Bobbi Brown BBU Face Palette (Concealers, Correctors & Foundations)

Bobbi Brown BBU Palette in all its amazing open wonder :-)
On the left: concealers & correctors.  On the right: cream foundations

Very rarely does something come along that is both workhorse and amazing.  This palette is it.

The Bobbi Brown BBU Face Palette is probably not a necessity, to be honest about it, for the average punter, but unbelievably amazing for the makeup artist who wants access to the most usual (and usable) shades of foundation and concealer necessary.


It doesn't contain every single concealer or corrector shade known to man (strange side note: even though I've found Bobbi Brown's foundations to be quite yellow-based, a lot of the concealers are more on the neutral side of yellow).  But it has a decent representation of shades and corrector tones, including a few darker ones.   Demonstrably absent are any ochre or orange-toned correctors (but I have MAC ones and frankly, use them only the rare time, so what odds).

The palette includes

• Twelve shades of corrector (ie all of the twelve available from Bobbi Brown)
• Fourteen shades of concealer (ie all of the fourteen available from Bobbi Brown)
• Twenty shades of foundation stick (ie all of the twenty available from Bobbi Brown)
• One empty well, in case you need to mix colours

The concealer & corrector shades

The foundation shades

The Concealers & Correctors

I personally love love love the Bobbi Brown concealers and correctors, in my opinion (solely) they're probably the best in terms of shades and tones.  They are not drying and they don't settle into lines.  I use them on young and old skin alike.  They are essentially designed in particular for under-eye use, but can be used as a face concealer, although I do find them a little creamy for this, even powdered down well.

The correctors have peach and pink undertones, to correct as neccessary.  The concealers are mainly neutral-slightly-yellow-slightly-beige undertones.  If you want to read more on under-eye concealing and correcting, please see this post, which details the shades and undertones you need to use.  In addition, the lovely Celine from McMademoiselleLikes (Twitter @MamzelleLike) posted here lately about her experience with a concealer/corrector tutorial from @MakeUpForDolls (I know, I know, shameless plug!)

For some more information on how I like to apply concealer (tools, brushes etc), look here.

The Foundation

This is a fantastic foundation for young or mature skin that is dry up to combination, but not (as with all cream- or stick- based foundations) suited to oilier skins.  It comes in a really wide range of shades, and as it has no SPF, doesn't flash-back in photography.  I use this both as foundation and as a facial concealer, powdered down of course.  It can be applied with fingers, brushes, sponges (wet or dry).

If you're uncertain about choosing your correct foundation shades, read this post, or if you need more assistance with choosing shades or types of concealer for your face, try this one!  And as a comparison post, this one talks about the MAC concealers (and this one here is a brilliant budget concealer!)

Side Note: Bobbi Brown Foundation Guide

Note: these were taken from the Bobbi Brown site.

Bobbi Brown Foundation Formula Guide

Bobbi Brown Foundation Shade Guide (right click and save it to view better)

Cost, Size Comparison

This palette is not cheap at £185 ($250 in US), and when you include shipping (to Ireland) (which is based on the Pirate System, from what I can see) it works out rather expensively as a single item of kit.  Luckily enough, Bobbi Brown have a (subscription-based) Makeup Artist discount (35%, not to be sneezed at) which can help sidestep some of the the sting ;-)

In terms of size information, the usual sized pot of Bobbi Brown concealer/corrector is 1.4g at £18 and the palette contains either 1.1g or 1.2g of concealer/corrector.  The usual foundation is £28 for 9g;  in the palette each foundation well holds 1.7g of product.  Run the sums and you can see that this actually works out quite cost-efficiently.

Incidentally, this has been available as an online exclusive now for some time, however it was available (and then unavailable again) in the past.  There's no guarantee that it will be available forever, nor could I get the staff in Kite's Cross (Estée Lauder companies' mail order location) to confirm if it would be continued as a permanent fixture.  In addition, the previous version of this palette contained less shades.