What’s the Difference?
Skin Tint vs. BB Cream: What’s the Difference?
Both tinted moisturizer and BB cream can help you achieve a more natural look than foundation, but they differ in coverage, ingredients, and other qualities. The right product for you depends on your personal needs and the finished look you desire.
Understanding the key differences between BB cream and tinted moisturizer, including the benefits and results, can help you decide which product to add to your skincare lineup.
Follow along to learn about these makeup alternatives and how to use skin tint to streamline your makeup routine.
What Is BB Cream?
BB cream, also known as beauty balm, is a skincare product offering coverage for blemishes and discoloration, plus benefits like hydration. Though BB cream provides similar results to a tinted moisturizer, these products aren’t the same.
The differences between BB cream and tinted moisturizer are their purposes and ingredients. BB cream is often focused on tackling (and covering up) breakouts and skin concerns. Its ingredients, including niacinamide, vitamin C, and hyaluronic acid, are known to reduce the appearance of blemishes, soothe irritated areas, fade the appearance of dark spots, and even hydrate your skin.
As far as coverage, BB creams provide a good middle ground between tinted moisturizer and foundation. These creams are ideal for people who want a step down from full-coverage foundation but aren’t looking for sheer coverage.
What Is Tinted Moisturizer?
Tinted moisturizers are simply moisturizers with a bit of pigment added to help create sheer coverage. These products swap easily into your morning routine in place of your usual moisturizer, helping your skin feel nourished and hydrated while giving your face a touch of color. When comparing makeup, like full-coverage foundation versus tinted moisturizer and BB cream, foundation can look cakey and less natural than skincare-based solutions.
When comparing skin tint versus BB cream, a major difference is purpose: A tinted moisturizer focuses on the product’s hydrating abilities, while a BB cream prioritizes coverage.
For instance, U Beauty’s SUPER Tinted Hydrator uses ingredients like hyaluronic acid, shea butter, avocado oil, and purified oat extract to provide sustained moisture. This formula also contains heavy-hitting ingredients like squalane, stabilized vitamins C and E, and AHAs to support skin that feels smooth, soft, and firm.
This hydrator’s skin-tinting qualities are less prominent than a BB cream. It uses mineral pigments to provide a natural-looking, sheer finish. With many shades that flexibly fit up to three skin tones each, our hydrator makes it easy to find a complementary tint that’s breathable, yet buildable when you need it to be.
Why Choose Skin Tint vs. BB Cream?
Once you understand the features of tinted moisturizer and BB cream, you can better understand which is right for you. The breakthrough qualities of U Beauty’s tinted hydrator, including its advanced ingredients and sheer finish, provide an excellent base for your skincare routine. It does the work of a moisturizer and adds a subtle, sheet finish for a signature no-makeup look.
A Tinted Moisturizer Routine for Any Look
The nice part about skin tint versus BB cream is that the tint makes it easy to tailor your coverage while keeping your face hydrated. It’s hard to take BB cream down a notch, but The SUPER Tinted Hydrator offers a natural look to start, with the ability to build coverage.
If you want to create a skincare routine using tinted moisturizer but aren’t sure where to start, this guide will help. Here’s a sample makeup routine you can effortlessly customize for an everyday look or a night out:
Step 1: Apply Eye Makeup
The first thing you’ll want to do is apply your eye makeup. This way, if your eyeshadow falls below your eye, you can easily wipe it away without ruining your coverage.
Depending on how you do your eye makeup, you can easily dress tinted moisturizer up for a date night—or tone it down for a quick run to the grocery store.
If you want a glam nighttime look, create a smokey eye with eyeliner. If you want a more everyday, barely-there look, simply apply a single layer of neutral eyeshadow and a couple of swipes of mascara.
Step 2: Blend in Tinted Moisturizer
Once you’ve completed your eye makeup, it’s time to focus on your face. Dispense a small amount of The SUPER Tinted Hydrator on a beauty sponge, brush, or your fingertips, then apply the tinted moisturizer to your face.
How you blend the tinted moisturizer depends on the tool you’re using. If you’re using a beauty sponge, dab the moisturizer gently on your skin in a few key spots and then blend. Use a circular motion when applying moisturizer with a foundation brush to avoid leaving streaks. Let the application dry and then repeat with another layer, if desired. The SUPER Tinted Hydrator is designed to be buildable, for a custom level of coverage.
Step 3: Conceal Skin Concerns
Next, add some concealer to areas needing a little extra coverage. This step will help reduce the appearance of blemishes, dark spots, or discoloration.
Step 4: Add Lip Color and Volume
A tinted lip is the perfect finishing touch. You have several options: lip stain, lip gloss, lip plumper, or lipstick. The primary difference between these products is their respective finishes. If you want shiny lips, reach for a gloss or plumper, and for a matte texture, consider a lip stain or lipstick.
The PLASMA Lip Compound is no ordinary lip gloss. It leverages high-performance ingredients like peptides and ceramides to visibly plump lips with a natural-looking enhancement. This product promotes lip-nourishing benefits, and with consistent use, the effects last.
Unlike traditional lip plumpers, The PLASMA doesn’t use irritating ingredients like cayenne to plump the lips. Instead, it focuses on boosting hydration, strengthening the moisture barrier, and visibly smoothing the texture of the lips to help reduce the appearance of fine lines. With options for clear, subtle shades and colors that pop, there’s a PLASMA to match any makeup style you choose.
Comparing skin tint versus BB cream is a good place to start evaluating which products are must-haves for your makeup routine. At U Beauty, our goal is to create products using cutting-edge science to help streamline your regimen and maximize your results. Our moisturizing, buildable skin tint is just one example of how we continue to push the boundaries of what ordinary skincare can do. To add more multitasking products to your routine, shop our collection of skincare heroes.
To learn more about how skincare can complement beauty, visit the U Beauty blog.
Sources:
Dual Effects of Alpha-Hydroxy Acids on the Skin | PMC
Should You Apply Eye Makeup or Face Makeup First? | Real Simple
How to Apply Tinted Moisturizer: 3 Tips for Tinted Moisturizer - 2024 | MasterClass
