What’s the Difference Between BB Creams and CC Creams?

BB and CC creams can cut down steps in your daytime beauty routine because they offer both light coverage and skin-care benefits. But there’s a lot of overlap between the two, so it can be hard to pick. The consensus among the sources I spoke to is that the lines between the two products have been blurred over the years, mostly due to marketing. So, no matter the formula, what’s most important is looking for ingredients that address your skin type and concerns. I’ve outlined how to do that below and also found a few of the most common differences.

BB creams have been on the market longer than CC creams (going back to 1967). You’ll either see it marketed as a beauty balm or blemish balm. They tend to have less coverage than a foundation — sheer to light — because they’re meant to blur the pores and texture of your skin rather than conceal and cover it. Even though the texture of the product itself may be thicker than a foundation — almost creamy — it still feels more lightweight, breathable, and hydrating on the skin. It’s essentially a moisturizer with added pigments. One of our writers put it well when she wrote in a piece about her beloved Purlisse BB cream, “A good [BB cream is] like a creamy moisturizer melting into your skin, except it’s tinted, buffs and perfects your skin tone, and has added SPF.”

BB creams are hydrating, as you might have guessed, so you’ll likely find emollients and hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid, glycerin, and ceramides. From there, brands have formulated BB creams to have a variety of other benefits. SPF is common, since BB creams are typically worn during the day when you’re out in the sun. Niacinamide is another common ingredient, which helps combat dark spots and overall pigmentation improvement over time. The main thing here, though, is that BB creams are hydrating. Because of that, cosmetic chemist Manessa Lo generally recommends BB creams for people with normal, dry, and mature skin types who want light coverage, and less so for people with oily skin. There are, of course, some exceptions, like mattifying BB creams, which are made with oil-absorbent ingredients like kaolin and silica.

One downside of BB creams that was brought up among some of the makeup artists I spoke to was its lack of shades. When I asked cosmetic chemist and co-host of The Beauty Brains podcast, Valerie George, about this, she explained that people shouldn’t automatically be put off. “Because it’s so sheer, it’s not like a foundation, which needs to be perfectly matched,” she says. “One tone of a BB cream will work for a wide variety of skin types. Whereas with a foundation, the coverage is substantial, and you need it to match your skin type as closely as possible because it is actually completely covering your skin.” However, if you have a medium-to-dark skin tone and the BB cream isn’t offered in a shade close to your skin tone, it’s better to look for a tinted moisturizer, which typically has more shade options.

Since BB creams are hydrating, you probably don’t need to layer a moisturizer underneath. George and Lo both say if you have dry skin, try pairing it with a light moisturizer or hydrating serum instead. If the BB cream doesn’t have SPF and you’re wearing it during the day, layering it with sunscreen is a must to get protection.

CC cream stands for color corrector. These are meant to target unevenness in skin tone, like hyperpigmentation, freckles, melasma, redness, scars, and acne. “It does this by using the exact same pigments that a BB cream has, but it has more of them,” explains George. Put plainly, CC creams have more coverage than BB creams (but still less than a foundation). The skin-care benefits are more directed at improving skin tone (all of those skin concerns we just mentioned), rather than just moisturizing. Because of this, CC creams tend to be slightly less thick than BB cream’s lotionlike texture.

CC creams, like BB creams, have moisturizing ingredients in them, but are more likely to have SPF 30 or higher. This is because sun protection is necessary for even skin tone, which is the primary skin-care focus of CC creams. You’ll also find more skin brighteners like niacinamide, licorice extract, and antioxidants such as vitamins C and E. Antioxidants are especially common, since they can help reduce existing pigmentation, lessen chances of future hyperpigmentation by down-regulating melanin production, and protect against free-radical damage.

As long as your CC cream has SPF 30 or higher, you don’t need to worry about layering it with sunscreen. Similar to BB creams, layering with moisturizer depends on your skin type and the CC cream’s formula (our expert guide includes both radiant and matte finishes). If you’re on the drier side, consider a light moisturizer or hydrating serum, especially if you’re going for a matte finish. One important thing to note is that although CC creams have lots of targeted skin-care benefits, George recommends using heavy-hitting serums and treatments with higher concentrations to address skin concerns. “The primary function of a CC cream is to physically improve the appearance of the skin with those pore-blurring pigments,” she says. “The other benefits, like antioxidants, are secondary.” Also, CC creams are not worn throughout the night when your skin is recovering from the day. “In the evening, you should be using suitable ingredients to address your skin-care concerns, not in the form of a CC cream,” George adds.

Both BB and CC creams can streamline your skin-care and makeup routine. If you don’t have specific skin concerns and are looking for an easy, light coverage product for minor blemishes, a BB cream is your best bet. If you’re dealing with redness, hyperpigmentation, or dark spots, a CC cream helps physically cover up those skin-tone concerns with the added benefit of improving skin over time.

• Dr. Caroline A. Chang, dermatologist and founder of RI Dermatology Institute
• Tarryn Feldman, makeup artist
• Valerie George, cosmetic chemist and co-host of The Beauty Brains podcast
• Manessa Lo, cosmetic chemist and product developer
• Kristina Rodulfo, beauty writer

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