Product Review: Revlon PhotoReady BB Cream Skin Perfector

Revlon has jumped on the BB Cream bandwagon and launched one of their own---or did they?  A big pet peeve of mine is cosmetics companies that try to get in on a good thing (like the BB Cream craze) but then do it in a less than optimal way. Many of the non-Asian brands call themselves BB Creams but they are really tinted moisturizers.

So let's look at what a BB Cream is "supposed" to be about: 

• light to medium coverage
• moisturizing (and sometimes oil controlling)
• Built in primer
• decent level of sun protection
• skin benefiting/anti aging ingredients
• either automatically adapts to skin tone or comes in several skin tones to match different depths of pigmentation
• Evens out skin tone
• Lightens skin/reduces discoloration (Asian brands only)

Now let's look at the Revlon BB Cream against that list:

Light to medium coverage: My testing revealed that this product has NO coverage to speak of! Which isn't bad for a tinted moisturizer but this is supposed to be a BB Cream. Grade: FAIL

Moisturizing (and sometimes oil controlling): I can get behind calling it moisturizing. In fact, it's so moisturizing that my dry, non shiny skin looked shiny in the T zone within 1 hour! That's a little weird but at worst, makes it a bad choice for oily skins. It does have quite a few ingredients that either bind water to the skin or make the formula very emollient on the skin. Grade: PASS

Decent level of sun protection: Revlon gets this part right! The sun protection factor in this cream is 30, which is pretty good (and really the minimum that we should be wearing every day). It has both chemical and barrier suncreens and protects from both UVA and UVB rays. Grade: PASS

Skin benefiting/anti aging ingredients: See the last few ingredients in the list above? The ones starting with Hibiscus Flower Extract---those and the ones after are so called "natural" ingredients that are supposed to be the anti aging ingredients. The fact that they are so far down the list means there's very little of them in formula. The Hydrolyzed Glycosaminoglycans is supposed to help with filling in of wrinkles and improving the skin's appearance but it, too, is pretty far down on the list. Grade: PASS for being in the formula, but barely passing due to the amount.

Built in primer: Technically, this formula does have some of the silicones and skin conditioning ingredients that a normal primer has but because this cream disappears so quickly on my skin (within 3 hours), I would say it does NOT act like a primer. Grade: FAIL

Color: Light

Automatically adapts to skin tone or comes in several skin tones to match different depths of pigmentation: The Revlon cream is available in 3 colors: Light, Light/Medium and Medium. When you compare this to the Asian BB creams, this is pretty par for the course, but since this product is targeted at the Western market, which is very diverse, I'm not impressed. There are quite a few BB creams that are available for darker skinned beauties but this is not one of them. Grade: FAIL

Overall, I would say that the Revlon PhotoReady BB Cream Skin Protector is a pretty good tinted moisturizer with sunscreen and I would wear this in place of sunscreen. It is NOT a BB Cream! Since they're billing themselves as a BB Cream and it doesn't live up the claims of a BB Cream, my rating has reflected that.

Ages of Beauty rating: *

Have you tried this product? What do you think?