MUA All In One Beauty Balm

I’ve gone on a little spending spree lately buying up all (well one of each, I’m not completely mad) of the UK Highstreet BB creams. My grand plan is to write an individual review on each and then at the end I will do a video comparing them all and picking my favourites. Please let me know if this is something you are actually interested in seeing. Otherwise I’m just a nutter with a drawer full of BB creams.

I will begin with the cheapest offering. MUA’s offering cost just £3 when I bought it although the price has now gone back up to a still very budget friendly £4. I have this in the shade Light, it also comes in Medium and Dark too. The light shade is actually light! It’s a pretty good match for my skin.

Let’s just get the whole ‘BB’ concept out of the way. I’m sure we’ve all heard and seen plenty about them but just in case here is a brief summary as I understand it. BB, or Beauty/ Blemish Balms, were originally created for cosmetic surgery patients and they swiftly became a huge hit in the Asian market. They are designed to be all in one products which prime, provide coverage, treat the skin (i.e. have some sort of skin care element to them) and protect the skin (i.e. have SPF). I’m drawn to the idea because I love the thought of having a product that I can chuck on and go without having to use separate primer, sunscreen and foundation. If a product fails to meet all of these criteria I will declare it a piece of band wagon marketing rather than an actual BB cream.

Well this doesn’t have SPF so on the band wagon it goes. It does say that it ‘Primes, Smooths and Conceals’ but it makes no claims about treating or protecting the skin. So what we have here then is a budget foundation. 

I have to be honest, this isn’t the foundation for me. I find the texture to be very thick and it takes a fair bit of effort to buff it into a smooth finish on the skin. I’ve only been using this for 2 or so weeks but I’m finding that it has a tendency to separate in the bottle and it needs a good shake before use. Given that this is a fairly recent release I can’t imagine that it’s old stock and it was sealed when I bought it so I’m not sure why it’s separating.

The coverage is easily medium. It just isn’t the kind of finish that I like though. It doesn’t really set and even after powdering it still feels slightly tacky on my skin. After a couple of hours it looks cakey round my oily nose and it does little to nothing to control oil. But the worst part for me is that this just seems to hang around my large pores shouting “hey look at these! Aren’t they huge!!” It is not flattering at all.

If you are on a budget, have more normal skin and like a medium coverage then you could certainly do a lot worse. It you have oily skin and large pores then I really don’t recommend it. It’s usable and I will finish it but I won’t be buying it again at the end x

*Bought by me*