Ponds All in One BB+ Cream | Review, Swatches, and a Mini Rant

I know that a lot of my friends love the Ponds All in One BB+ Cream, and with good reason. The product is excellent for daily use and provides hydration, sun protection, as well as a light coverage. However, every time I look at the packaging of the product, I cringe a little. In this day and age when people all around the globe are fighting for the eradication of stereotypes associated with skin color, Ponds continues to market its BB cream as a fairness cream. When a popular brand like Ponds still feels that a product that is otherwise excellent in terms of performance will probably not sell as much if it is not advertised as a fairness cream, it saddens me a little. In fact, it saddens me a lot. I do not claim to be an activist, nor am I perfect; I am guilty of purchasing products that claim to provide fairness but I never purchase them because of the claim but because they perform well in other departments, and this cream is one such example.

Another thing that annoys me about this product is the fact that it comes in only one shade, which definitely will not suit all skin tones. I feel that the shade will work well only for light to medium skin tones, which is a shame because the formula is actually pretty good. Moving on from my rant and focussing on my job, which is to review this product for you, this BB cream claims to moisturize and provide a natural coverage to the skin and also contains SPF 30. This makes it perfect for the Monsoon months if you do not have any stubborn blemishes that you want to cover.

The product comes in a sleek tube with a pump that dispenses the perfect amount of product for covering the face. The formula has a mild, fresh fragrance that helps me feel more awake in the morning. The texture of the BB cream is slightly thick, but it blends beautifully on the skin. It has a yellowish/peachy undertone that helps to brighten up the face. However, perhaps due to the presence of SPF, it does leave a slight white cast on the skin which may not be noticeable in real life but tends to show up in photos.

 Below is a picture of the product blended on my arm. As you can see, it provides light to medium coverage based on how much product you use but I will not recommend building up the coverage due to the white cast issue. In fact, the whole concept of using a BB cream is to go for a more natural finish which allows the skin to breathe a little and this product does just that. The product does not provide a dewy finish but is not too matte either, so if you are going to be wearing it in heat and humidity then I would recommend powdering the face to make it sweatproof.

If you enjoy affordable tinted moisturizers and BB creams and the shade of this product suits you, then the Ponds All in One BB+ Cream might become your new favorite. I wish, however, that the brand brings out more shades and drops the words “fairness cream” from the packaging of the product. This blog is just a baby and I am by no means a famous beauty influencer, but if any beauty brands out there stumble upon this blog post, I would urge them to stop selling products as fairness creams and instead focus on creating something that celebrates the natural skin tone and beauty of a woman.

I hope that my lovely readers will understand the conflicted emotions of this post that are due to an excellent product being marketed incorrectly. Let us make the comments section a place for a healthy discussion!

XoXo,

Mrinalini