Natural Beauty Battle: Tinted Moisturizer

I’ve always had a complicated relationship with any form of foundation.  My freckles have long been one of my favorite features, so as I was slowly learning about makeup, I just didn’t see the point in using anything but a little concealer to fade problem areas. Years later, I still stick to a pretty basic routine, but there are those times when I want a more ‘finished’ final look, which is where my new best friend comes in: tinted moisturizer.

Tinted moisturizer provides just the right amount of coverage to make your skin look amazing, without appearing as if you’ve been airbrushed to perfection. It’s the happy medium between ‘woke up like this‘ and impossibly perfect skin. In recent years tinted moisturizers, BB creams, and CC creams have exploded in popularity, which means they’re easier to find, but it can be confusing to wade through the choices.

Continuing on my quest for a more natural and cruelty-free beauty routine, today I’m testing out two tinted moisturizer options that are available on drugstore shelves:

First up: Alba ‘Even Advanced’ CC Cream. I’ve been using Alba’s ‘Even Advanced’ SPF day cream for a few years now and love the light formula, so I was excited to try out the CC cream (the CC  stands for color correction), which also contains SPF and is described on the tube as a ‘tinted mineral perfector’.

Out of the tube, my first impression was that this makeup was much thicker compared to the day cream that I’m used to, and while I consider my skin to be quite fair, I may have been better off going with the next shade.

A word of caution: a little goes a long way with this CC cream. It spreads easily over skin, however I found it appeared very pale and oddly white, and needed to be rubbed in like sunscreen. After looking at the ingredients, I noticed that the formula contains zinc, which could contribute to the chalky hue and slightly greasy consistency.

After I was finally able to blend the formula into my skin, I was happy enough with the end results, though not thrilled. I still looked slightly greasy and it didn’t wash easily from my hands. While I like that this formula contains SPF, it didn’t hold up to BB and CC creams I’ve tried previously (Urban Decay ‘Naked’ BB Cream still comes out on top for me) and was disappointing, especially compared to the other products available in the ‘Even Advanced’ line.

After the success of the first post in this series, I was really excited to try out another product from Pacifica, so I picked up the Alight Multi-Mineral BB Cream at my local natural foods store (A.K.A. Whole Foods). I loved the ‘Stellar Gaze’ mascara from this company – which boasts 100% vegan products – and hey, I’m a sucker for pretty packaging.

Out of the tube, this formula was considerably darker than the Alba CC cream and had a hint of shimmer to it, it was also much less thick and closer to a light lotion than a heavy sunscreen.

‘Alight’ glided on my skin easily and I liked the bit of shimmer mixed in (but don’t worry, the effect is more sun kissed glow than teenage dream). This cream was much lighter compared to the Alba formula, which felt good on my skin, but meant less final coverage.

From what I could find, Pacifica’s ‘Alight’ formula does not contain SPF, so if you choose to try this product for yourself I recommend pairing it with an SPF to prevent sun damage.

So, who’s the winner? I’m giving this round to Pacifica’s ‘Alight’ BB Cream. While I highly recommend Alba’s other products, this one felt too heavy and left me feeling a bit greasy. The ‘Alight’ BB cream felt lighter and matched my skin shade more effectively, however, while I would recommend this product for a natural, every day look, I’ll be continuing my search for a formula that strikes the right balance between light coverage and a flawless finish.

Do you have a product to recommend? What beauty must-have should I tackle next? Let me know in the comments!

More beauty posts from the BLDG 25 blog.