17 BB Cream

17 BB Blemish Balm, £6.99, Boots

'17 BB Blemish Balm is your 'no make up make up' - a cult wonder product  

that gives your skin a complete natural, flawless finish.'

I have been waiting for this to be released for a while now, BB creams seem to be the latest make up trend at the moment. Whilst Garnier were the first to introduce a BB cream to the drugstore market, many brands are set to follow suit and I have already heard No7 are planning to release one early next year. I was keen to try the 17 one as I'm a big fan of the brand and usually find their products are good quality at a reasonable price.

The 17 BB cream retails at £6.99 but is currently on an introductory offer of £5.99 at Boots. I don't think £6.99 is a bad price at all, it's not only cheaper than the Garnier BB cream but I also use this as I would a foundation, so essentially you are buying a foundation for 7 quid. 

There are two colours available - light and medium, I chose light which is still slightly too dark for my skintone. This can be solved by adding a touch of moisturiser to lighten and some serious blending. I'd say this product is pretty adaptable to most skintones as it can be darkened with foundation/lightened with moisturiser to suit everyone. 

The consistency of this cream is quite thick, however I wouldn't call this product full coverage and I would dispute the fact that it covers blemishes but I'd say it is a step up from a tinted moisturiser. This product does an amazing job of evening out skintone and leaving skin with a dewy finish, great for fresh faced, young looking skin. I would still always use a concealer with this product and if I'm after a lot more coverage I add a regular foundation as and where it's needed.

I'm afraid my swatch isn't the best, but it was very hard to photograph and the effect is much better when viewed in person, so if you're debating purchasing this I would urge you to go and test it out on your hand in store. The left side of my hand shows a blob of the cream so you can see what it looks like straight out of the tube, the right hand side shows it rubbed in, you can see it gives skin an even tone and the dewy finish is most obvious in the middle of my hand (please enlarge the image to have a proper look).

The product is advertised as oil control, I have combination skin with an oily t zone. It has a creamy formula and I find that whilst it makes my face feel slightly greasy after a few hours the reality is it doesn't look too shiny on the skin. To make extra sure that I avoid the shiny face look I always dust my face with a powder after application to keep oil at bay.

I think this product is a great introduction to BB cream at a very reasonable price. It is easy to apply, leaves skin looking lovely and has an SPF25.