Let me start by describing my very long journey to finding the perfect foundation. As a teenager, I had awful hormonal acne pretty much all over my face, but concentrated on my chin/cheeks. My makeup routine took me FOREVER to do as I did A LOT of color correcting on all of my acne on top of a very high coverage foundation. I had always bounced around from foundation to foundation and never found something I liked, despite trying MANY high end foundations. Even if they had the right coverage, there was always something that bothered me about it: the finish, the color wasn't exactly right, didn't last long, etc.
After several years, I am so thankful that my acne finally cleared up and my face is acne free, with the exception of the occasional pimple on my chin area. My struggle now is my post-inflammatory scarring and uneven skin tone which pretty much disappear with any foundation I put on. Problem is, the "holy grail" foundations that everyone is talking about nowadays are usually very heavy/super high coverage that give me an overdone/caked on look that I'm not a fan of. I was looking for a foundation that covered my hyperpigmentation/uneven skin tone, while still looking natural. I had gotten interested in a lot of the asian beauty/skincare products that I read about on Reddit and read about cushion foundations. I found the L'Oreal Lumi Cushion Foundation that I loved (good finish - dewy/glowy, perfect coverage - not too heavy but still looked natural), but was disappointed with the price and how it ran out SO fast ($15 and lasted about 2 months compared to other foundations I had bought that lasted 3-4 months for the same price). I decided that the product I was probably looking for was a BB cream because they are known for being light-weight while still providing some coverage.
I decided to do a simple "bb cream" search in Amazon, and the first product to pop up was the Maybelline BB cream, and a little further down, this MISSHA Perfect Cover BB Cream. After reading about how the Asian brands are typically WAY better quality than the American-produced counterparts (since that's where they originated from), I decided to do some research on this one. This product has many glowing reviews about what a miracle makeup product it is, with the occasional 1-star review of people who received a fake one. I then talked to my sister about it, as she has invested a lot of time and money into a lot of Asian beauty and skincare products and she told me she has actually been using this BB cream as her foundation for 3 years! I was immediately impressed as she has even worse scarring, hyperpigmentation, and uneven skin tone than I do. Yet, when she has makeup on, it completely disappears. I figured she had invested tons of money into some super high-end foundation that I wasn't willing to spend money on/wouldn't be what I wanted. I decided I didn't need much more convincing and ordered the product right away.
Well, I can now say I am so happy to have found my holy grail "foundation"!! ("Foundation" being in quotes as that's not really what it is.) This product has absolutely EVERYTHING I was looking for. I am Caucasian with pretty light skin (I am typically the 2nd lightest shade in most foundations), so I ordered #21 based off my sister's color which was the lightest (#13) and she is pretty much paper white/ghost pale. Most people have been put off by the very gray/ash color this BB cream has (which eventually oxidizes into a more natural looking color.) I had read about it already and was prepared for it. I applied it with my Real Techniques blending sponge, first by applying a dot on my cheeks, forehead, and chin, and then blending out. I was IMMEDIATELY impressed by how natural this BB cream looked on my skin and how my hyperpigmentation and uneven skin tone completely disappeared. It pretty much melted into my skin. I leaned in as close as I could get to the mirror and still could not even tell I had anything on my face. This BB cream is VERY lightweight (it felt like I was wearing nothing!!) yet lasts so long! (I slept in it the first night -- ew, gross, bad, I KNOW! -- and it was still on my face the next morning!) But like I said, I would have to say my favorite thing about this foundation is the "miracle" coverage. I say miracle because it covered up my hyperpigmentation and evened out my skin tone, yet still looked completely natural (you could still see my freckles and looked like I had nothing covering them). The finish on this foundation is definitely not matte, but definitely not super "dewy" to where you look oily. My L'Oreal Lumi Cushion Foundation definitely was skirting the line between "dewy" and "oily", but this is absolutely perfect.
And super BONUS: This BB Cream is SPF 42! I know I should be wearing sunscreen everyday (after all, the best way to treat hyperpigmentation is by not letting it get worse) but I have not found a sunscreen that isn't greasy or wears well under makeup. So I unfortunately skip sunscreen most days. While the amount of this BB cream I put on my face probably does not have enough SPF to perfectly protect me in the awful Texas heat I live in, I can be a little relieved that I have SOME protection!
If you have made it to the end of this ridiculously long review, I hope I have convinced you to at least give it a shot. I bought it for $10 from the seller Beauty Best LLC, and I definitely received a real one. This BB Cream sells for $22 on the MISSHA website, so you really have nothing to lose by trying it! $10 is an absolute steal for this amazing BB cream. I cannot say enough great things about it!