BB, CC, DD creams. Are these double-alphabet creams ever going to come to an end? Needless to say, BB creams are the makeup du jour. Every other brand is coming up with one. Now there are even CC creams. CC creams claim to be the new and improved version of BB creams as it promises colour correction.

Sadly, none of the CC creams I’ve tried thus far offer what CC creams are meant to offer – the colour correction. The Rachel K and Chanel CC creams are merely BB creams. They work like foundation on the skin that provide sufficient coverage and even out the skin tone. There’s no balancing of redness or adding of brightness to the skin.

Lo and behold the new L’Oreal CC cream, which promises to neutralise redness for a perfect nude look. Now this is the colour correction I was waiting for! It acts with the redness on the skin. Finally, something that does what it claims.

Or does it?

Description:
Micro-Pigments capsules in a green emulsion transform into a foundation. Self-adjusts to skin and neutralise redness. A 5-in-1 perfecting cream that offers flawless coverage, perfectly even skin texture, fresh dewy glow, 24-hour hydration and SPF 12.

Ingredients:
AQUA / WATER, ISODODECANE, CYCLOPENTASILOXANE, GLYCERIN, CYCLOHEXASILOXANE, PEG – 1 0 DIMETHICONE, METHYL METHACRYLATE CROSSPOLYMER, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, DIMETHICONE, ISOEICOSANE, DISTEARDIMONIUM HECTORITE, BORON NITRIDE, PHENOXYETHANOL, CETYL PEG/PPG-10/1 DIMETHICONE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, POLYGLYCERYL-4 ISOSTEARATE, HEXYL LAURATE, ACRYLATES/AMMONIUM METHACRYLATE COPOLYMER, ISOSTEARYL NEOPENTANOATE, CAPRYLYL GLYCOL, TRIETHYL CITRATE, METHYLPARABEN, ALUMINA, C9-15 FLUOROALCOHOL PHOSPHATES / C9-15 FLUOROALCOHOL, PHOSPHATE, ALUMINUM HYDROXIDE, TOCOPHEROL, PANTHENOL, [+/- MAY CONTAIN: CI 77891 / TITANIUM DIOXIDE, CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499 / IRON OXIDES, CI 15985 / YELLOW 6 LAKE, CI 45410 / RED 28 LAKE, CI 19140 / YELLOW 5 LAKE].

The L’Oreal Nude Magique Anti-Redness CC Cream works just like the Nude Magique BB Cream. Instead of a white lotion that comes out of the bottle, it’s a light green one. Like the BB cream, this one is also slightly grainy to the touch and when spread out on the skin, the green lotion transforms to the shade of your skin. The Anti-Redness CC cream only comes in 1 shade, which unfortunately is a shade too dark for me. Still, I was game on trying this out on my skin. It does go on green on the skin but after spreading it out quickly, it turns to a shade of brown. In terms of coverage, it’s a light-medium, just like the BB cream.

Here’s a quick recap on what my skin is like. I have an oily T-zone, normal-if-not-slightly-dehydrated cheeks and a sometimes spotty chin. I don’t have any severe redness on my skin, but I do have red patches around my nose and sometimes, the chin. If I tuck my upper lip inwards, it pulls the skin above my lip downwards and you’ll be able to clearly see tiny red vessels below my nose. These areas of redness are the parts I’d like to neutralise with the CC cream.

Now the problem I have with the CC cream is that, since I’m lucky not to suffer from rosacea or acne, I don’t have redness on my cheeks and forehead. When the CC cream does not have red areas to neutralise, the slight greenish tint makes the skin appear sallow. It makes my warm skin appear more yellow and I look sickly. My skin looks dull. It looked like I’ve been ill or stuck indoors for a long time. Even though the CC cream does spread out to match the skin colour, there still is that slight greenish tint that counteracts with the redness on the skin. It’s the lack of redness on certain areas of my skin that the CC cream cannot work with, hence making me look rather green around the gills.

But, and this is a very big BUT, the redness around my nose is neutralised. It colour-corrected the redness around my nose well, especially covering the tiny red vessels below and around my nose. It finally does what a CC cream is supposed to do.

What does this mean for me and you? For me, I cannot use this all over my face. As I don’t have a lot of redness to neutralise, instead of doing its job, the Anti-Redness CC cream made me look worse. Not its fault, of course, since it cannot neutralise what my skin mostly doesn’t have. Instead, what it thinks it’s counteracting made my skin look worse. However, it did a good job around my nose. So the way I see it, I should only use this around my nose, but use another BB cream to go over the rest of my face.

For you, if you have a lot of redness on your skin, this might work. I’m not saying it will definitely work because I’ve not seen this used on someone with a lot of redness on the skin so I cannot vouch for its efficacy. But I can say that it did a good job on my red nose, so it might help counteract your redness too. The only way to see if it works is to try it out in store. Check out the tester, squeeze some on the back of your hand and apply it on the red areas of your skin. Leave the store and check your skin in natural light and see if it counteracted your redness. If so, it’s definitely something to consider purchasing. If not (if your skin looks duller than before), oh well, on to the next CC cream! 😛

So, for something that claims colour correction and corrects the colour, I’d say that L’Oreal got it right. Sadly, only my nose can claim victory. It just wouldn’t work for the rest of my skin. In a way, I’m glad it doesn’t. This means that I don’t need anti-redness colour correction, and for that, I’m very blessed. 🙂

L’Oreal Nude Magique Anti-Redness CC Cream retails at $26.95 and is available at most pharmacies, deparment stores and variety stores nationwide.

What I like about it: Light-textured, neutralised the redness around my nose.

What I do not like about it: Only available in 1 shade, made the non-red areas of my skin appear dull and sallow