About Me

My photo
I'm a mom, a wife, a best friend. Sick with CFIDS/ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia since 1975 as a result of a nasty flu while still in grad school, it wasn't until the late '80's that I received a diagnosis. Until that flu I'd never really been ill before. With each year I get progressively worse and add to the bucket load of symptoms I'm living with. I've been blessed with an incredible family and best friend who've stayed with me through my struggles as we continue to find a way out of this monstrous illness and its complications. We've tried seemingly every approach to find my way back to health. Often I think our best weapon in this undesirable and unasked-for adventure has been laughter.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

No Silicone in this Omorovicza's BB Cream: Review

Finally! There's a BB cream with no silicones in it. Given how many skin problems those of us with CFIDS/ME and even fibro have, I decided that I needed to do a bit of an investigation into Omorovicza's "Complexion Perfector BB SPF 20," the BB cream with no silicones but full of all sorts of "goodies."

And really, if BB creams work, how perfect is it for those of us with limited energy, limited ability to present a pretty face to the world? For those of us with the DD, how many steps can be eliminated with just this one product? These BB creams combined with patients who have Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome and/or Myalgic Encephalopathy seems to have been a match made in heaven!

And surprisingly, I've found myself being asked about the silicone aspect in BB's a lot lately and thought that perhaps it's finally time to give my own take on it "officially." (Oh yeah, like I'm "official"? Ha!)

It took a while, but I finally made the huge decision to buy Omorovicza's BB cream version. Thank heavens Omorovicza often includes free full-sized samples which help make the decision (a tiny bit) easier as it is extremely expensive. Yep! I got their full-sized mud mask as my gift with a purchase, an almost unheard of "freebie" that boggles the mind. "The Deep Cleansing Mask" was a stunning 1.7 oz at $113 - free with any purchase. They have all sorts of "schemes" to try to make their products seem more affordable.

As much as it pains me to say this, however, the Omorovicza BB cream has been a bit of a problem as I try to figure out how and what to do with it. Yet, it really shouldn't be so much trouble. After all, one of the beauties of BB creams is that they are supposed to be so easy to deal with, right?

I'd tested other BB creams and wrote a couple of posts about them as you can read here and here. Dr. Jart+ Premium BB Cream, at the top of my list, won with a landslide. I had two or three samples and two BB creams I bought, but they all did my skin no favors, developing bumps or redness in a couple of cases, and even after my review as I later tried other BB creams as well. Yet nothing was as successful as the Dr. Jart. Actually, these BB's are now being produced at a manic rate, and the results are that many BB creams all too often have nothing BB about them.

And mind you, all of this testing was taking place as exasperated hubby kept saying, "you have got to stop messing around with this stuff!" when he'd see the bumpy outcomes, the redness, whatever. Ah! We lead such an exciting life (ha!).

And I DO have a allergy to silicone sheets, as described in an earlier post, which can be read here. I now know that I have sensitivity to most, though not all products with silicones. I have yet to establish which products will work out OK with my skin if the product contains silicone because not all products with silicones have negative reactions. It must have something to do with the formulations and/or fillers and/ or binders - or even the man in the moon, for all I know. The more expensive beauty products that do have silicones seem to work best (wouldn't you know it!) but, really, that's no guarantee.

Getting back to Omorovicza's BB cream. I lusted for this product when I first heard about it to the point where it hurt. (I know, I know! I need a life! Don't judge me! Joke - or not?) I kept looking at the ingredients, reading reviews, and, of course, with my fibro-brain, had trouble making a decision.

The company's literature says that their BB cream has been proclaimed as the “Swiss army knife of the beauty industry” and with an SPF of 20, it's not just a moisturiser, foundation and sunscreen but also a concealer and has anti-aging cream, an "all-in-one!" (The BB creams are all SUPPOSED to be all-in-ones, with moisturizer, an SPF and a bit of tinting a "given," just the rest of the goodies/treatments differing.)

