Product Review: Dr. Jart+ Water Fuse Beauty Balm

It's no secret that I consider myself a major cheapskate, and tend to be proud of that fact. What may come as a bit of a surprise though, is that when it comes to my skin, I will literally buy anything that claims to help acne/redness/scarring/inflammation/tone/etc, regardless of how much it costs. It would be fairly reasonable to say that the skincare industry may very well go under if I were to suddenly stop buying products. Having suffered from severe acne for the last 12+ years now, I suppose I shouldn't beat myself up about the amount of money I spend on trying to maintain a decent skin appearance, but that's easier said than done!

I've been using Bare Escentuals on and off for several years now - it tends to be perfect for me in the short times that we have weather between 60-75 degrees in Chicago's mini spring and fall seasons. In the winter my skin is simply too dry to use something powder-based, and in the summer I HAVE to use an SPF moisturizer and like to minimize my routine as much as possible. In an effort to simplify, I recently went on a hunt in search of an all-in-one product that I assumed didn't exist -

- moisturizer
- SPF
- oil-free
- tinted - but not orange-y!

Thanks to a helpful sales associate, Bridget, the internet and lots of peer reviews, I learned that the new craze sweeping the nation is Beauty Balm - "multi-action skincare + makeup". In other words, it's everything I was looking for, PLUS a bit of skin treatment!

I practically ran to Sephora this weekend to grab Dr. Jart+ Water Fuse Beauty Balm.

While I've only used this stuff twice so far, I'm already hooked. It goes on a little light even for my pale complexion, but within 5-10 minutes it kind of sets and blends naturally. I walked around the zoo all afternoon yesterday with my nieces and didn't feel like it was "melting" off in the heat, and without any other form of sunscreen on my face I managed to just get a tiny perfect hint of color, which gives me hope for the sunscreen portion of the product. It's definitely not a total-coverage product, but that's not typically what I go for anyways, and it's keeping my major redness at bay and managing to keep my overall tone looking even. The best part is the absolute simplicity of this stuff - I wash my face in the shower, swipe on a toner after drying off, and while my hair is towel-drying I just use my fingers to rub a teeny bit of the balm in all over my face. PIECE OF CAKE. 

I'll definitely post an update if I change my mind at any point, but in the meantime, I'm on the beauty balm bandwagon and loving it.