Review: Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector (BB Cream)

When I won Hannah's 100 follower giveaway, one of the things I was most excited to try was the Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector, or Australia's first drugstore version of a BB Cream. BB creams have been all the rage in the beauty community lately, and the reviews I heard about this product were mixed, so I was excited to finally try it for myself.

1. This products (claims to have) proven effectiveness of:

- Instantly, skin is beautified, hydrated and protected

- Feeling of hydrated skin (82.5%)

- Smooth skin just after application (96.8%)

- Reduces redness (71.4%)

- Unifies skin complexion (90.5%)

- Gives a healthy glow (93.6%)

- Leaves skin complexion luminous and radiant (81%)

 Is also dermatologically tested and Non-comedogenic.

The first thing I noticed about this product was the size. I would have thought it to be a bigger bottle, but it was surprisingly much smaller than imagined. I found this is the case because you really don't need much to cover your face at all. You can build it up for a bit more coverage, but a little goes a long way.

This product comes in three shades - not a whole range of variety - Light, Medium and Dark. Hannah sent me both Light and Medium - I would have thought I was a medium, but that made me slightly orange, so I gave that to my sister, whom it matched perfectly. I was quite lucky to find the Light matched my skin tone quite well and blended straight in.

Swatches of the Light

Left - Bare Skin. Right - Blended out.

As you can see, my skin is in a bit of a bad way at the minute. I usually have really good skin, but it has had a bit of a breakout, which is really frustrating to me, but thats just something we all have to live with I guess. You can see that it does provide nice coverage - not full coverage over the red blemishes, but a nice sheer coverage that would be provided with a light foundation. If I were going out, I'd wear concealer over the blemishes, but am satisfied with the rest of coverage.

I found that this really lives up to the proven points on the packaging, but I did have an issue with the last too points. When researching, I found that people with oily skin had an issue with this - I must say, I did too. My skin is not overly oily, but if I don't wear a powder with foundation, I find I do get quite shiny throughout the day. This product had the consistency of a thick moisturizer, but when applied, it looked almost greasy. I would liken it to wearing sunscreen in the summer - how you get hot and 'glistening' and apply a general sunscreen, then appear to look quite shiny and almost greasy. I then applied concealer and a powder on top and it proceeded to look like a regular foundation, no shine at all. This product really enforced the fact that for people with oily skin, glow is not always good.

I wouldn't recommend for people with oily skin to wear this product without a powder, because it does look incredibly unnatural and shiny, but otherwise I had no problem with this product! I had the light coverage that lasted for quite a few hours, and that included going out and running errands in humid weather.

I personally am a bit hesitant to buy this product again, simply because in the summer if I want some coverage, I'm not going to want to have to put powder on top of it, but I may just have to warm up to the product a bit more.  For 50ml, it retails approximately $14AU. Some people may find this a bit costly for the amount, but if you're after a tinted moisturizer with some coverage, this does the job nicely. This product certainly does live up to what it claims and I think many people would be pleased with the result, but it can be considered a bit heavy for just a daily moisturizer/cream.

Do you have any BB creams you're particularly fond of?

Love Gianna

xx