Photo 4/5
Smooth Skin Tone and Texture
Good for: correcting mildly lackluster skin tone and tightening wobbly bits
Our take: The six-ounce Osmotics CC Cream has to be one of the most expensive body products I've ever used. That said, its coverage is almost perfect, with a touch of sheer color that made my pale legs a little less ghostly; it also blends well on darker skin. Its light-reflecting pigments are subtler and more neutral in color than the Urban Decay body BB, whose gilded shimmer is pretty but looks more obvious in sunlight. It also includes caffeine, a proven, if temporary, cellulite-smoothing ingredient. Vitamin B-5 and grapeseed and sweet almond oils provide some benefits. Plus, it contains no artificial colors, parabens or fragrances, and it's not tested in animals -- major selling points for vegans and allergy sufferers.
The cons? The scent is mildly musty, and gets a little funkier as the day wears on. A light floral or green note would be a welcome addition and help balance out the odd scent. And, of course, there's the price, which would take a big bite out of most women's beauty budgets.
Photo 5/5
Get a Glow on a Budget
Good for: subtle brightening and everyday hydration
I naïvely expected Jergens' body BB, like Urban Decay's, to contain slightly more coverage a la a facial BB cream. I was still hoping this would be a good, less-messy replacement for my tinted moisturizer-with-lotion trick. Apples to apples, this is more like a CC cream since its primary benefits are optical brightening and blurring, not improving skin tone by adding pigment. It's got a tiny bit of color -- that would be the purported "self-adjusting tone technology" -- but it's hardly noticeable.
As a body lotion, it's super: It makes skin feel instantly hydrated, smooth and plump thanks to shea, mango seed and cocoa butters, vitamin B-5, aloe, coconut water, collagen and elastin. I also never got tired of the light, slightly musky fragrance. I didn't notice a significant difference between this product and Osmotics Cosmeceuticals' CC Cream, which goes for $60 more, making this (like the Avon DD) a stellar value. The only bummer is its lack of staying power -- after a few hours, my skin still felt supple and smelled awesome, but my glow had faded. (Guess I better wipe down that desk chair again.)
This body BB was my second-favorite alphabet cream after Urban Decay's product for its solid function and affordability. Would I pay $34.99 to score it on eBay? Nah. But I'm still using it. And I haven't ruled out the possibility that, once those skin-perfecting benefits kick in, I'll be more porcelain than pasty.
I'm not sure why I didn't take notice when Jergens' breakthrough BB Body Perfecting Skin Cream came out last year -- when women were paying three times the retail price on eBay/selling their first-born children to get the stuff. I guess I was too busy smearing diluted tinted moisturizer on my legs. (It's just for special occasions! Don't judge me!) Suffice it to say when word of this body BB cream came my way, I was intrigued. I've spent so many cumulative hours trying to elevate this mug of mine from "blotchy Northern European pale-face" to "Christina Hendricks alabaster" that taking a few seconds to apply a tone-enhancing, skin-perfecting product on my body seemed completely appropriate.
On that note, I dug into the BB body creams that have recently hit the market -- plus the body CC and DD creams that are following in their wake. Do you really need a body alphabet cream? Here's what I found out.
