Call off the search, the base to end all bases is here, says Nicola Bonn. And she’s not the only one who thinks so
There are some beauty products that you feel an instant connection with. They are the ones that you only need to try once to know that pretty soon you’re going to ask them to move in. They're also the ones that you secretly pray will never be discontinued because if they are, you will feel a tiny bit (very) lost.
The one product that I have that ‘keeper’ connection with is not a perfume or lipstick, but a CC Cream . It was introduced to me by blogger Anna Newton, AKA The Anna Edit . She was making a guest appearance on my Outspoken Beauty Podcast and revealed that the one product that she couldn't praise enough was IT Cosmetics CC Cream. She was wearing it that day and her skin looked incredibly fresh; it always gave her the perfect level of dewy coverage, she said. My interest was instantly piqued (they don't call Anna an influencer for nothing) and three days later I had two tubes of it in shades medium and light, which I mixed to get my perfect match. I too was hooked - this was my best skin in cream form.
Being a CC cream, the product colour corrects, which basically means that it blurs areas of pigmentation and redness. It’s a true long-wear multitasker , giving a decent amount of coverage, a dewy glow and powerful UVA/B protection (50+) . It's doing my skin good because of the addition of great ingredients such as hyaluronic acid which gives a plumping injection of moisture and keeps the product looking fresh rather than cakey as the day wears on.
Delving into the IT Cosmetics backstory, I was interested to learn that the brand’s co-founder Jamie Kern Lima, developed rosacea in her 20s. As a news anchor under the scrutiny of HD cameras, her confidence took a severe knock. “Often by the end of newscasts my redness would be showing through my ‘full coverage’ foundation,” she told Vogue. “Having to start work at midnight most days stressed out my skin, and my hereditary rosacea flared up.” The hardest part, she said, was not letting her skin condition “or really anything that makes you feel less than perfect” define you.
So she took it upon herself to make the ultimate foundation, working with plastic surgeons and dermatologists to create a base that would look and feel natural and that was brimming with healing skincare ingredients. She makes no secret of her skin condition - if you go on her website you can see her taking her makeup off - and her mission is to give women the confidence to face the world whatever skin they are in.
For me, that’s never truer than when I interview someone in the beauty industry for my podcast or am in any other situation where I need to feel 100 per cent confident about my makeup. I wear it on days when I want my makeup to look natural but really flawless. I have pretty good skin but this takes it to another level. I generally use the original CC Cream (they now actually do shade light/medium so I don’t need to mix my own) but if you want to REALLY glow, go for their IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream Illumination SPF50+, £31.
Put a few pumps on the back of your hand and blend it with a brush or beauty blender or you could do a me and just massage it into your face. Either way, this is the CC Cream that could inspire you to give up your usual foundation forever because it offers you so many benefits and does something just a little bit magical to your skin. It’s you with your game face on.
Buy IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream SPF50+, £31
Find Nicola Bonn's podcast Outspoken Beauty here