Hello, 2013! The Year of the CC Cream!

Happy New Year!!! 

Welcome to 2013! A new year means, new resolutions, new experiences, new love, new changes, and new opportunities to be amazing! I hope this year brings you all success, happiness, love and joy! I'm so excited about what's in store for 2013! 

2012 was the year we said "Tata for now" to our full coverage foundations and joined in on the trend of BB creams (Beauty Balms/Blemish Balms) here in the U.S. If you don't already know, BB creams originated in Germany and then years later became extremely popular in Asia (specifically in Korea) as an all-in-one multi-functioning skin cream. These creams were a mixture of SPF, a blemish fighting primer, and a "tint" or coverage similar to a tinted moisturizer that evens out and lightens the skin tone. Korean BB creams are formulated in much lighter shades; they almost contain a white cast on the skin, which is ideal for Asian women because they're main concern is to have very light, even skin. This is where U.S. BB creams differ from Korean BB creams for starters. Many BB creams released from cosmetics companies here have almost a yellowish undertone and can even appear to orange against many skin tones, making it difficult to find your matching shade, especially if you have a more fair complexion. In my experiences, it is hard to find a neutral BB cream. I am a fair/olive complexion. I need a neutral foundation or else my face either looks too pink or too orange and does not match my neck and decollate. There's absolutely nothing worse than having an orange face on a different colored body. But anyways, this post isn't actually supposed to be a review on BB creams, so let me stop myself before I spoil an upcoming post. What I am actually blogging about today is a new product launching out on the market early this year called the CC Cream. CC creams, or Color Control Creams, are the new version of the BB. Again, it was developed in Asia, just like the BB, where it originated in Japan and then took off in Korea. The CC was developed to have a higher SPF, more coverage (hence the name "Color Control") and a lighter consistency making it easier to blend, along with more oil control properties than the BB cream. I'm assuming that in the U.S., the CC will actually treat the skin as a corrective property, just as the BB was intended to, which most of them were not formulated to do like the Asian BB's.

Olay has beat the rest of the cosmetics world in the U.S. to the punch and released the first CC Cream this past October, making it also an affordable and easy to access, drugstore cream. It ranges around 20-25 dollars and focuses on hyper pigmentation, lines and wrinkles, uneven skin tone and supposedly helps with the diminishment of dark spots over time. You'll find that it has more of a mousse-like consistency. 

Keep you're eyes peeled the next coming months for more high-end brands to release their CC creams. Clinique has released an estimated time-frame of February for the release of their CC cream. Personally, I am excited for this one, being that the Clinique BB cream is one of my top picks for U.S. BB creams, so I can't wait to see what the CC has in store. I'm hoping for a collaboration of their BB cream with the Clinique Even Better skin tone correcting line..Maybe?? I'm just making guesses, but that would be fantastic!

There's also the Wei East Wei CC cream, which I'm not very familiar with but I do believe you can purchase online for about 30 dollars.  

Of course if you plan on making any trips to Asia there are more options. Chanel and Rachel K are the leading CC creams on the Asian Market right now. No word on if or when Chanel will bring their CC to the U.S., but check out E-bay to see if you can get your hands on one! 

Mahal Kita! 

XOXO

Jessica