MISSHA Perfect Cover BB Cream
I was obsessed with a now-discontinued, American BB (or, you know, a tinted moisturizer being a poser). You may have seen one of my twelve thousand references to it. I’m now out of my backup stash. Although Naked Skin Foundation in 3.25 worked for me in summer, it doesn’t now – and I’ve decided to approach sunless tanning in a more casual fashion anyway. What came to mind was MISSHA Perfect Cover BB Cream – from Korea, it’s legit, and highly rated for a reason. You can get it stateside from Target ($22) or MISSHA’s site (same price usually, on sale at the moment), but I decided to take a chance on saving money and buy mine from Amazon Marketplace seller BeautyBest LLC.
The Packaging
The Box
…is a shiny, metallic gold and brown with normal things you’d expect on a product box. There’s a mix of Korean and English, and certainly enough of the latter for an English-speaking consumer to make sense of. Drug facts and ingredients are listed in English, too. I find it frustrating to buy foreign products and lose that easy reference to see if there are ingredients that disagree with you; I’m glad to have missed that with this. Some of the translated sections are a little shaky, but by no means incoherent (looking at you, Elma & Sana).
On the front, beneath the branding, it reads:
MISSHA M Perfect Cover BB Cream offers a novel skincare concept with BB cream which lightens skin tone by healing visible wrinkles and blemishes with excellent skin-cover ability and prevents skin aging through effective whitening and anti-wrinkle properties.
Ingredients are to the left of the front of the packaging, and can be found for each shade here. Other info, including product shade and directions are to the right of the front. The back is nearly 100% Korean. This guide on spotting fakes from SumWearCo is a good reference as well.
The Tube
…is an airless pump. This is exciting! Airless pumps have a few cool advantages:
- Less Waste – little to no product left just out of reach of the pump.
- Limited exposure to air means your product does not oxidize prematurely
- Existing in a vacuum or near-vacuum also prevents bacteria from contaminating the product
MISSHA Perfect Cover BB Cream
All MISSHA Perfect Cover shades dispense with an odd, greyish cast. This should not alarm you, though, dear reader; this is a common quality of BB Creams. Even poser western BB’s like the Ponds I used to use had this bizarre-looking greyish quality. Additionally, it has a vaguely powdery scent (not unlike the Ponds one) that I don’t love…but don’t dislike enough to bar my use. The scent dissipates within five minutes.
I purchased shades 21 Light Beige and 23 Neutral Beige being unsure of what I needed. Right now, I need 21 – but I fully expect to need a mix of both as my complexion takes on more color in the fair-weather months.
Application & Wear
I pump a small amount – say about the size of a coffee bean, maybe a bit more if I want more coverage – on the back of my hand. Next, I dot the product onto my face with fingers. Finally, I work it in with the tool du jour; I get great results with my F80, the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush, a beautyblender, or the Real Techniques sponge. You can apply it with fingers, but I’m partial to using my tools.
After applied, it does take on a dewy appearance. I don’t love to look too shiny, so I wait a few minutes (if I can) to let it start oxidizing to look more like my skin than a weird grey mask. If I’m using a cream blush or highlight that day, I apply it first then set it with either Hourglass ALP in Dim Light or Rimmel Stay Matte pressed translucent powder. A light dusting of powder still leaves a luminous, satin finish that is enhanced with a setting spray. It’s my perfect happy medium.
Shade 21 is fully oxidized on me to a flattering tone within 30 minutes, but your mileage may vary based on other reviews I’ve read. Thirty minutes is fine for me because that’s about the duration between when I apply in the morning and when I reach my office.
Once applied and set (I’ve never worn it at length without setting it), MISSHA Perfect Cover lasts perfectly throughout a workday – which for me is from about 6AM to 4PM, and even a bit later. I did notice that it would wear away if you A) absentmindedly rub your face or B) with aggressive napkin (messy lunch?) or C) heavy tissue (have a cold?) usage. As one would assume, it does have greater longevity with a setting spray like Urban Decay’s All Nighter (which has fancy new packaging). I don’t consistently use primer, but I think it would be fair to assume that a primer that usually works for you would make it further resistant to the rigors of tissue usage and so forth.
Coverage
Frankly, I’m blown away by the coverage of this product. It is most definitely a cream formulation (not a liquid), but it is fluffy and mousse-like, applying effortlessly. Generally, we equate lightweight with lower coverage but it simply isn’t so with MISSHA Perfect Cover. I could easily get away with skipping concealer on my pesky dark under eyes. I’d peg it at strong medium coverage, covering more effectively than Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation, and worlds better than Ponds Luminous Finish BB+ ever did.
So far, it has stood up beautifully to winter dryness, too. I had some flaky skin around my nose that I was concerned about while hastily applying before work one morning. I was delighted to find that you couldn’t see it unless you were uncomfortably close to my face.
Furthermore, it covers redness like a boss. I am prone to redness around my nose and on my cheeks if I’ve rubbed them at all (washing my face, applying moisturizer). Add my recent experience with a cystic blemish or two, and I was well-equipped to test the coverage. It knocked the color out like a champ, but isn’t a miracle product; if you have any scabs (ugh that word) from blemishes, it can’t 100% hide them. It minimizes the obviousness, though, which is all I think we can reasonable ask for. We aren’t wearing SFX or movie-grade makeup to work, after all.
Their Claims
Lightens Skin Tone: I’m not clear on if they intend this as a lasting effect as the result of use or if they intend it to be, “hey this product’s coverage lightens your dark spots and areas,” when it is on your face. It doesn’t do the former, it does do the latter.
Healing Visible Wrinkles and Blemishes: With hydrolyzed collagen, it’s setup pretty well to minimize the appearance of wrinkles…when it is on your face. But it cannot, “heal,” them. As for blemishes, Perfect Cover does not irritate my skin whatsoever. It has some ingredients that are great in skincare…but it also has some that some people are sensitive to. This is again equipped to minimize the appearance of a thing while you’re wearing it – but it isn’t going to have long-term effects.
Prevents Skin Aging: Fortified with sunscreen in SPF 42 PA++++, MISSHA Perfect Cover is almost as good on the sunscreen front as my beloved Biore Aqua Rich Watery Essence. So yeah, I’d say this is a fair claim.
Even though 2/3 claims don’t work, if you go in with realistic expectations, you won’t be disappointed. If you want to resolve skin concerns, you should develop a skincare routine that targets those concerns. Ultimately, a cosmetic product is not going to address those things in a lasting fashion.
The Bottom Line
Run, don’t walk! I’ve already purchased a second tube in my shade because I love the damn stuff.
I love:
- The easy application.
- The luminous finish survives my workday and beyond.
- That it has sunscreen in the formula, and not just a piddling SPF 15. You should be wearing a separate sunscreen, but I don’t have to worry so much if I forget.
- The coverage can easily combat my redness.
If you aren’t accustomed to it, the greyish cast and need for oxidization may require adjusting-to. I strongly recommend to anyone except perhaps those who want to go ultra hard on the coverage front.