The 10 Best BB and CC Creams For Summer

Are you in the market for a new BB or CC cream?

Check out the options that Vogue.com considers to be 

The 10 Best BB and CC Creams For Summer

The official coming of summer has us embracing a newly pared-down routine—streamlining our overloaded makeup bags in favor of multitasking options that channel the almost-bare mood of the season. Translation: If you’re still using the same creamy, medium coverage foundation you swore by all spring, it’s time to lighten up. Fortunately, the newest wave of beauty balms and color correctors—more commonly known as BB and CC creams—pack a checklist of benefits into a single tube while remaining virtually invisible on the skin for straight-from-the-beach touchups. Chanel CC Cream’s featherweight, pigment-evening formula prescription provides SPF 50 along with antiaging peach extract and moisturizing hyaluronic acid. Physicians Formula Super CC+ Eye Cream SPF 30 relieves puffiness and blurs lines—ensuring eyes remain as bright as their cloudless, sun-drenched surroundings—while Giorgio Armani’s supernaturally luminous offeringleaves skin with the kind of glow that rivals a good facialist’s work. Here are the ten tinted balms and creams we’re stocking up on this vacation season.

L’Oréal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream, $11
Chanel CC Cream Complete Correction Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 50, $55
Physicians Formula Super CC+ Eye Cream SPF 30, $13
La Roche Posay Effaclar BB Blur Cream Mousse, $30
Tarte Amazonian Clay BB Illuminating Moisturizer, $32
Bobbi Brown BB Cream SPF 35, $20
Peter Thomas Roth CC Cream, $48
Dior Diorsnow UV Shield BB Crème Broad Spectrum SPF 50, $55
Kate Somerville IllumiKate CC Cream Broad Spectrum SPF 50, $48

Giorgio Armani Luminessence CC Color Control Bright Moisturizer SPF 35, $52

8 Essential Items for Your Makeup Bag This Summer

For most of the year I'm all about more makeup.

During the summer months however, a face full of makeup looks ridiculous.

Step outside into the sunlight and whatever you've got going is magnified,

so an overload of makeup looks even worse.

So here is a list of 8 Essential Items for a pared down makeup bag for summer.

1. BB or CC Cream

Lose the foundation and opt instead for a skin enhancing, color correcting, tone and texture evening BB or CC cream. (if you're unsure which to choose, CC creams are more about color correction, BB's are more about skin enhancing. Both are fabulous.)

Your skin will look gorgeous and you wont look made-up.

2. ColoreScience Sunforgettable SPF 50

Protecting your skin from sun damage is crucial, and sunscreen has to be reapplied throughout the day.

This handy brush is easy to carry around and lets you reapply on the go, with no messy creams. It has the added bonus of going on smoothly and not creating a pasty, cakey layer to the skin.

3. Makeup Forever Aqua Brow

You need to tell a very simple story with your summer makeup.

Clean skin with an accent on brows and lips keeps you looking fresh faced and understated.

Makeup Forever Aqua Brow is a super concentrated (i.e. apply sparingly) waterproof eyebrow corrector.

The brows that you apply first thing in the morning will make it through humidity, swimming, perspiring - you name it, and will take you all the way through the evening.

A stronger accent on the brow can lift and open the eye, so long as you don't make it too heavy.

4. A Lash Curler.

Use a good quality eyelash curler to lift the lashes and open the eye.

5. A Good Mascara

Accent your eyes with tons of mascara. Use it to lift and open the eye, not weighing it down with clumpy lashes. 

Aim to lengthen the lashes, keeping them glossy and defined with a mascara like Clinique High Definition Mascara, making sure you comb through to remove any clumps.

If you're going swimming, running around in monsoons or battling high humidity opt for a waterproof formula, otherwise choose a water resistant mascara.

6. Bronzer

If needed, applied sparingly, use a champagne toned bronzer to add lift and warmth to your complexion.

Bronzer is supposed to make you look like you've been out in the sun, and should only hit the high points on your face - forehead, tops of the cheekbones and bridge of the nose, and your chin.

7. Highlighter 

I use the Smashbox Halo Highlighting Wand to brighten the tops of cheekbones, lift under the eyes and generally brighten the skin.

Its a fabulous transition product to reawaken your skin and make you look alive and vibrant as you go from a long day at work to a night on the town.

8. Vibrant, sexy lips

The key to making a simple, makeup free look work is to have an accent on the brows, and then balance it with a bright, exciting lip.

Try bold shades like Nars Schiap or MAC All About Orange