Why This $5 BB Cream Has a Near-Perfect Star Rating on Amazon

If you are looking to streamline your beauty routine, consider adding a BB cream to your skin care regimen. The double B stands for "beauty balms" or "blemish balms," and BB creams are known to even skin tone and correct blemishes. Lighter than a standard foundation, but thicker than a tinted moisturizer, BB creams differ from CC creams, which are lighter-weight formulas that work to reduce redness, sallowness, and other forms of skin discoloration. BB creams are an all-in-one cosmetic product claims to function as a moisturizer, primer, sunscreen, skin treatment, concealer, and foundation — packaged in a single tube.

How we test BB creams

The Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab rounded up the best BB creams across the market from drugstore picks to high-end brands, and narrowed the field down to 10 top contenders. The Lab evaluated BB creams for hydration effects with the Corneometer device, which measures skin’s moisture levels, and product coverage using our Visia Complexion Analyzer machine. Then, over 140 women tried the label-masked products at home for a week and reported their feedback to find the best of the best.

Overall, our testers liked the way the products expedited their routine and found they were able to skip some of their regular products. Lab results showed that 78% of testers said BBs helped streamline their routine. Although there is a popular notion that BB creams are the superheroes of skin care, since they can "do it all," we discovered that not all of the products live up to such a high standard: for example, some higher-coverage BB creams felt drying to the skin, while some moisturizing formulas tended to offer lighter coverage.

These are the best BB creams you can buy, based on consumer testing and our personal favorite picks: