The Newbie - Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream review

I have not jumped on the BB cream bandwagon yet and was so so pleased to receive a free tube of Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream* to review. This is another goodie from my Sunkissed VBox from Influenster, which I am so grateful to receive.

I was so excited to try this out as it will be my first venture into the murky world of BB creams. If you don't know what BB creams are - they are tinted moisturisers with additional skincare benefits. Different BB creams claim to work on different skin issues. This Olay cream comes in a generous tube (75 ml) and retails for $12.99 and is available in most drugstores as well as superstores. It comes in 2 shades, Fair to Light and Light to Medium. I think the price is attractive considering you get so much for your money. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I reckon this is the first time Olay have set foot in the makeup world. BB creams (along with CC and DD creams) sort of bridge the gap between makeup and skincare.

The Olay Fresh Effects BB cream claims to be a skin perfecting tinted moisturiser with SPF 15. It claims to have 6 Skin Perfecting Benefits: Refreshes, brightens, evens tone, hydrates, smoothes, protects. All-in-one solution for instantly brighter-looking, smoother-feeling, more even skin tone.

So how well did it perform? Well I received the shade Light to Medium which I was worried might be way to light for my NC43 skin tone but it works OK as I tend to blend out the cream quite a bit anyway. Sometimes I mix some of my Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation with it for extra colour and depth. That works well too. I found the texture to be quite heavy and moisturising, which makes for good coverage (if that's what you find lacking in other BB creams - give this one a try). Because it's quite a thick cream, little goes a very long way as you can see below. It blends well into the skin however I didn't really find it to be very cooling or refreshing. It does leave my skin with a nice dewy sheen and it's really nice for summer or when I am on holiday and don't want to wear much makeup. I love that it comes with SPF but factor 15 won't cut it as a standalone sun protection in Chicago, so I do wish it was a high protection factor.

Have you tried this product? What did you think of it? Which is your favourite BB cream? Let me know! xxx