Those who’ve spoken to me about my beauty stash know that I have a love affair with CC Creams / Colour Correcting Creams. Yes, I said it – I don’t particularly like BB creams, no – I don’t see any magical glowy effects after using them, and they sometimes leave a cakey effect on my skin/dry it out/produce an oily t-zone. But with my not-so-recent discovery of CC Creams, I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole.

After starting off the journey of light-coverage base-makeup, i.e. CC creams, my complexion has been more radiant than ever. There’s this sheer glow I seem to find in the moisturizing properties of CC Creams; I don’t really need the medium-coverage properties of typical BB Creams, so CC Creams are perfect for me because they’re typically sheer coverage, and are marketed to help with sallowness/redness etc. Quick warning: this is not for someone who’s looking to cover multiple blemishes!

I’ll be posting a series of long-overdue reviews of the various CC creams in my stash – while I have made previous judgements on some of them, these will be my honest, latest, long-term-use reviews of these products.

Banila Co. it Radiant CC Cream

Let’s start off with the very first CC cream I tried – the whitening, moisturizing, color control base produced by Banila Co. What made me get this? I remember catching a glimpse of this CC cream from an unfamiliar brand, Banila Co., on Get It Beauty. As I was shopping around in Bonjour Hong Kong, I caught it at 98HKD as I posted previously. Check out the clip here:

Song Ji Hyo is the brand ambassador of Banila Co., and this product has won awards from Get It Beauty, Allure Korea, Sure, and Cosmo Korea. Sounds pretty convincing to me!

What I previously posted:

1. This handy pump dispenser provides for more hygienic access to the CC cream

2. What the CC cream looks like, unblended

3. What the CC cream looks like half blended

4. Left side has no CC cream, right side has blended CC cream.
Do note that my hand is slightly tanner than my face!

First impression: ★★★★★ +++ HG LEVEL!!!!!

It’s no wonder that the Banila Co CC Cream came out as one of the top contenders on Get It Beauty – it certainly is moisturizing, provides basic sun protection, and brightens your face. Definitely dedicating a review post to this (and other CC creams) soon!

HOWEVER,
What I can say now is that it’s really got this amazing, smooth and blendable texture that just melts into your face, and I thought it was love at first sight for me. At that point in time, I’d say that my skin was a notch lighter than it is right now – maybe that was why this CC cream seemed to merely brighten my appearance due to its lightness and pink undertones, cancelling out the olive-ness of my skin. I remember yelling at my mum to ‘come look!! I don’t even need undereye concealer with this!!’, but sadly, those days ended mid 2015.

As I got slightly tanner throughout 2015, I started noticing that I looked as pale as a sheet under fluorescent lights whenever I was wearing this CC cream – it simply didn’t suit me anymore, and I started having to mix in darker concealer/base makeup product to make this CC cream work for me. As you can see in the fourth picture above, while the right side of my hand looks brighter, if I was any tanner at all, the shade of the cream just washes me out.

Today, while I still agree that it’s great for brightening my skin tone and as a quick makeup base, I just don’t find myself reaching for it as often. It’s become more of a makeup blender for me.

Pros
– Smells lovely, quite flowery
– Smooth consistency makes it easy to blend
– Feels moisturizing on the skin
– Sufficiently brightening effect

Cons
– May only suit pale skin tones
– May not have sufficient coverage

Overall
– Shade/Tone: Pink undertones, suitable only for those < NC20.
– Consistency: Smooth, blendable
– Application: Easy to apply with fingers
– Coverage: Sheer-light
– Packaging: Pretty good, the standing pump tube is easy to dispense
– Fragrance: Lightly flowery and powdery, not overwhelming

Rating: ★★★★☆
Would I recommend this? Yes!

Details: 30ml, SPF 30 PA++, RRP 25,000KRW / ~SGD$35
Comes in variants including cc+sun, for men, as well as a similarly packaged line of bb creams

Bonus review: Banila Co it Radiant CC Cushion

Just as an add-on to this review, I purchased the BE10 shade of the CC cushion from Carousell in April last year. With my expectations of the CC cream at that point in time, I had high hopes this product would be equally great – however, I was wholly disappointed with this cushion. What’s there to like about it? Uhhhh, not much here to check out. I’m gonna write about this in the order of how I opened it:

Taking a glance at the cushion case, it looked basic, nothing special nor different from any other cushion – clean-cut and sturdy on the outside. Popping open the case, I immediately noticed that the quality of Banila Co.’s rubycell puff is miles below the golden AmorePacific standard – it’s just like any other sponge to be honest. The worst part is, the rubycell puff literally disintegrated after a few months – yeah, no. That’s just gross.

You know how most cushions have a comfortable ‘click’ lock on their inner-cushion lids? This one had a slipshod click notch on the right-hand side of the lid, which meant that it was SO inconvenient for me to pop open each time – with others, I could easily tip it open with one hand. The liquid in the sponge… I don’t even know what it’s supposed to be. It’s so, freaking, watery, it literally drips out of the case if you store it vertically – which completely negates the point of the inner lid anyway!?

I admit that the shade BE10 is definitely too light for me, but even the way it sits on my face made me feel uncomfortable – it was so sheer, it might as well have not have been on my face – no color correcting or complexion-covering properties in this one. Can you see how the right side of my hand is orangey? The effect was more pronounced in reality – it’s this peachy shade that I simply don’t think suits Asian skin tones.

Look at everything leaking out. Just a big no from me, sorry Banila Co. While your brand makes some pretty great stuff, you’ve successfully convinced me not to buy any of your cushion products again.

Pros
– Smells lovely, quite flowery – similar to the CC cream
– Glowy effect noticeable on my skin due to pink tones

Cons
– Oily consistency that feels like a film on your face
– Too watery, loose formula
– Shade doesn’t make sense – very orange on my skin, although it’s formulated for yellow undertones
– Terrible rubycell puff that disintegrates
– Poor packaging design, lacks ease of use
– Formula leaks out of the cushion

Overall
– Shade/Tone: ?? undertones, suitable for orange people ~NC20
– Consistency: Oily and watery
– Application: Unusable once the cushion puff disintegrates, which is really soon
– Coverage: None-sheer
– Packaging: Sturdy case, but poor design makes it annoying to use and formula leaks out
– Fragrance: Lightly flowery and powdery, not overwhelming

Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Would I recommend this? No!

Details: 15ml*2, SPF 35 PA++, RRP 35,000KRW / ~SGD$40
Comes in 3 shades: BE10, BP15, and BE20

I’ll be reviewing more CC creams, specifically some from AmorePacific soon. Update again… sometime!