hydrating formulas that contain hyaluronic acid, ceramides or glycerin. These skincare superstars will help prevent makeup from clinging to dry patches.
- Combination: Pick products that have buildable coverage so you can add a little more to the areas that need it, without it becoming cakey.
The best BB creams, as chosen by our beauty editor
Trinny London answered our stressed-out skincare prayers when BFF De-Stress launched in 2020. Loaded with a roster of innovative ingredients, the formula helps mitigate the effects of stress on the skin—that, as we know, can lead to a tired, lackluster complexion.
Hyaluronic acid smooths and plumps while a triple broad-spectrum antioxidant complex boosts collagen production and helps defend the skin against daily stressors. As for the star of the show, NP-TriOX technology combines five times the average concentration of neurophroline (an active ingredient that blocks the production of cortisol) to help skin fight stress. Impressive, huh?
Technology aside, the formula boasts a buttery texture that melts into skin to deliver a radiant, dewy complexion that appears re-energized and more awake. Like many of the best bb creams, it’s easy to build—from barely-there to medium coverage—to help you create a soft glam makeup look. Plus it comes in 12 skin-flattering shades, which is quite a lot for a BB and should help most of us master how to find your foundation shade. A great all-rounder, this BB cream is the perfect antidote to stressed-out skin.
See our full Trinny London BFF De-Stress Review
With nine skincare benefits—all for under $7/£7—this BB cream delivers great bang for your buck. In terms of versatility it's up there with the best face moisturizers, and claims to do the following: prime, moisturize, minimize pores, conceal, cover, smooth, mattify, brighten and protect.
That's a lot to ask from a BB cream, but after testing it we can safely say that it really does deliver. Far lighter in consistency than most traditional foundations, the creamy formula blends in seamlessly for a veil of color that conceals redness and blemishes without looking cakey. The finish is matte which is ideal for anyone who wants to take down shine or tackle oiliness.
The major downside of this BB cream is the shade range—which is limited to three. And although color-matching pigment is at play here (to help flatter a wider range of skin tones), we’d say that the shades are only really suitable for fair to medium skin, so we'd like to see a lot more choice.
With several awards under its belt, this glow-bestowing BB cream really comes up trumps. Loved by beauty editors and industry experts alike, the formula has a velvety texture that’s easy to blend and build up from light to medium coverage.
Formulated with SPF 15 and UVA and UVB blockers, it provides daily protection as well as skin nourishment with pectin and argan seed oil. Our first thoughts? It spreads like the best serums and sets like the best lightweight foundation, providing a second-skin finish that will have friends exclaiming, “you look healthy!”
With 11 shades to choose from, spanning warm and neutral undertones, there’s a match for everyone. We highly recommend giving this BB cream a whirl—it’s ideal for those days where you want lighter coverage but still covet a glowing fresh-faced finish. For best results, we recommend starting with a little at the center of the face and blending outwards with either a brush or fingertips.
Hydrating and long-lasting, this BB cream is a firm favorite and we can totally see why. Loaded with ceramides, hyaluronic acid, and chamomile extract, this skin-loving formula helps hydrate, nourish and calm your complexion–all while providing ample coverage.
If you’re struggling to find the best foundations for dry skin and want a formula that’s focused on skincare, this really is the product for you. It blends in seamlessly and (thanks to the full coverage) will stick around all day without settling into creases or dry patches.
For combination skin that experiences dryness in areas, we found that this BB cream ticks all the boxes. It’s not too heavy, it doesn’t dry matte and it sets in place without slipping off throughout the day. If, however, you're after a second-skin barely-there finish, this one might not be for you—but for those days where you want a little more coverage, try this out.
This is the perfect pick for those days when you don’t want to bother with a full face of makeup but fancy a little something. Ultra-lightweight, it’s super easy to buff and blends into the skin (note: a little goes a long way) Plus, thanks to mineral pigments, it adapts to your skin tone and texture upon application.
Sitting somewhere between dewy and matte, the natural finish gives your skin-but-better results. And as for the formula, it contains hydrating glycerin as well as an antioxidant mix of fig extract, pro-vitamin b5, and vitamin E to protect skin from environmental stressors. What’s more, it also boasts SPF20 to ward off sun damage and premature aging. Tick, tick, tick!
The only downside of this BB cream is that it doesn’t last as well throughout the day. We found that by late afternoon, the formula had begun to slip off. To prevent this from happening, we recommend applying one of the best setting powders on top.
