Maybelline Clear Glow Shine Free BB Stick SPF 21+++ : A Must Have For Busy Girls!

About a decade ago, when Maybelline had been recently launched in India, I had bought my first foundation, the Maybelline Express 3 in 1 Foundation Stick. (I mean the first foundation that I had swatched on my skin and bought. Till then, my aunt would get me foundations from USA which would look so wrong on my skin tone, I never used them.) This foundation, though, was simply fabulous! It came in a swivel-up, lipstick like tube, gave medium to full coverage and was quite long lasting too and luckily for me, I got a good shade match. I used to love it and was quite disappointed when it was discontinued.

I have been quite apprehensive about BB creams and always felt that they were just hyped up, siliconed up versions of tinted moisturisers and so never felt inclined to try them out. But this BB stick was hard to resist coz it felt like a new avatar of my once-favourite foundation.

As with all BB creams, this one too had quite a few claims that made me roll my eyes and say “Oh yeah, right!” when I read them. But after using it for a couple of days, I found myself getting hooked. I’ve been using it daily since 8 days now and the more I use it, the more I fall in love with it because it does live up to some of its claims. My pores are certainly less visible, my skin looks more even toned and it controls oil too so my skin is shine free for about 4-5 hours!

The texture of this BB stick is very different too. It is very smooth and lightweight, almost as though an opaque gel has been moulded into a stick. It is a dream to apply too! All you need to do is swipe it on your forehead, nose, upper lips, chin and cheeks in thick strokes and blend. That’s it, your good to go. It glides onto the skin and blends very easily, all this because of the silicones in it. Initially, I thought that the silicones would make me breakout (any way my skin is very temperamental these days) but the salicylic acid in it didnt let that happen.

Since this is a BB and not a foundation, the coverage is sheer. It doesn’t cover any blemishes or marks but it does unify the skin tone and makes it look more even. For a mom like me who has a meeting in elder son’s school followed by story telling in younger son’s school and then take elder one to cricket class etc (just an example of my average weekday) this is perfect! Why? Because it gives me an evened out, slightly polished look without me looking all made up! The SPF 21 is also helpful coz I’m out in the sun so often.

I wear this in the morning around 11am and it lasts through the day. When I cleanse my face at night, I can see this coming off on my face cloth. And yet, through the day I don’t feel like I have anything on my face at all! It controls oil and doesn’t dry out my skin either. Of course I layer it over my daily moisturiser which is Vichy Normaderm Triactive. .

Initially, when I swatched this, the shade Fawn seemed too dark for my skin. But when I blended it in, because it is so sheer, it adapted well to my skin tone. If I layer it on though, I think it would be a bit dark. Unfortunately, there are only two shades that have been launched in this, Radiance, which is for fair skin tones, and Fawn which is ideal for skin tones darker than NC42. Maybelline should really launch more shades in this coz most of us would fall in between these two shades. Also, while SPF 21 is decent enough, I would have loved this BB to have an SPF of 40 or 50 coz that’s what is needed for Indian summers.

But besides the shade issue, I really feel that this product is simply fabulous and a must have for every girl. And the price of Rs. 250 is so very pocket friendly!

* Product sent by PR but the views are mine and totally unbiased.