Who, like me, always has a problem of finding a decent foundation? I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I’m glad to say have found my Holy Grail foundation which I will continue to use until it gets discontinued (which I hope never comes). On my quest for the perfect foundation I picked up a few others and I will review them all today and swatch for you.
L-R - L’Oreal Paris Infallible Long Lasting Perfecting Foundation in Porcelain, MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC15, Revlon Photo Ready in 002 Vanilla, Boots Botanics Quench Your Face Foundation in 10 Almond
My biggest problem when looking for the perfect foundation is the colour. I am very pale and most make-up brands have completely ignored us Caspers and haven't catered at all for us in the foundation department.
What I look for in a foundation -
- COLOUR – It has to match my skin perfectly, meaning it has to be pale, I don’t want to look like a tangerine.
- COVERAGE – I want the foundation to even my skin tone out. I don’t want to look patchy. (Not too worried about it being able to cover spots as that's what concealer is for, right! and I always use concealer.)
- FORMULA/finish – I do not want to look cakey. A big no no. Nor do I want to look oily. I want my skin to look like skin – natural, silky and dewy in certain weathers. The formula is a big deciding factor for me.
- PRICE – I don’t mind paying £25 for a foundation, but only if it really is the most amazing, perfect foundation ever. If it has faults then I’m not blowing my hard earned cash on it.
- SPF – I obviously would prefer a foundation with SPF.
I will review each foundation in each of these categories so that you know exactly what I think about each.
REVLON PHOTO READY
- COLOUR – I’ve actually been really surprised with this foundation. When I first bought it I discarded it thinking it was too dark and orange, but since coming back from holiday with a bit of colour I’ve been using this everyday! The colour is almost perfect for my skin after holiday and can always be lightened up with my powder. You can see in the pictures above that this gives me a really healthy colour and glow!
- COVERAGE – Really good medium coverage, again, I’m impressed. Evens my skin tone out and covers blemishes well, although leaves them looking a bit dry, so moisturize spots before hand.
- FORMULA – I really like the formula of this foundation. Nice and creamy and quite silky, applies really well to the skin, sinks in nicely, doesn’t dry my skin out. Makes my skin look glowing yet natural. Many people have moaned about a sparkle in natural light, but I haven’t noticed this at all.
- PRICE – Retails for £12.99 in Boots. When I first picked this up I thought it was quite expensive and didn’t realllly want to part with the cash, but I’m glad I did. I’d say its worth the price and I guess its a lot more affordable than high end brands.
- SPF – The highest SPF out of the bunch, SPF20! Fabulous!
L’OREAL INFALLIBLE
I’ll mention now that this foundation is my favourite. I’m on my third tube of this and it just gives me everything that I want out of a foundation.
On the bottle of this foundation it states that it is a ‘Long Lasting Perfecting Foundation’ that ‘lasts 16 hours and fights the signs of make-up meltdown’. I never bought it for this reason and only just noticed that it stated this not long ago, but I don’t agree with it. This foundation is perfect, but I’ll admit it doesn’t last all day, which is why I always carry around a tiny concealer and powder for top ups. I kind of wish that it didn’t state this on the packaging so that people wouldn’t be let down by that statement. It lasts well, but not all day.
MAC STUDIO FIX FLUID
I’ve included this extra to show how dark it is, in natural light. You can clearly see a orange line but my hair/ear. Covers blemishes well though. For the palest foundation in MACs huge collection, I think this is totally unacceptable!
BOOTS BOTANICS
I picked this up in Boots Clearance a while ago ( I think it may have been discontinued or repackaged?) as I couldn’t believe that it was so pale and needed it, impulse buy, and I’ll admit that I haven’t used it much as although the colour is perfect.
There you have it! My four foundations. After doing this whole post I realised I have a GOSH Velvet Touch foundation as well which I completely forgot to include, so if anyone would like to see that then comment below and I’ll write it up in a separate post!
What do you think?
Are you disappointed with MACs colour range?
What do you personally think looks the best?
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