This high-end BB cream gets very high praise with countless 5-star reviews online and fans claiming it's one of the best BB creams they've ever tried. We can see why. Designed to protect and perfect, the moisturizing balm stars niacinamide, a skincare hero ingredient that refines pores, as well as color-correcting pigments to even skin tone.
As with the rest of Dr Jart’s range, this BB cream has a lovely smooth texture that’s easy to blend and easy to build up for more coverage where so desired. A great summer staple, it’s also blended with SPF40 using mineral sunscreen (zinc oxide and titanium dioxide) to protect skin from harmful UVA and UVB rays.
While the shade range is limited, with only three options, they’re described as 'flexible'—meaning they do adapt slightly to your skin tone. To use, we’d recommend applying a pea-size amount onto freshly cleansed and moisturized skin under or instead of foundation.
Although the roller-ball applicator may not be for everyone, it’s definitely unique. You simply click the release button and a flow of Sunshine Tint will roll over skin, soothing your complexion as you go. To blend, we recommend using one of the best foundation brushes for a smooth, even finish.
Available in 14 sheer shades, the lightweight formula delivers a natural-looking dewy finish that’s ideal for achieving that ‘no makeup makeup’ look. As for ingredients, it contains quite a few; there’s grapeseed, avocado, mandarin, jojoba, and olive-derived squalene oils to intensely hydrate and nourish the skin.
The high SPF 30 makes it a great pick for summer and, as you may expect from the conscious beauty brand, it’s coral-reef friendly and cruelty-free. If, however, the rollerball applicator isn’t for you (we found that it gets a little bit messy) we’d recommend opting for a different BB cream instead.
The latest launch from Erborian, this ‘Super BB’ cream is specifically designed to be one of the best BB creams for acne-prone skin. Dermatologically tested and non-comedogenic, it expertly conceals and covers blemishes while also helping you nail how to get rid of pimples, blackheads, and reduce the appearance of pores—all thanks to niacinamide.
The velvety matte finish is great for taking down shine and, unlike some matte formulas, it’s not drying. Instead, Erborian has added fermented ginseng flower into the formula to help hydrate and smooth skin, too. You can build it up from lightweight to medium coverage on the areas that need it - we'd recommend choosing between a foundation brush vs sponge rather than using your fingers to do so.
While there are five shades, spanning from fair to dark, it can be tricky to find an exact match. We found that the formula doesn’t adapt to your skin tone so you may need to mix in a few drops of your go-to foundation or add in some bronzing drops. With that said, it does have a lovely smooth finish that resembles the Valencia Instagram filter—a big plus!
If you’re after light and natural coverage, give this BB cream from REN a whirl. It glides on like silk and melts in like butter for a barely-there, beautiful finish. Ideal for mature skin, the formula is hydrating and protects against daily stressors with a cocktail of antioxidants.
While it does contain SPF 15, we’d recommend applying this BB cream over one of the best facial sunscreens for ultimate protection against harmful UV rays. What lets this BB cream down is the fact that it’s only available in one shade—light to medium. And although it contains color adaptive technology (meaning it can adapt upon application)—we found that it only adjusts to suit a variety of medium skin tones. If your skin is fair or dark, opt for a different BB cream.
Overall, this formula feels great and provides just a little coverage that will help soften fine lines without looking caked-on. But, as we mentioned above, it’s only suitable for medium skin tones—more shades soon please!
Because of their lightweight nature, not all BB creams are long-wearing. But this one, from Tarte Cosmetics, is a total gamechanger. The creamy cloud-like formula feels completely weightless, yet it stays in place all day long. You can wear it as a primer to boost your foundations staying power or alone for a natural matte finish that will stick around until the evening.
The formula contains a ‘Triple-B complex’ which is effectively a blend of natural diamond powder, plant extracts, and lipoamino acids that together minimize the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and pores while boosting skin’s luminosity. Sounds good, right? Don’t just take our word for it as consumer study results found that 100% saw an improvement in surface texture straight away, while 91% of testers said that fine lines appeared minimized after four weeks.
Once you try this BB cream, we can guarantee that it will become an everyday essential in your skincare routine—it really is that good. If we had to deduct a mark somewhere, it would be for lack of SPF, but apply it beforehand and that problem will be sorted!
What's the difference between a BB cream and a CC cream?
"The biggest difference between a BB cream and CC cream is the coverage and functionality," explains Garland. " The best BB creams provide a more radiant healthy skin look, with added multi-beneficial skincare ingredients, whilst a CC cream is more of a complexion enhancer."
woman&home thanks Val Garland, L’Oréal Paris Global Makeup Artist, for her time and expertise.
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