Furthermore, Omorovicza promised that its BB cream leaves your "skin flawless, sheer and even, whilst hydrating and protecting it from UVA/B rays." It also includes hyaluronic acid (discussed hereand also here), something fantastic for plumping the skin and keeping it hydrated. It has Vitamin C for production of collagen and elasticity, dealing with free radical damages and so forth. White lupin and red crystal. OK, OK, they got me!

And so after many months I took the plunge. And then finally the day came when I was well enough to play around with it.

  • Day 1: it balled up and kept flaking off. Odd.

It burned a bit, not a good sign, but didn't burn much. But SHOULD it have burned at all?
The color was too pale for me and I'm pretty fair.
It looked as if I'd put on a mask. It didn't blend in well.
It covered nothing. Oh dear.

  •  Next attempt: no balling or flaking. Good sign, but what had I done "wrong" the first time?

It still burned. Was this me or the BB cream?
It covered nothing, though there was just the most faintest bit of just "bringing the face together." I'm not sure if anyone can understand that.

  •  Next attempt....and next...and next..
  • Next #lost count: no balling, no flaking, but burning, still.

However, the other day I happened to glance in the mirror and was shocked as to how pale I've become. There was no color whatsoever to be seen. "White as a ghost" popped into my mind immediately. Scary, but I know - hope! - that it's due to the hypothyroidism and once the meds kick in...

However, the good news was that now the color of the BB cream was fine! There was minimum coverage (if at all), of old freckles and hyper-pigmentation, although a bit of evening of the skin, reduction in redness to a degree? However, there was no improvement in my new wrinkles, nor with other "promises" and the burning would not go away no matter how much I kept trying different approaches on different days. It must truly be the illness and meds causing this, I feel. Yesterday's attempt I was determined to wear for at least 4 hours. I finally gave up after after only three very, very slow and uncomfortable hours.

However, in the midst of all of this, I subjected my poor daughter to the BB cream (as well/yet again) and I applied it to her face - she must have allowed me to do this in order to curry favor for a future time, when needed! Because the BB cream suited her color, evened out her skin, though each and every freckle could be seen, I sent her home with a tiny jar into which I'd pumped in quite a bit of the BB cream. Somehow the BB cream gave her a more polished look, with minimum effort, yet made her face look quite natural. But be forewarned! If you like your freckles, it's great. If you don't like your freckles, forget about it! This can then be applied to age spots, scarring from acne and a handful of other skin problems. You really do need to have pretty good skin to wear this, in addition to being fairly light-complected.

So, after weighing all the pro's and con's, I think that if you want a BB cream with no silicone, this baby is for you. This is seriously something to consider if you have CFIDS/ME, since the oddest things can happen to our skin. You may or may not be sensitive to the silicone, you may or may not be sensitive to any number of ingredients in the formulas.

I'd also feel remiss if I didn't add that there is a drag to the Omorovicza, most probably because of the no-silicone factor, which is not too surprising. And finally, there is the cost to consider - $135, though at 1.7 oz, an impressive size. Their website can be seen here.
I think I'll stick to the Dr. Jart+ Premium BB Cream with a whopping SPF 45 and a (much more) reasonable price of $39 for 1.4 oz. I like the color, the texture and the much higher SPF. It also doesn't burn my sensitive face, it gives much more coverage and feels as if I'm not wearing anything at all on my face. Having said that, I will probably keep using the Omorovicza until I run out of it...it's just too expensive to throw out and I know that the ingredients are top-notch! Furthermore, there must be a way that I can use it and not experience the burning....there must!


Ouch! Sometimes writing the truth (as I see it) hurts. However I'm absolutely sure that there are many women out there who would and do very well with it. It's a class act, just not for this CFIDS/ME person.

Hoping all are doing the best they can be, only better. Ciao and paka!


(Did you enjoy this post?  Please subscribe to my blog and you'll never miss anything. It's easy: see the directions on the right hand corner of this page.  And BTW: I'll never sell, share or rent your contact information.  I don't even know where to find it, so it's a firm promise!) 

No comments:

Post a Comment